CHICAGO | Marina City | 587 FT / 179 M | 61 FLOORS | 1962
 

Marina city is a corncob-shaped building that is all Resi and was once the tallest all resi building in the world.
It has also been called the city within a city because it has a Gym,Theatre (now the house of blue's), Swimming pool, Ice rink, bowling alley, Several stores and restaurants and.... you guessed it! A marina.
Those facts are from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_City


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...inacity466.JPG

This Pic is also from wiki.

home sweet home.

i live on the 33rd floor of the west tower. these are truly some of the coolest, funkiest, most future-forward residential skyscrapers anywhere in the world. it is a privilege to live amongst and within such fantastic modern architecture.

These buildings have a special significance for me, since as a kid we used to visit a friend that had moved there shortly after they were built. Quite a thrill for a 10 year old! Don't remember what floor, but her apartment face east. They were ultra modern then, and even though lost in sea of newer buildings, they still make a powerfull statement today!

Thay are very nice towers.
its cool how they have there own marina.
hay steely dan since you live there if you wanted to could you buy a boat and put it in the marina? or something.

i love these buildings... I'm pretty stoked because this weekend I'm visiting Chicago and will be staying in the Amalfi Hotel and if google maps is correct, that hotel is right across from these awesome buildings. :tup:

Some pics I took last October:

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/i...MarinaCity.jpg

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/i...arinaCity5.jpg

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/i...arinaCity3.jpg

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/i...oRiver17-1.jpg

These are not my favorite buildings in Chicago but I understand that the concept of the "city within the city" could be innovative for the end of the 50's , I don't know many things about architecture and urbanism but this concept make me think about Le Corbusier's Unités d'habitation in Marseille or Firminy (very close to St etienne) with the on-site facilities too: school, stores, library, swimming pool, day care center... Am I wrong if I make this parallel? :shrug:

i don't know what kind of wait list there is for slips down in the marina, there are only spaces for 2 dozen or so boats, so i'd assume that those slips are in extremely high demand and are thus very, very pricey.

and in any event, i don't have the money for a boat right now, and even if i did i sure as hell wouldn't buy a power boat, i'd only being interested in a sailboat, which, given all the of the bridges on the river, would be impossible to keep at marina city's docks.

Oh! I thout that people who live there get free space in the marina or something.

ha, there's nowhere near enough slips in that tiny marina for that. like i said, the marina might have slips for 2 dozen or so boats, whereas there are over 950 units between the two residential towers of marina city.

Here's a couple of pix I took like half way up it.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...P/DSC00620.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...P/DSC00622.jpg



And at the very top

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...P/DSC00641.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...P/DSC00642.jpg

steely dan
wow
thats alot of people since there are about 2 or 3 people per unit. or more. or less.

I've never much cared for the designs themselves, but I do like the 'city within a city' concept that these towers have. They're very innovative for their time though. All in all a pair of good iconic buildings.

I love the design. It's not really sleek or anything special but the design is great to me. The balconies make it even better.

just in case anyone is curious what the buildings look like on the inside, here are some pics of my unit and some pics from my balcony.

http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/4...terior1pe9.jpg

http://img388.imageshack.us/img388/7...terior4wa6.jpg

http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/2261/view4nv5.jpg

http://img388.imageshack.us/img388/2038/view1gf3.jpg

Wow
nice place!
great views!

Steely Dan,

We were in town about a month ago and stayed across from Trump at Hotel 71 (great hotel in my opinion) nearly across from Marina City, and most mornings having breakfast the bakery downstairs i was wondering about the parking. Does everybody in the building back into their spots - just because it's convenient, or is that a rule for parking? I never once saw a car nose first in a spot.

Just curious.


....great city, can't wait to come back!

:previous: Dan, has the glass always been like that? Or have they replaces it over the years? it looks very modern, the thing is that from the streets, you can barely see the glass, becuase of the balconies. And one last question, how do you go about parking? OMG, i would not love to park at the 19th floor, i would vomit or something, or think im going up the mountain in Colombia!!:haha: Still, your apartment/condo looks amazing, very modern, and the views you have are just ones to kill for.!!:notacrook:

all parking in marina city's garages is strictly valet only, meaning that no one from the general public is allowed to park their own car on the parking ramps. the valets who park the cars have obviously found that it's easier to back into the spaces as opposed to pulling into them head first, hence why you always see the cars parked in backwards.






i think the glass is original, but i really don't know as i've only lived here for a year and a half. i suppose it's possible that at some point in the last 40 years the glazing has all been replaced, but the window system - the mullions, sills, heads, etc. - all look original to me.





as i told Biff, all parking in the garages is done by valets. also, i don't own a car, so the functional practicalities (or lack thereof) of the garage have never concerned me.

Good Lord, I'm jealous. :irked: And I for one also think these buildings are awesome and unique.

Alright Steely Dan, not that I expect you to disclose all this, but how old are you, what do you do, and how much for the place? I am seriously green with envy because I as a young 20-something fresh outta college would kill to get a pad like that in a nice urban area. :(

Steely dan

Are there any families that live there because that place of yours looks a little to small for a family.