Marina City

Marina City is a mixed-use residential-commercial complex composed by a set of twin towers. Towering at 587-feet tall, they are located on 300 State Street.

Overview
Envisionned as a "city within a city", the complex was built with all the required amenities for its inhabitants, including a theater, swimming pool, ice rink, gym, stores, restaurants, bowling alleys, and a marina. Each tower possess 65 floors, while the first nineteen storeys constitutes a set of spiraling parking garage, operated by valets. The 20th floor hosts a laundry room with panoramic views of the Loop, while 450 apartments are nestled high at floors 21 through 60. A 360-degree open-air observation deck is located at the 61st floor. Access to the apartments are provided by separate lobbies that share a common below-grade mezzanine level and by ground-level plaza entrances.

An uncommon feature of the Marina City's apartments is that they are almost entirely devoid of any interior right angles. On each residential floor, a circular hallway surrounds the elevator core, which is 32 feet (9.8 m) in diameter, with 16 sector-shaped units arrayed around the hallway. Apartments are composed of these units. Bathrooms and kitchens are located towards the inside of the building, while the living areas are situated closer to the outermost areas of each unit. Each unit possess a 175-square foot semi-circular balcony separated from living areas by a floor-to-ceiling window wall. As a result, every single living room and bedroom in Marina City has a balcony, thus ensuring the building an optimal exposure to sunlight.

The apartments rely exclusively on electricity to sustain their needs, another unusual feature at the time they were built. They are not provided with hot water, air conditioning, or heat from a central source aswell. Instead, each unit contains individual hot water heaters, heating and cooling units, and electric stoves, and residents pay individually for the electricity needed to run these appliances.

The towers are also noted for the high speed of their elevators, travelling at a speed of roughly two floors per second.

History
Designed by architect Bertrand Goldberg, construction of the Marina City complex started in 1961. Nicknamed the "corn cob", due to their shape and appearance, the towers stood - at the time of their completion in 1968 - as the tallest apartment buildings, and the tallest reinforced concrete structures in the world. An antenna was built on top of one of the tower in 1964, but it was later removed as the operator later moved its transmitter on the newly-built Sears Tower. Originally rental apartments, much of the units converted to condominium in 1977.

Marina City constitutes the first post-war urban high-rise residential complex in the United States, and sets the stepping stone of the residential renewal of American inner cities for years to come.

The patterns followed to build the complex (i.e cohabiting residential and office spaces, or parkings lot acting as the base of a tall building) spurred inspirations, and served as references for urban development in the United States (and in the world). The popularity of the design was such, that this model was extensively copied throughout several urban developments internationally.

Trivia

 * In real life, the Marina City complex also include a 10-story office building (currently a hotel), and a saddle-shaped auditorium building, but those are absent from the game.
 * The marina itself is not featured in game.


 * The famed Marina City's parking garage is not accessible in-game.