Just the Building Facts...

The following information was submitted in 2012 (and then updated here periodically) at the request of The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, a not-for-profit organization designed to facilitate exchanges among those involved in all aspects of the planning, design, construction, and operation of tall buildings. The CTBUH maintains one of the world’s largest and most accurate databases of tall building information.

Official name:
Marina City

Other names:
Marina Towers

Status:
Completed

Country:
United States

City:
Chicago

Street address:
300-350 North State Street, 315-339 North Dearborn Street

Building function:
Mixed use, residential and commercial

Structural material:
Concrete

Year proposed:
1959

Year construction started:
1960

Year construction ended:
1968

Year of alteration:
1996

Website:
www.marinacity.org

Height (architectural top):
588 feet (179.22 meters) from Chicago River to top of mechanical penthouse

Height (top occupied floor):
534.5 feet (162.92 meters) approximately

This estimate is based on the known heights of the 20th floor (194.5 feet) and the observation deck (543.0 feet) directly above the top occupied floor. The difference between these two heights is 348.5 feet.

• 348.5 feet / 41 floors = 8.5 feet per floor
• 8.5 feet x 40 floors = 340.0 feet
• 340.0 feet + 194.5 feet = 534.5 feet

Height (observatory):
543 feet (165.51 meters)

Number of floors above ground:
64

• The first floor is considered “street level” but is also called “lower level” because it is accessed from stairs leading down from State Street on the east side and Dearborn Street on the west side.
• The second floor is at bridge level, referring to the bridges on State and Dearborn Streets, and is also known as “plaza level.” This is also the first level of each 18-story parking ramp.
• On the third through 19th floors are 17 additional parking ramp levels.
• On the 20th floors of both towers are laundry, storage, meeting (east tower only), and fitness (west tower only) rooms.
• On floors 21 through 60 are 40 floors of condominium units. This includes 32 floors of one-bedroom and efficiency (studio) apartments and eight floors of one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments. In each tower are 336 efficiency apartments, 67 one-bedroom apartments, and 45 two-bedroom apartments.
• The 61st floor is the observation deck.
• The mechanical penthouse contains three additional levels, what would be the 62nd and 63rd floors, and at the top of the penthouse, the 64th floor.

Number of floors below ground:
One (marina level 17 feet in height)

Number of elevators:
Five in each tower, five in the 16-story office building (Hotel Chicago), one in the theater building (House of Blues), one in Smith & Wollensky, and one in the glass-domed “vertical transportation center” on the plaza level.

Top elevator speed:
Approximately two floors per second. The freight elevator in the west tower can travel from the roof level (61st floor) to the lower level (1st floor) in 33 seconds.

Gross floor area:

• Commercial platform (the two-story structure built over the marina): 300,000 square feet
• Office building (16-story Hotel Chicago and other businesses): 280,000 square feet
• Theater building (four-story House of Blues): 100,000 square feet
• Each tower: 2.4 million square feet (estimated)

The estimate of each tower’s gross floor area does not include the marina level or mechanical penthouse. Each level has a diameter of 127 feet and an area of 39,796 square feet.

39,796 square feet per floor x 61 floors = 2,427,556 square feet (225,527 square meters)

Number of apartments:
896

Number of hotel rooms:
354

Number of parking spaces:
900 (approximately). 32 spaces x 18 floors x 2 towers = 1,152 maximum spaces

Original owner:
Building Service Employees Union (now known as Service Employees International Union)

Current owner:
Hotel Chicago and all other commercial property are owned by Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, a real estate investment trust with headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland. The building in which House of Blues is located is owned by Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. Residential units are individually owned by approximately 700 people.

Developer:
Marina City Building Corporation built and later managed Marina City.

Design architect:
Bertrand Goldberg, Bertrand Goldberg Associates. Other notable BGA personnel were Ben Honda (architect), Richard Binfield, Joe Burnett, Louis Rocah (designers), Al Goers (site planner), and Ed Center (administrator).

Structural engineers:
Bertrand Goldberg Associates, Severud Associates. Most notably, Frank Kornacker, Bert Weinberg, and Gene Yamamoto.

General contractor:
James McHugh Construction Company. Clarence Ekstrom, project manager.

Other consultants:
Dr. Ralph B. Peck (foundation consultant), Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers (foundation engineers), Case Foundation Company (caissons), Alfred Caldwell (landscape architect).

Material suppliers:

• Electric elevators: Otis Elevator Company
• Electrical: Fischbach, Moore & Morrissey Inc., Gerson Electric Construction Company
• Electrical equipment and appliances: General Electric Company
• General work: Brighton Construction Co.
• Heating and refrigeration: Economy Plumbing & Heating Co. Inc., National Heat & Power Co. Inc.
• Hydraulic elevators: Gallagher & Speck, Inc.
• Plumbing and fire protection: Thos. H. Litvin Plumbing Company
• Ready mixed concrete: Material Service
• Reinforcing steel: Ryerson
• Seawall demolition: Precision Blasting
• Ventilation: Climatemp Inc., H.S. Kaiser Company

Building images: