Look up. Those are the Marina City towers, and yes, they look like corn cobs. Everyone calls them the corn cobs. The architect, Bertrand Goldberg, absolutely hated that nickname and spent the rest of his career insisting they were meant to evoke "flower petals." They look like corn. We all know they look like corn.
But here's why Marina City actually matters — when these towers opened in 1963, they were the tallest residential buildings in the world. They were also one of the first mixed-use developments in modern America — apartments, offices, restaurants, a bowling alley, a theater, an ice rink, and a marina all in one complex.
Goldberg designed them as a solution to white flight. Seriously. People were leaving Chicago for the suburbs, and Goldberg thought — what if we built a place so cool that living downtown felt like a complete lifestyle? Everything you need in one complex. A city within a city.
Each apartment is pie-shaped because of the round design. The balconies are those
petal-like protrusions you see wrapping around the building. Every single unit has a balcony. In Chicago. Where winter exists.
The parking garage is the bottom 19 floors of each tower — an open-air spiral where the cars are completely visible from outside. It's a design choice. It's also extremely Chicago to make your parking situation everyone else's business.
You've definitely seen this buildi
