Plan River Site Skyscraper

On September 14, 1959, Building Service Employees International Union president William McFetridge announced to local news media plans for a $25 million skyscraper apartment and commercial project. According to a front-page article the next day in the Chicago Daily Tribune (now Chicago Tribune), under the headline “Plan River Site Skyscraper,” Marina City would be “a pilot project in a national program of using union reserve funds to help insure the future of the downtown areas of major cities.”

McFetridge said his union was interested in similar projects in New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Cleveland, Denver, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

Monthly rents for the “air-conditioned apartments” would be $125 for an efficiency, $165 for a one-bedroom, and $210 for a two-bedroom.

1959 illustration by Bertrand Goldberg Associates shows two 40-story rectilinear apartment buildings, ten-story office building, and “boat parking garage” originally designed to house 1,000 boats.

Civic leaders praised the project. John W. Baird, president of the Metropolitan Housing and Planning Council, was “glad to see the trade unions investing their funds in urban renewal housing.”

Paying for Marina City

By July 1960, development of Marina City was due to cost $36 million – $23 million for the residential phase and the rest for the commercial phase. In 2007 dollars, that would be $252 million total.

George H. Dovenmuehle, chairman of Dovenmuehle Inc., a large mortgage banking firm in Chicago, expressed interest in financing the residential phase. Dovenmuehle would issue a mortgage loan of $17,819,100 with a term of 39 years and maximum interest rate of 5.25 percent.

The mortgage insurance, payable in case of default, came from the Federal Housing Administration. On July 7, 1960, as test borings for the foundation were already being made, the FHA issued its largest commitment yet of $17,819,100 to the Buildings Service Employees International Union.

This amount represented 80 percent of the financing for the residential phase. A separate mortgage of $7.5 million was being negotiated for the commercial phase.

In her 2005 book Chicago Architecture: Histories, Revisions, Alternatives, Katerina Rüedi Ray says the project came within 24 hours of being lost when initial funding was $1 million short. Goldberg reportedly convinced the FHA to increase its commitment by showing the money would be raised by increasing rents by fifty cents per month.

Most of the negotiations with the Federal Housing Administration were handled by Charles Swibel. In 1960, the director of the FHA for the Chicago area was John Waner. He was director for the Chicago area of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development when the FHA became part of HUD in 1965. Waner would later run for Mayor of Chicago, losing to Richard J. Daley in 1967.

Using his networking skills, Swibel convinced Mayor Daley to speak with U.S. Representative Daniel Rostenkowski (Democrat, Illinois), who put Swibel in touch with the FHA. Swibel had to convince the FHA to increase its mortgage insurance limit, an amount that at the time was intended for two or three-apartment buildings.

The down payment, according to Howard Swibel, could have been as low as five percent of the mortgage amount. A government guarantee of the mortgage was necessary because the equity the union pension fund had in the project was relatively low.

The FHA did waive its limit. “So, with an FHA guarantee,” says Howard Swibel, “you can go to a bank and the bankers are not going to be at risk – you got a down payment and then you’ve got this FHA guaranteed loan.”

The limited equity would come back to haunt the union. Marina City was not a successful investment. “It was a disaster,” says Swibel. “Because the equity was so thin and there was so much borrowing, plus there were cost over-runs.”

Copy of celestial map buried in foundation of east tower. Text in lower half reads, “This building began on the 22nd day of November 1960 A.D. according to the Gregorian calendar. The planets in the heavens were as shown on this celestial map. The universal language of astronomy will permit men forever to understand and know this date Marina City and its towers were the dream of William L. McFetridge, the planning of Charles R. Swibel, and the architecture of Bertrand Goldberg.”

Groundbreaking

Groundbreaking was on Tuesday, November 22, 1960. Just 14 days earlier, John F. Kennedy, with the help of Mayor Richard J. Daley, had been elected president.

Sammy Davis Jr. had married Swedish actress May Britt nine days earlier. The Polaris missile had been test-launched seven days earlier. In two days, in one NBA game, Wilt Chamberlain would make 55 rebounds.

Robert S. Adler, president of Chicago Planetarium Society and the son of Max Adler, for whom Adler Planetarium is named, presented a star map on a silver plaque to William McFetridge. In five languages, the map showed the position of the planets on November 22, 1960. It was then buried in the foundation of the east tower.

Geoffrey Goldberg was at the groundbreaking ceremony along with his father, Bertrand Goldberg. Geoffrey was five years old at the time, but says he remembers a lot of energy at the groundbreaking, and an optimistic “euphoria” of the times.

Howard Swibel, meanwhile, was ten years old when he attended the groundbreaking ceremony with his father, Charles. “I remember the groundbreaking vividly,” he says. President-elect Kennedy spoke to the group by telephone. Exactly three years later, to the day, Kennedy would be assassinated.

Mayor Daley was there. So was Archbishop Bernard J. Sheil (1888-1969). Swibel also recalls General Electric representatives and construction workers.

“I remember they had this big drill and someone pulled a lever and the thing started turning the ground.”

Following groundbreaking, crews went to work on the foundation. Although not entirely completed, the working drawings for the towers were done enough for the foundations to be put in.

By February 1961 there was a conflict with a nearby construction project. Engineers determined that caissons could not be sunk at Marina City and the new Dearborn Street bridge at the same time. Because of soil conditions, it could damage buildings and streets. A schedule had to be worked out between the two projects.

On February 16, 1961, a construction fund account was opened with $20 million at Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company. Interest in Marina City from potential renters was strong around this time, with 2,000 inquiries received for 890 apartments.

Between November 1960 and March 1961, 80 caissons – more than originally planned – were buried 115 feet down in a limestone shelf that stretches to Niagara Falls. Each steel tube was plugged at the bottom and filled with concrete.