Marina City, Chicago, Illinois, Details

Although his basic template for Marina City remained consistent throughout the design process, the apartment towers and office building changed considerably with the introduction of a new column design in a diamond or rhombus shape. This seemingly small change allowed the complex intersection of concrete post, beam, and balcony curve in the residential buildings to resolve into graceful arches in the apartment interiors. In the office building, the rhombus performs an even more remarkable feat, as the slender columns at street level gradually grow into dramatic groin vaults at the promenade deck to support the upper building. Goldberg’s dynamic engineering solution not only allowed for an elegant resolution to a challenging design problem, but it also endowed Marina City with an expressive quality that rivals the best examples of concrete construction in the mid-century.