The Biography of Chicago’s Marina City

2011: A year in the life of Marina City
2011

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Grammy Award winner Jennifer Hudson performs at House of Blues, headlining a fundraiser for Chicago mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel (Steven Dahlman, 10-Jan-11).

January 10

Grammy Award winner Jennifer Hudson performs at Marina City’s House of Blues, headlining a fundraiser for Chicago mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel. At the sold-out event, former White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers looked around the room and said, “What do I see? I see Chicago. I see young. I see a little bit old. I see professionals. I see people that maybe don’t have a job. I see all of Chicago and this is really what the city is about. Having everyone here, everyone together, everyone pulling together to keep this city moving.”

January 14

The Dilemma, a Ron Howard film starring Jennifer Connelly, Vince Vaughn, Kevin James, and Winona Ryder, is released and Marina City’s Smith & Wollensky has not only made the cut but is the setting for the very first scene. Despite this, reviews are mostly negative and the film is released on DVD less than four months later.

Photo by Chuck Hodes

Scene from The Dilemma filmed at Smith & Wollensky with Jennifer Connelly, Vince Vaughn, Kevin James, and Winona Ryder. Photo by Chuck Hodes.

Marina City west tower from Dearborn Street Bridge as 20 inches of snow falls on Chicago (Steven Dahlman, 2-Feb-11).

February 2

20 inches of snow falls on Chicago. This image was captured from the Dearborn Street Bridge, looking toward Marina City’s west tower.

February 22

Voting booths overlook State Street from the 20th floor of Marina City’s east tower. Voters in the 42nd Ward’s tiny 27th precinct, consisting solely of Marina City, picked winners on Election Day, including mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel.

Voting booths overlook State Street from 20th floor of Marina City east tower (Steven Dahlman, 22-Feb-11).

Contestants in 2011 Miss Bikini USA Model Search strike poses at Hotel Sax (Francis Son, 5-Apr-11).

April 5

Seven contestants in the 2011 Miss Bikini USA Model Search strike poses at Hotel Sax. At the hotel’s Crimson Lounge, the women competed in both swimwear and club wear for a shot at a TV show, calendar, and model-of-the-year honors.

Photo by Francis Son

April 11

Runners pass Marina City in the Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle, a nearly five-mile race that turns south onto State Street for ten blocks.

Runners pass Marina City in the Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle (Steven Dahlman, 11-Apr-11).

Frame from trailer for Paramount Pictures film Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

April 28

With the first glimpses of how Marina City will look in Transformers: Dark of the Moon, a trailer released by Paramount Pictures shows an alien craft flying past a heavily damaged Marina City and a riverfront that is in the middle of an intergalactic war. The film opened on June 29.

June 1

Ryan Shafer of Horseheads, New York, starts to breathe again after bowling a perfect game at the GEICO PBA Team Shootout at Marina City’s 10pin Bowling Lounge. It happened in the first game of the day, a singles match between players representing bowling equipment manufacturers Storm Products and Brunswick. ESPN videotaped the entire event for broadcast starting on June 25.

Ryan Shafer after bowling a perfect game at GEICO PBA Team Shootout at 10pin Bowling Lounge (Steven Dahlman, 1-Jun-11).

Chicago police officer guards crime scene in middle of State Street Bridge (Steven Dahlman, 8-Aug-11).

August 8

As heavy rain fell in downtown Chicago on a Monday afternoon, a 29-year-old man was shot in the middle of the State Street Bridge. He survived, the suspect got away, and the west side of the bridge was shut down for about two hours. The victim, Todd Brown, was a dishwasher at Smith & Wollensky and had a “rap” sheet of criminal history 64 pages long.

Video shoot of BMW concept cars on Wacker Drive with Marina City in background (Stephen Serio, 17-Aug-11).

Deborah Harry performs with Blondie at House of Blues (Theresa Heinz-Ratekin, 7-Sep-11).

August 17 – Two BMW concept cars, the i8 hybrid (left) and the i3 all-electric (right), hit their marks in preparation for a promotional video shot on Wacker Drive.

Photo by Stephen Serio

September 7 – 66-year-old Deborah Harry performs with Blondie at House of Blues. Reviews of the concert note the band performed 16 songs, many of them new. Jim Ryan at Chicago Now called Harry “the very epitome of a timeless cool.”

Photo by Theresa Heinz-Ratekin

A resident gazes at the city from a balcony on the 35th floor of the west tower in this image from Inside Marina City, a collection of images of Marina City residents and their residences. Photo by Andreas Larsson.

September 14

Next door to a major exhibition of the work of architect Bertrand Goldberg, a collection of photographs of Marina City residents offers glimpses of what it is like to live at Goldberg’s arguably most famous work. Photographer Andreas Larsson and Iker Gil, an architect who lives at Marina City, had been working on Inside Marina City since 2009. Their first image released shows a resident gazing at the city from a balcony on the 35th floor of the west tower.

Photo by Andreas Larsson

Ryan Shea, general manager of House of Blues, performs with The Blue Olives on HOB’s Back Porch Stage (Steven Dahlman. 30-Sep-11).

September 30Ryan Shea, punched out from his day job as general manager of House of Blues Chicago, performs with The Blue Olives, an eight-member blues/rock/funk band, on HOB’s Back Porch Stage. The band started in Wisconsin in 1994 and is working on their fourth album.

Cast members of a new Twilight Saga film are photographed and interviewed at House of Blues (Steven Dahlman, 8-Nov-11).

November 8 – As fans wait below at left, cast members of a new Twilight Saga film are photographed and interviewed at House of Blues. At right are Charlie Bewley, Jackson Rathbone, and Nikki Reed. The cast was promoting a new two-part Twilight film, Breaking Dawn, the first part of which opened on November 18.

Photos by Steven Dahlman except where noted.

Updated
9-Apr-18

Next story: Backstage at House of Blues as ‘Marina City’ rocks Marina City