The Biography of Chicago’s Marina City
First of two attempts to landmark Marina City
August 12, 2008
It took two tries to get Marina City designated an official City of Chicago landmark. Eight years before the successful attempt, Chicago alderman Brendan Reilly started the formal process after hearing from Marina City residents, particularly after sending them a letter on May 12, 2008, seeking input on whether their home should be an official City of Chicago landmark.
Landmarked buildings in Chicago are protected from demolition and significant alteration, with the Commission on Chicago Landmarks reviewing each proposed change to the building’s exterior.
“That letter met with hundreds of responses in support of landmark proceedings over a one-month response period,” said his chief of staff, Madeleine Doering.
On August 12, 2008, Reilly again wrote to residents, telling them he has invested “a significant amount of time and effort exploring the possibility” of landmark designation for Marina City, which he called “architect Bertrand Goldberg’s world-renowned 1959 vision.”
On Marina Watch Dog Sound Off, an Internet forum for residents, discussion of landmarking was mixed, pro and con. Moderator Mark Ulaszek described it as “an emotional response. They’re either vehemently for or against it, yet most people do not understand what landmarking is.”
At the same time residents were getting a letter from Reilly, commercial tenants at Marina City were getting one, too. That resulted, said the alderman, in just two telephone calls – from House of Blues and Hotel Sax. Reilly explained to them that their current space is “grandfathered in” if landmark designation is granted.
“Obviously, that calmed people down,” he said in an interview on September 22.
Landmarking push followed organized effort to stop Dick’s Last Resort
Following a failed attempt to block Dick’s Last Resort from moving its restaurant and bar to Marina City, a renewed effort to seek official landmark status was led by officers of Marina Towers Condominium Association, despite a 2003 agreement with commercial owners that prohibited MTCA from supporting landmark designation of Marina City.
The organization behind the drive for landmark status, Landmark Marina City Now, had a website, the domain of which had been registered by MTCA secretary Ellen Chessick. According to public records with the Secretary of State, Landmark Marina City Now was incorporated by Waveney G. Cameron, who worked in the same building and on the same floor as MTCA president Donna Leonard.
Two months before the landmarking process started, about 50 people, mostly unit owners at Marina City, gathered to hear advice from DiChiera and two other experts who agreed that although the financial benefits of landmarking were dubious, it would give residents more control over how the complex looked.
“Clearly, you have a unique building in the city of Chicago,” said T. Gunny Harboe (right), an architect whose firm specializes in historic preservation, at the June 16 meeting. “It is a landmark by the real meaning of the word. Everyone knows it’s important to the city. It’s a travesty that it’s not officially recognized as an official City of Chicago landmark.”
DiChiera told unit owners landmark designation might even lower the value of their property but there was always going to be a buyer.
“In the case of a complex like Marina City, you’re one of the most prominent, sought-after buildings in downtown Chicago and market values will always remain valuable.”
She said to expect public hearings and then final approval by the City Council but warned landmark designation “often can be a very political process.”
On April 8, 2009, eight months after it was announced the formal process for landmarking Marina City had started, the request was still under review by the Landmarks Division of the Department of Planning and Development. The proposal had not been before the Commission on Chicago Landmarks – on the agenda of any public hearing – and there had been no public comment.
There was no change in the proposal’s status for the next six years.
April 13 – Marina City is the setting for a murder mystery novel. Alex Matthews has written nine novels in which the main character is a Chicago therapist named Cassidy McCabe. Her latest, Murder’s Madness, places a schizophrenic patient in a condo unit at Marina City. The unit is owned by Cassidy’s new husband, crime reporter Zach Moran.
“Bold bean bridges stretch past beefy Smith & Wollensky and over the green/blue Chicago River,” reads the exhibit’s official description. It took 4,714 cans of food, including tuna cans for each tower, to build the aptly named Tuna City. A panel of guest judges gave the Marina City display a national award for Best Use of Labels.
| Updated 25-May-17 |