Marina City, Chicago, Illinois, USA (1967)
After years of suburban flight, where those with the means to do so moved away from the inner cities, Chicago’s downtown worked with architect Bertrand Goldberg to attract people back to the downtown housing market. Goldberg designed two residential towers meant to be a city-within-a-city, a return to mixed use housing that had been tossed aside in the era’s sprawling suburban developments. He created two towers, each with 19 stories of parking on the lower levels so residents could still have the convenience of their car. The building included office and retail space, a gym, a pool, an open roof deck on the top of each tower, a theater, even a place to park a boat. The city itself would serve as the backyard. Residents could walk to work. Marina City’s unusual circular design and patterns of curved balconies and openings gave it its common nickname, the “Corncob Building.”
