Marina City Facts Sheet
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A large portion of the building costs of $36 million were financed by The Union of Building Janitors and Elevator Operators. The Union was hoping to stop the white flight exodus of middle-class residents from downtown. A mixed-use residential/commercial building complex, Marina City consists of two corncob-shaped 61-story, 587 foot (179 m) tall residential towers, a saddle-shaped auditorium building (House Of Blues), and a mid-rise hotel building (House of Blues Hotel). At the time of its completion, the complex was the biggest ever built in concrete. Because of the design every single living room and bedroom has a balcony. Each tower has 450 apartments. Even though the complex is not necessarily the most representative and famous in the city, it does stand proof that Chicago has been, and still is, on the forefront of modern urban architecture. Marina City occupies the entire block at 300 N State St in Chicago. Marina Towers were the first ones to be called a “city within a city” because of their numerous on-site facilities, such as: a theater, a gym, a bowling alley, a swimming pool, an ice rink, stores, restaurants and a marina. Nothing in any of the towers runs on natural gas or propane. Everything is electric. On the 61st floor of each tower there is a 360 degrees air-open roof deck. Originally, the complex was rental apartments. They were converted to condominiums in 1977. Reinforced concrete was used instead of steel because it was the only way to create the petal shaped apartments. The address of the complex is 300 N State St in Chicago, IL. The apartments are unique in that they have almost no interior right angles. The bottom 19 stories of each of the towers are allocated for parking (a spiral parking ramp operated by valet with 896 spaces in each tower). The complex was designed by architect Bertrand Goldberg in 1959 and completed in 1964. The cylindrical design was chosen to reduce the wind pressure. The first post WWII urban high rise residential complex in the US, Marina City is widely credited with starting the residential renaissance of American inner cities. The whole complex has been built on a raised platform cantilevered over defunct railroad tracks adjacent to the river. When finished, the two towers were the tallest residential buildings in the world.
