Star map buried

Two years to the day after the groundbreaking ceremony, on November 22, 1962, dignitaries gathered again at Marina City. This time, to bury into the foundation a celestial map showing the position of the stars and planets when ground was broken two years earlier.

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

Geoffrey Goldberg, who was seven years old at the time, says he remembers the ceremony during which the star map was buried. “There were tubes of paper copies of the map, rolled up, and handed out to all who came," says the son of Marina City architect Bertrand Goldberg. “I remember several hundred being passed out, or so it seemed.”

(Left) In this Chicago Daily Tribune photograph that appeared the next day, workers are seen drilling a hole beneath the east residential tower, into which a copper, cylindrical-shaped time capsule containing the star map was placed.

(Above) Copy of celestial map buried beneath east tower. Text in lower half reads, in English, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Chinese, “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.”

Left to right: William L. McFetridge (1893-1969), president of Marina City Building Corporation (and former president of the union that financed Marina City), Dr. Kenneth Hildebrand, pastor of the nondenominational Central Church of Chicago, Rabbi Ralph Simon (1907-1996) of Congregation Rodfei Zedek, Mayor Richard J. Daley (1902-1976), Very Reverend Comerford J. O’Malley (1944-1963), president of DePaul University, and Robert S. Adler, president of Chicago Planetarium Society.

William McFetridge Rabbi Simon Richard J. Daley Reverend O’Malley Robert S. Adler