The Marina City mixed-use complex on the Near North Side was approved as an official City of Chicago Landmark District by City Council today.

Characterized by twin, 60-story, corncob-shaped high-rises, the residential, entertainment, retail and marina complex on the Chicago River between State and Dearborn streets is considered an icon of Chicago architecture and a model for urban renewal. The designation was recommended by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks in November 2015. 

According to the Commission, Marina City introduced new ideas about distinctive form and novel engineering into the design of a dense, multi-building complex when it was completed in 1967. Designed by architect Bertrand Goldberg in a modern, Expressionist style, the five-building development represents one of the most ambitious efforts to revitalize the center of a major American city by attempting to lure residents downtown during a postwar exodus to the suburbs.

As the City’s first planned development zoning project, it helped pioneer the “city within a city” design concept because of on-site amenities that included a theater, an office tower, a two- story commercial building, various entertainment and retail outlets, parking, and boat slips. Its residential towers were the tallest reinforced concrete structures and the tallest apartment buildings in the world when they were completed in 1963 and they remain among the most recognizable structures in Chicago, according to the Commission. 

As an official Landmark District, the complex will be protected from significant alteration or demolition and become eligible for a variety of financial incentives for repair work.

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