How & Why is Marina City in Chicago different from IBM Building

COMPARISON OF MARINA CITY IN CHICAGO AND IBM BUILDING
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Comparison of Marina City in Chicago and IBM Building
Marina city is one of the residential-commercial building that is located in Chicago, Illnois. Architect Bertrand Goldberg designed the building that occupies an entire city block on the street that is on north bank of Chicago River. The building consists of 65-storey apartment towers that include physical plant penthouses. Besides, Marina city has an office building and saddle-shaped auditorium that is currently used as a cinema. It is one of the multi-building complex that is established on Chicago River banks in downtown part of Chicago. On the contrary, IBM building is positioned towards the north of its site to provide a clear view of Marina City and Lake Michigan. It has unique forms of technological architecture including electrical and structural systems. Marina City is a building that has unique differences from IBM building in Chicago on the basis of its structure and appearance.
Marina City in Chicago
Bertrand Goldberg designed the complex Marina City as a “city within a city” that features a swimming pool, stores, restaurants, gym, theater, and ice rink. Brighton Construction Company worked collaboratively with McHugh Construction Company is establishing the unique architecture. Marina City was the first building that was built using through the use of climbing tower cranes. Besides, the building was the first high-rise residential complex that marked the beginning of residential renaissance of the inner cities in the United States. The unique model of having an office and mixed residential has become one of the fundamental models that marks urban development in the United States and other parts of the world. Most architectures have adopted the unique model in other parts of the world.
Marina City comprises of different buildings that consist of an office building that is currently a hotel, two residential towers, a building of a theater, and one of a large base structure in, which all the other buildings sits. The residential units have twenty lower floors with ramped parking while forty floors have different apartments. It is likely that the apartments were built for the economy and have balconies and large windows that enhance the view. A “pie-shaped” layout directs the viewers to the different outdoor views. The architecture used full-size mockups for the office building and apartments before the full construction of the building. Marina City has an appealing blend of sculpture with “corn-cob” shape of the apartment building. The architecture completed the first apartment in 1962 and tenants moved to it immediately Goldberg completed the second tower in 1963. The image below is an illustration of design of Marina City.[Hunt, D. Bradford, and Jon B. DeVries. "The Origins of Chicago’s Postindustrial City: Planning Change, 1955–1958." In Planning Chicago, pp. 35-50. Routledge, 2017.]
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Besides, the building has two towers that have similar floor plans. While the bottom nineteen floors have a spiral parking ramp with enough space, the twentieth floor of each building has a gym and laundry room to allow panoramic view of the loops. The twenty first floor has different apartments, thus, making the entire building among others in Chicago. People access the buildings from different lobbies with a ground level plaza near the House of Blues and different rental units. However, all the apartments have a common below-grade mezzanine level. Although the builders converted the rental apartments into condominiums in 1977, it has different rental units.[Hunt, D. Bradford, and Jon B. DeVries. Planning Chicago. Routledge, 2017.]
The apartments in Marina City have unique design of having no interior right angles. One of the unique features of the architectural building is that a circular hallway surrounds elevator core. Kitchen and bathroom is located on the inside part of the building while the living area occupy the outermost region of each of the units. Importantly, each of the unit has a semi-circular balcony that has a floor to ceiling window wall to separate the balcony and living areas. All the single living rooms and bedroom have a balcony on the basis of the unique arrangement.
The project features different forms of construction innovations and numerous designs. It was one of the buildings that involved the use of slip-form construction, thus, making the building appealing to the eyes. After completion, Marina City was one of the tallest reinforced concrete building on global perspective. Engineer Hannskarl Bandel structured the towers and the theater in the building. The two buildings featured unique structural solutions and designs. For instance, the office building was exoskeletal and had uniquely shaped concrete mullions. The structural transition at the fifth floor had unique gothic-shaped vaults with unique forms of concrete project.
The engineer and architecture designed the theater building for live production and promote the entertainment industry. It had small movie theaters and constructed as studios for television. The space for theater structure was quite strict for phasing of the project. The designer covered steel beams and large arches with triangular shaped structural grids that were shaped in form of saddle for sound isolation. The residents used one of the large internal spaces as a television studio and later converted to a theater.
The apartments operate on electricity power and, thus, propane and natural gas have no significant role. Besides, they lack air conditioning, heat, and hot water from a common source as was in the case during the establishment of the towers. Each unit in the building have electric stoves, heating and cooling units, and water heaters. However, the residents pay for the electricity used in operating the appliances that is likely to be a decision of the building owners. The high speed of the elevators makes the building unique among all other residential towers across the state.
The contribution by Buildings Maintenance Engineers Union and other unions was the main source of funding for the project. Janitor union ...