Bertrand Goldberg designed Marina City in 1959 as a "city within a city" on the Chicago River: two 65-story towers with apartments, offices, a theater, a gym, a swimming pool, an ice rink, a bowling alley, shops, restaurants and a marina at the water's edge. Much of the project was financed by the Building Service Employees International Union, which hoped to draw families back to living downtown.
The lowest 19 floors of each "corncob" tower form an open spiral parking ramp. Above them, the apartments fan out like petals, and every unit ends in a semicircular balcony.
Built between 1961 and 1968, the towers were the tallest residential buildings and the tallest reinforced-concrete structures in the world when they were finished. They remain among the most recognizable silhouettes on the Chicago skyline.
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