“The towers will be like two trees,” explained Bertrand Goldberg in March 1961. “The central columns will house the elevators, stairways, and utility lines. They will be the trunks in the tree design.”

16 reinforced concrete beams would radiate 37 feet six inches from the trunk as branches. At the perimeter, columns would support the weight of the floor above. Beyond the floors would be the ten-foot-wide balconies, like leaves in Goldberg’s tree analogy.

Elevator lobby (left) and hallway on residential floor of Marina City.

“A person upon entering a Marina City apartment will be moving toward an expanding area and vista,” said Goldberg. “Leaving the elevator, the person finds the apartment door only a few steps away. From there, he will enter a small, triangularly-shaped room. The apartment spreads out, and beyond the glass wall is the balcony and the horizon of downtown Chicago. It will be like living in the wide open spaces.”

Goldberg also described this as “kinetic space.” He maintained the circular design of the building helped the psychological well-being of its tenants. “In a box-like dwelling, an apartment dweller often gets a feeling of being merely an anonymous member of a large group.” The Marina City design, he said, tries to “capture the feeling of individuality that comes from living in a single-family residence.”

Because the central column provides the major point of orientation, Goldberg pointed out “there are no long and winding corridors.”

16,000 tons of concrete would be used to build the residential towers. Approximately 200,000 square feet of glass would be installed on the exterior of the 40 apartment floors of each tower, plus another 100,000 square feet of glass for the office building.

The marina, located below the two-story structure forming the base of the project, was already being downsized from an original estimate of mooring 1,000 boats. In March 1961, the estimate was for 700 boats stored using motor-driven racks capable of launching 250 boats per hour.

The two-story theater building, intended for live theater and motion pictures, would seat 1,250 people.

James McHugh Construction Company was predicting completion of the residential towers by April 1962, with some apartments available a month or two before that. Charles Swibel, president of the property management company, was preparing to rent the apartments for $115 a month and up for an efficiency, $155 to $195 for a one-bedroom apartment, and $295 for a two-bedroom apartment.

(Above) Floor plans for studio and one-bedroom apartments at Marina City.