How the Corncob Towers of Marina City Helped Revitalize Downtowns

As cities lost the middle classes to the suburbs in the middle of the twentieth century, a janitors union in Chicago bankrolled a housing complex downtown to bring business back. The architect Bertrand Goldberg broke with the right angles of his mentor Mies van der Rohe to embrace curves in concrete in a "self-contained city" that offered all the amenities of a city: theater, offices, shops, a restaurant. It lacked a connection to the street, but it did bring people back into downtown and show once again that urban living could be glamorous. #architecture #architecturelovers #chicago #urbanism

[jbw]

I have the pleasure of living in Marina City for 8 years on the 50th floor. Fantastic place!

[ntatenarin]

I love the Corncobs. While many of the skyscrapers in Chicago and around the world look amazing, it's nice not looking at another boxy building. Also, I have great memories in the House of Blues building at the base of the tower!

[sonomabob]

I had the impression that this building was an upscale apartment building - not middle class housing.

[rosephoenix]

You know everyone, it's time for get rid of it of a glass box indefinitely right now and today. Right now they use steel glass box that everywhere is only for the big city and especially that it is not futuristic. It's just like how to say this. Oh yeah, like size of the closet that are of the tallest one ever. But it is not how to say this desire or even the future it is. Everything data is everyone using the same shape always will be like the first skyscraper for the 19 60s, the 70s, the 80s, the 90s, and to the millennia, have everything's day right now and 2023. It's still like it's getting boring seriously, everyone because skyscraper went with the glass. It's like a box anyway. I mean not a box like a closet. It's like a boring. It's time to let new design of a shake and radical of a new revolution. I said that's never seen before

[alidaweber]

Here's the problem...where are the schools and other amenities for children?