(Above) Copy of the celestial map buried beneath the east tower at Marina City in 1962, two years after groundbreaking. 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.”

Star map buried

Two years to the day after the groundbreaking ceremony, on Thanksgiving Day, 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 later buried into the foundation of the east 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 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

The ceremony, which included an inter-denominational service, took place in the lobby of the east tower, just off State Street, according to a press release from Bertrand Goldberg Associates. The map was on a silver plaque, representing one on a copper scroll that would over the next few weeks be covered with hot asphalt to protect from moisture, then “drilled deep into a huge concrete block in the foundation of Marina City.” The copper scroll was embedded in the foundation of the east tower core, in a mass of concrete 50 feet in diameter and eight feet thick. The silver version, meanwhile, was displayed in the lobby of the east tower. (Left) In this Chicago Daily Tribune photograph that appeared the day after the ceremony, workers are seen drilling a hole beneath the east tower, into which a copper, cylindrical-shaped capsule containing the star map was later placed.  Press release, dated November 22, 1962, from Bertrand Goldberg Associates.