He may have only been four years old when planning for Marina City started in 1959 but ever since, Geoffrey Goldberg has had a front row seat at Marina City.

He remembers the groundbreaking ceremony in 1960. Memories of an optimistic “euphoria” of the times, he says, are vivid for him and his family. “It’s why we look at what has happened in the past 20 years without particular favor. You have to look back to understand that euphoria, the visionary ideas. For ten or 20 years, it was working just fine. And then greed set in.”

Goldberg refers to the selling of property that started in 1977. Residential apartments were converted to condominium units. 30 years later, approximately 700 people owned 896 units.

The commercial property went through a variety of owners and ended up in 2006 with LaSalle Hotel Properties of Bethesda, Maryland. In addition to Hotel Sax, House of Blues, and Smith & Wollensky, there were nine commercial tenants at the end of 2007.

“If you look at the way in which the building is organized, it was not meant to be divided,” says Goldberg (left). “There’s a balance between residential and commercial. You can’t have one without the other.” Goldberg says the original intention of Marina City was mostly realized, at least until the property was divided up. “It was relatively in good shape until the late 70s when it went condo.”

Early chain of events shaped Marina City

Listening to Geoffrey Goldberg – and Howard Swibel, son of developer Charles Swibel – one gets a sense of an intricate sequence of events that led to the development of Marina City.

Although there are conflicting accounts of who exactly “discovered” the under-utilized land on which Marina City was built – some sources say it was Goldberg, some say it was Swibel – at some point it was brought to the attention of William McFetridge, president of Building Service Employees Union. Goldberg recommended it as a location for a new union headquarters but the union rejected that proposal as too expensive.

So, what use of the property would justify the expense? Swibel steered McFetridge toward building a housing project. Goldberg extrapolated this into the project that became Marina City and then sold McFetridge on the idea.

Early meetings flushed out design issues

“One of the extraordinary things about Marina City is the concrete work – extraordinary in scale,” Geoffrey points out. He says there are no problems with the concrete like with other structures. “All the detailing was considered. It was a completely incredible success story.”

During the construction of Marina City, they had at Bertrand Goldberg Associates, every morning at 7:00, what they called “hell meetings” with all the key players. “Every morning, every day of the week. Issues would come up. They would get addressed. They would solve them that day. It was very, very hands-on.” (Right) Geoffrey Goldberg in 1986, posing for a group photo with employees of his father’s architectural firm.

“And there were problems. There are always problems,” says Geoffrey. “Problems can become serious if they’re not addressed. But at Marina City they were all addressed.”

With building ownership not sharing the same level of concern as the architect, Geoffrey says his father, like any designer, would feel heartbroken. But “be careful of the Ayn Rand, Frank Lloyd Wright notion of the total controlling designer.”

On the other hand, he says, “there’s no doubt that it’s a triumph of total design. It was designed from here to there. Every little bit of it. It’s not like someone developed a form and said ‘go make it happen, I don’t really care how you do it.’ He cared about all the details, all the way through.”

As an architect himself, there are design details of Marina City that Geoffrey admires the most, like the balconies. “They’re really very special. The range of view that you get – there are no better exterior balconies anywhere. They are incredible.” In 1968, the Univac division of Sperry Rand (now known as Unisys), leased space on the west side of the office building below what is now BIN 36. They had by all accounts an impressive spiral staircase that was removed during a subsequent renovation. “It’s really a shame. BIN 36 has the most thoughtful use of any space at Marina City. They would have been great keepers of that staircase. And it’s gone.” (Left) 1966 photo by Bob Harr of Hedrich Blessing of the spiral staircase near the main entrance to the National Design Center.

Charles Swibel

Geoffrey calls Charles Swibel “the great Chicago conundrum. No one has ever been able to figure him out.”

He believes his father trusted Swibel but more importantly that Swibel trusted his father. “My father made it very clear to me that the most important thing in dealing with anybody in the building world is, is their word good? I think Charlie Swibel and my dad had a relationship in which they trusted each other’s word.”

He remembers little of Charles Swibel, personally. The Goldberg family visited him on a boat once, he recalls. He went swimming with sons Howard and Larry.

“There’s clearly evidence that not all was happy inside of Swibel’s world,” he says. “On the other hand, he fought the notion that public housing should just be in the city. He believed it should be in the suburbs, too. He worked for public housing. He was certainly instrumental in getting Marina City built – that was a good thing.”

The future of Marina City

Goldberg says he does not think too far into the future of Marina City but he does believe it will come full circle. “In my heart of hearts, I believe there will be a day in which Marina City will be restored to what it was. I go to sleep at night and hope that’s the case.”

What would it take to do this? Goldberg says the theater and office buildings – now occupied by House of Blues and Hotel Sax – need to remain as centerpieces to Marina City but the views across the complex to the river would have to be restored. Over time, this would mean restoration of the glass walls on the first floors of the office building and putting the plaza back to use for people, not just cars.

The two-tone exterior paint colors, he says, would have to be cleaned up. “The buildings are concrete, pure and simple. No two-toning!”

Says Goldberg, “It would require some sympathetic ownership. For whatever reason – it’s a very curious thing – but these most radical buildings are unheralded except by the people – they get it. Why don’t the owners?” Goldberg worked for his father’s architectural firm full time from 1985 to 1990. He is now an architect with offices in the River North neighborhood of downtown Chicago. In 2007, he and his wife, Lynne Remington, won a Divine Detail Award from AIA Chicago. It was for a residential interior at House Dayton in Chicago, seen at left in a photograph by Steve Hall of Hedrich Blessing. Geoffrey won another AIA award that year for interior architecture.