At Marina City - Bertrand Goldberg: Screwed Again?

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Can you run a world-class landmark on the cheap without running it into the ground? That's the current question at Marina City, as over 250 condo owners are organizing to stop a controversial renovation of the entrance and elevator lobbies at the Bertrand Goldberg-designed masterpiece.

rendering of entrance lobby renovation

It's one of favorite talking points of the good-'ol-boys power network that plotted beyond closed doors to destroy Bertrand Goldberg's landmark Prentice Hospital:  We don't need Prentice because we'll still have Marina City - if you two world-renowned masterpieces, why wouldn't anyone not want to make it just one?  (The next court hearing on the lawsuit to save Prentice is tomorrow, January 11th.  Stay tuned.)

The irony of all this, of course, is none of these bulldozing power brokers who profess such love for Marina City have lifted a finger to give it landmark protection, allowing the indignities foisted upon this global symbol of the greatness of Chicago to continue unabated.  (Disclosure:  I am a long-time Marina City resident.)

Making it a bit more complicated is that Marina City is among a number of  huge multi-use developments under split ownership.  In the case of an extreme example, the John Hancock Center,  the office, retail, observation deck and condo portions all have different owners, and last November the rooftop and antenna were sold off to still another entity for $70 million.

The basic split at Marina City came in the 1970's, when the rental building was converted to condominiums   The office building, theater, and lower 20 parking floors of the twin towers were spun off to a separate owner who oversaw a downward spiral that soon landed those holdings in housing court as, essentially, an abandoned building.  When new ownership revived the commercial part of Marina City, in came Smith and Wollensky and the House of Blues.  As the complex's office building was converted to the House of Blues of hotel, the concrete of the structure was lovingly cleaned and restored.  It looked beautiful.

Well, we can't have that, can we?  A few years later I received an email from a Marina City admirer who had happened to correspond with the top executive of still another new owner, and was distressed to discover that the executive claimed to be blissfully unaware that what he had just bought had any special architectural merit.  In no time flat, the new owner wiped out all the careful restoration work on the hotel's concrete with a hack paint job, heavy with the kind of cheap-looking gray usually found on back alley loading docks. (Read: Slumming Up Marina City.)

You'd think that those who actually thought enough of Marina City to buy a condo there would be more protective of the architectural legacy of Goldberg's design.  No doubt many are.  They just usually don't have the votes.   The towers themselves have remained under the control of a condo board kept in office in no small part through the proxy votes of non-resident owners who rent out their units.  Their most fervent statement on the building's importance was when they tried to monetize it, through a surreal 2007 campaign engineered by former State Representative and failed judicial candidate Ellis Levin, which tried to shake down photographers with the claim that the condo association, which controlled only the 40 residential floors of the 60-story towers, was mandating that no pictures could be published of Marina City without its written permission. (Read: Stop Taking Pictures of Marina City!)

A recent rehab of the 20th floor laundry rooms included what I found to be rather handsome wall tile that was evocative of Goldberg's design, but more recently, units have all been adorned with the bizarre, bulky plates pictured above, placed next to rather than on the unit doors, that show the position of the planets on the day in 1960 "this building began", with an accompanying inscription in five different languages, including Latin and Greek.  What exactly does this have to do with anything?

Now a new controversy has erupted around the rehab of the residential lobbies. According to a report by Steven Dahlman on the indispensable Marina City Online website, 250 owners have signed a petition demanding a special meeting be called.  Dahlman quotes Marina Towers Condo Association secretary Ellen Chessick citing "lack of input from owners . . . inappropriate and unsatisfactory design and choice of materials, and loss of the travertine stone that is in the lobbies and on every residential floor."  One other resident estimated the value of that stone to be $250,000.  MTCA design committee co-chair and interior designer Marc Straits resigned in protest over what was perceived as the lack of professional oversight for the project.

rendering of elevator lobby renovation

A letter to unit owners from Property Manager David Gantt indicates penny pinching was the dominant engine for the redesign, “Most importantly the lobby renovations will NOT spark a need for a special assessment.” (Lest you miss the point, the sentence is rendered in boldface and underlined.)  Gant cites as a “major benefit to the Association” the fact that the new design is a freebie: “Board Member and Architect Robert Abell has donated the design . . . a prior board . . . contracted with a design firm at what would have been a cost to the Association of $125,000 to provide design services alone.”

