It was the first mixed-use complex in the United States to include housing. The towers were the tallest apartment buildings in the world – and for a short time, the tallest structure made of reinforced concrete. It was the fourth tallest building in Chicago and one of the city’s first all-electric buildings.

Located on a three-and-a-half acre site between State and Dearborn streets, Marina City consists of five buildings... A two-story 300,000 square foot commercial platform that covers three acres. Two 65-story residential towers, each containing 448 units and 19 floors of parking for 450 vehicles. A 16-story 280,000 square foot office block on the north edge that includes a 13-story hotel. A saddle-shaped 100,000 square foot theatre building now occupied by House of Blues Chicago.

Architect Bertrand Goldberg (1913-1997) described it as “an intriguing geometric texture of concrete twin towers against a carefully controlled quiet composition of the background commercial building.”

The cylindrical residential towers, officially known as Marina City I (west tower) and Marina City II (east tower), are 588 feet high, 105 feet in diameter, and built around a central concrete core 35 feet in diameter, from which the residential units radiate. With 896 apartments on a three-and-one-half acre site, it is still one of the most dense residential plans in the world.

Each tower contains a plaza level, 19 stories of parking, a floor with laundry and storage facilities, 32 floors of one-bedroom and efficiency apartments and eight floors of one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments, a roof deck, and a mechanical penthouse. 75 percent of the residences are efficiency apartments, 15 percent are one-bedroom apartments, and 10 percent are two-bedroom apartments.

Beneath the towers is a commercial block, and below that is a water-level marina.

The building’s distinctive appearance is influenced by large semi-circular balconies, 16 on each floor, each measuring approximately 10 feet by 18 feet. Goldberg described each unit as a continuing expansion of space like a petal emanating from a flower. Half of the vertical load and 70 percent of bending due to wind and other forces are carried by the central concrete cores, which contain elevators and stairwells, mechanical and electrical risers. The buildings have only 30 percent of the wind resistance they would have if they were the same dimensions but of a more conventional rectilinear form.

The design won an award in 1965 from the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The AIA recognized the building again in 1991, giving it their 25 Year Distinguished Building Award. Goldberg said at the time that it had taken 25 years for people to understand the building. In 1964, a steel antenna (since dismantled) was built on top of the west tower, reaching a total height from ground level of 969 feet. The theater building, with its curved concrete shell, was completed in 1967. It originally housed a television theater and later, three movie theaters.

Original plans to use steel shells proved too costly. Marina City was surpassed as the tallest reinforced concrete structure by 1000 Lake Shore Plaza, fifteen blocks to the north.

A 16-story variation of the Marina City design was used in 1966 in a Chicago public housing project. The Raymond Hilliard Center consists of two towers supported by petal-like concrete cells.

A much larger version of Marina City was planned for south of the Loop in the mid 1970s. “River City” was to be a vast complex of linked towers, with a huge marina. Half a mile long, it would house three times the number of people as Marina City, in six clusters of 72-story towers linked by connecting levels every 18 floors. Only a very small portion of the original design was actually built.

September 14, 1959 – Plans announced to local media.

November 22, 1960 – Groundbreaking ceremony.

September 1, 1961 – Financing completed for $36 million project.

October 3, 1961 – Construction permit obtained for office building.

January 9, 1962 – Model apartments open (off-site) to public.

October 14, 1962 – First tenants move into east residential tower.

January 12, 1963 – First tenants move into west residential tower.

February 25, 1964 – Marina City Bank opens in office building.

March 2, 1964 – National Design Center opens in office building.

April 11, 1964 – First restaurants open in commercial block.

July 10, 1964 – Property management company purchases Marina City.

[exact date pending] 1968 – With the completion of the theater building, the entire complex is finished.

August 4, 1977 – Conversion to condominium announced to tenants by property management company.

November 22, 1988 – Matas Corporation is successful bidder for commercial portion of Marina City, purchasing from bankrupt partnership led by Ellison Trine Starnes, Jr., who had acquired the property from Charles Swibel in 1983. Matas soon backs out of the deal.

November 21, 1990 – After a deal falls through for Hiffman Schaffer Anderson Inc. to purchase the commercial property, Judge Richard L. Curry orders a mortgage foreclosure judgment that had been pending since 1987.

November 11, 1994 – John L. Marks announces major renovations after buying the commercial property at Marina City for $3.35 million.

September 14, 1995 – Marks and entrepreneur Isaac Tigrett announce plans for what will become the House of Blues nightclub and hotel. HOB investors Dan Aykroyd, Jim Belushi, and John Goodman arrive at Marina City by rail car and perform.

October 8, 1997 – Marina City architect Bertrand Goldberg dies.

February 26, 1998 – Loews Hotels selected to operate House of Blues hotel.

May 1, 1998 – Smith & Wollensky opens a restaurant in a new structure that replaces the skating rink.

February 22, 2006 – House of Blues Hotel and adjacent commercial property sold to LaSalle Hotel Properties for $114.5 million.

• The building was featured in Steve McQueen’s last film, The Hunter. McQueen plays a bounty hunter who chases a fugitive up the spiral parking ramp before the villain loses control of his Grand Prix and drives off into the river.
• The stunt was restaged October 19, 2006 for a television commercial for Allstate Insurance Company. A 1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass plunged into the Chicago River from the 17th floor of the parking ramp.

Watch the Marina City scene from The Hunter	Watch the 60-second Allstate spot

• The parking ramp was also used as a location in the 1986 film Nothing In Common that starred Tom Hanks and Jackie Gleason. It was Gleason’s last film.
• Marina City has appeared in numerous films, including The Blues Brothers, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Captain Ron, I, Robot, Stranger Than Fiction, The Break-Up, and Wanted. It appears in the opening credits of the 1970s tv show The Bob Newhart Show and in the closing credits of Good Times.