The Biography of Chicago’s Marina City
Slowing the suburban exodus
1945-59
During World War II, Chicago was a center for war-related industrial production and its population swelled. The trend did not continue after the war. Between 1945 and 1959, 77 percent of all housing starts in the Chicago area were in the suburbs and most of them were single-family homes.
Most high-rise apartments being built in the city were in areas such as Lincoln Park, north of downtown. Urban construction stagnated. The Inland Steel Building, completed in 1957, was the first building constructed in the Loop, Chicago’s central downtown area, in almost 30 years.
The federal government was investing more than $3,000 for every person living in the suburbs and about $85 per person in the city. And while the city received round-the-clock services, it must have seemed like it was only being used 40 hours a week. Teeming with office workers during weekdays but deserted nights and weekends.
Still, there was evidence that people did want to live downtown. A 1959 survey by the Real Estate Research Corporation of inner-city housing needs concluded that demand would increase for apartment space within walking distance of the Loop. Single people and small families of middle and upper-middle income would need at least 10,000 apartments in the next ten years. At least 39,000 apartments would be needed in the next 20 years.
Meanwhile, William L. McFetridge, president of the Building Service Employees International Union (now known as the Service Employees International Union), was concerned about his union members not being able to get jobs in the suburbs. He wanted to persuade people to live in town, where wages would be higher.
“Marina City from the start,” said McFetridge in 1963, “was planned as a model of how modern living facilities can be provided in the heart of a great city as a means for strengthening and maintaining the central business district as a vital part of a growing metropolitan area.”
McFetridge wanted to invest his union’s pension fund not so much in stocks and bonds, but in something progressive – something that would help people. When he mentioned this to Charles R. Swibel, a real estate developer who was Mayor Daley’s unofficial ambassador to the unions, he suggested the union invest in housing. Specifically, housing for working people.
With money to spend, and wanting to spend it on public housing, the union, in a Chicago tradition going back 88 years, would look to a young architect to dream up the right project.
Photo: Future Marina City resident Betty McFarlane (now known as Betty Hogeorges) looks west from a balcony at Executive House (now known as Wyndham Grand Chicago Riverfront) in this photo taken in October 1960 for Discovering Chicago, a pictorial by Chicago Life magazine, published by Chicago Daily News on November 5, 1960. Later that month, a groundbreaking ceremony for Marina City would be held in the empty space in the lower right corner.| Updated 01-Jun-14 |