Actually paying for good design - oh, the horror!  If these were the people Bertrand Goldberg had to answer to when he originally designed Marina City, they wouldn't be living in a world-class masterpiece, but an upscale version of Cabrini Green.

 Like the owners of the commercial property, the actions of the MTCA board would indicate that they don't place much value in the architectural value of the building they inhabit.  Melichar Architects, which Abell lists on his Linkedin page as his current employer, appears to be a firm as yet untouched by the 20th - much less 21st - century, with pictures galore of projects steeped in “Italian Renaissance”, “Mediterranean Inspiration”, and “Gothic Authenticity.”  Goldberg's son Geoffrey, also an architect, has never been consulted on the redesign.  God forbid, he might actually charge for his services and do a little historic research.

rendering of entrance lobby renovation

Ellen Chessick tells me that construction work on the West Tower lobby has now been stopped, pending a new meeting of the MTCA Board next Tuesday, January 15th.

No one likes spending money, but, on the other hand, no one likes losing it, either.  What remains a mystery is why the Marina City condo board continues to insist on damaging the value of their investment through cheap, generic alterations that destroy the integrity of the historic, world-class design that makes Marina City one of Chicago's most distinctive properties. Lobby spaces - especially entrance lobbies - are how private buildings define their public character.  To visitors and prospective owners alike, it takes only one quick glance.  Does it read engagement or indifference?

If you want an example of how to really maximize property values,  you have only to look at Mies van der Rohes 860-880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments.  Instead of cutting corners, management there didn't just ask for volunteers.  They turned to people who actually have blue chip, internationally recognized credentials in working with world-class buildings: architects Gunny Harboe and Krueck and Sexton.  Together they successfully executed a renovation/restoration plan that has not just won awards, but secured 860-880's status as one of Chicago's premiere addresses.

When they were ripping out the current lobbies, a bit of the original lobby elevator tile, pictured above, was revealed.  This is the kind of research that should be informing renovations to an essential building like Marina City.  Chessick tells me that an archivist from the Art Institute rushed over to take a sample.  Does the condo board even care?  I guess we'll find out, when they meet this coming Tuesday, what kind of building they've decided they live in: an Apple Store or a Walmart.

Goose Island for Obscura Day, Kalmbach's Grand Mansions, Buckley's Utopie, Doug Garofalo memorial - still more in April

We don't usually include tours on our calendar because there are just so damn many of them, but we did one to mention two:

Next Saturday, April 28th, is Obscura Day "an international celebration of unusual places" and Forgotten Chicago is offering a walking tour of Goose Island and Pulaski Park from 12:00 p.m to 2:30.

Goose Island is one of the more obscure areas of Chicago. Primarily industrial, it once contained a working class Irish residential enclave as well. We’ll discuss the history of much of the island, and examine remnants from its manufacturing and residential past.

We’ll also venture off the island to tour the once working-class neighborhood surrounding Pulaski Park. The area is dense with mixed architectural uses and history. Additionally, it has been shaped by various political forces over the years, from Progressive Era reformers to less-than-progressive machine politicians. We’ll check out some of the tangible physical evidence that reflects the area’s political history, and architectural oddities and other curiosities in the built environment.

The cost is $12.00, and with a limit of 35 participants, I'd expect it will fill up.  Get information and buy tickets here.

Then in May, architectural historian Sally Kalmbach will be offering From Grand Mansions to Luxury Apartment Buildings, The Story of the changing skyline of Lake Shore Drive, covering both the buildings, residents, and the architects, with an emphasis on Benjamin Marshall.  The tour is being offered Saturday May 19th and Wednesday May 23rd, both times from 10 a.m. until noon.  Cost is $25.00 per person.  For more information and to reserve your place, contact Sally Kalmbach via email.

And just to prove it's never too late to add to the April 2012 Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events, on Tuesday April 24th, 6:00 p.m. at the Graham, there's a lecture by Craig Buckley of Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture on Utopie: Encounters and Missed Encounters, followed by an open discussion moderated by Sara Knox Hunter.

