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.”