Marina City (aka Marina Towers) is a bulding complex located in downtown Chicago at 290 N. State Street. These two 65 story circular towers occupy almost a full city block on the north bank of the Chicago River. It also contains its own small marina for boats.
This complex was designed by architect Bertrand Goldberg in 1959. Construction started in 1961 and was completed in 1968. At the time of completion, they were the tallest residential buildings in the world. The complex was marketed as “a city within a city.” At the time it contained several stores, restaurants, a theater, a gym, swimming pool, ice rink and bowling alley.
Marina City was one of the first post-war high rise urban residential complexes in the U.S. It ushered in the start of a resurgence of Americans moving back to the inner cities. This model of mixed use residential, office and business use with on-site parking became a model that many cities adopted. It’s also unique because the towers are completely circular. There are about 896 parking spaces and approximately 450 condos (used to be apartments) in each tower.
The complex currently contains The House of Blues concert venue/restaurant/bar; bowling lounge and restaurants such as Dick’s Last Resort and Smith and Wollensky steak house.
Marina City was seen in the opening sequence of the Bob Newhart Show and in several movies.
I used to work across the street in the IBM building. I brought lunch in the sandwich shop in b the basement. It had a bowling alley in the basement also. I never played hookey from work to bowl there. Lol
That’s interesting that you used to eat there and remember the bowling alley. I mostly know it for The House of Blues and I used to go to one of the offices in the building for awhile. It seemed small inside, not what I expected LOL.
The mind is a tricky thing. I had forgotten until just now, my daughter took piano lessons in the basement. Lol
Wow! That’s neat. I guess the building has had a lot of different uses over the years.