Elsewhere this week, there's Digital Design at SOM at the Arts Club on Monday the 23rd, Peter Skosey discussing Bus Rapid Transit: Chicago's New Route to Opportunity, CAF lunchtime on Wednesday the 25th, SEAOI's Midwest Bridge Symposium, ULI Chicago's Rebirth of the East Loop and State Street, and Gunny Harboe's tour of Unity Temple, all on Thursday, the 26th.  And on Saturday afternoon, April 28th at the Hyde Park Art Center, there will be a "public memorial celebrating the life and work of visionary architect Doug Garofalo."

Check out the dozen events still to come on the April Calendar.

This Thursday: Rare opportunity to view WPA murals at Lane Tech, plus Gunny Harboe on restoring the Rookery Tuesday - just added for June. Tonight: Bowling for Prentice. Tuesday: Bruce Mau on aging infrastructure, PechaKucha 18, much more

A quick reminder that Monday, June 6th, is the date for the Bowling for Prentice benefit to help save Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice Hospital from being destroying by Northwestern for a vacant lot.  It's a 10 Pin at another should-be Goldberg landmark, Marina City, 300 North State from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m.

We're still adding great events to the June 2011 Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events  This week on Thursday, the 9th, Preservation Chicago and portuluz will be offering a rare tour of the WPA-era murals at Lane Tech High school.  On Tuesday, the 7th, Gunny Harboe will be talking about the restoration of the Rookery, 7:00 p.m. at Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple in Oak Park.  Also on Thursday, the 9th, the Harry Chaddick Institute at DePaul will have  panel discussion on Strategies of Improve Historic Preservation in Suburban Communities.

Just this week, there's Peter Calthorpe at CAF on Monday. On Tuesday, Bruce Mau and Armin Linke discussing Global Designs for Aging Infrastructure, at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in conjunction with their great new show, Public Works, as well as Eileen Mackevich at the Cultural Center for the National Public Housing Museum, and PechaKucha 18 at Martyr's. On Wednesday, Irene Murray talks about Palladio at CAF lunchtime, and Martin Hackl discusses John van Bergen and the Prairie School of Architecture at the Barrington Area Historical Society.  Saturday, the 2011 Structural Engineering Awards will be announced at the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois' annual banquet, at Newberry Library. while Marcus Schmickler performs at Madlener House at the Graham, and on Sunday, the Glessner House Museum offers its annual house tour of both interiors and exteriors of the mansions of Prairie Avenue and the Second Presbyterian Church.

There are more than 50 events still to come in June.  Check 'em all out on this month's calendar, here.

Harboe at Carson's, Neutra discusses Neutra, Studio/Gang at Columbia College - SCB in Abu Dhabi, and much more: the August architectural calendar

It's the 9th of the month - time for the August calendar!

Actually, the first week was less front-loaded than usual, and a lot of Chicago institutions are still on summer hiatis, but there's still a ton of great stuff coming up in August.

The National Public Housing Museum is offering a series of lectures on public housing in both architectural,cultural and social aspects each of the remaining Wednesday morning's in August. On August 12th, Dr Raymond Richard Neutra, son of the famous architecture will lecture on the significance and survival of Neutra's Los Angeles VDL Studio and Residences for AIA Chicago, which is also offering a panel of architects including Walter Eckenhoff and Jackie Koo talking about hotel design throughout the world on Tuesday, the 10th, Christine Caryle discussing her firm's planning work in Abu Dhabi at Solomon Cordwell Buenz on the 11th.

On Thursday the 19th, AIA/Chicago will be offering a tour of the new Columbia College Media Production Center with a representative from the building's architects, Studio/Gang, as a guide. The same afternoon, the Glessner House Museum is offering a tour of the recently restored Louis Sullivan formerly known as Carson Pirie Scott by architect Gunny Harboe.

There's also SEAOI's day-long seminar on the Design of Low-Rise Reinforced Concrete Buildings o Tuesday, the 24th, when Christopher Miller is also talking about Urban Morphology at APA/Chicago. The Häfele Chicago showroom has a lecture by Robin Whitehurst and Greg Williams of Baily Edward Architecture on the Independence Park Bungalow project on Monday, the 16th, and there's an opening reception and a panel discussion led by Victor Margolin Monday the 30th at the opening of the exhibition Get Inspired! The Swiss Design Award at Crown Hall, IIT.

And that's not all! There are nearly three dozen great events in August. Check them all out here.