John Hancock: How the Other Half Lives

(Photo credit: Looper).

If you’ve lived in one Chicago high-rise, you’ve lived in them all? Not by a longshot. While residents of Marina City allege deeply entrenched condo board mismanagement in the wake of board member Gary S. Kimmel’s federal indictment on prostitution-related money-laundering charges, the situation couldn’t be more different for residents of Chicago’s other midcentury modernist residential skyscraper: the John Hancock Center.

Besides a physical plant in impeccable shape, actual union doormen, and a condo association that’s fully accessible to its members, Big John’s association also has a reserve six times that of Marina City (check out their board president’s report, in PDF format on their website).

So for your comparison, below I give you the Marina Towers Condominium Association website, versus the John Hancock Center/175 East Delaware Place Home Owners Association website.

Marina Towers Condominium Association
John Hancock/175 E. Delaware Place Home Owners Association

Small funny. Big point.

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Other posts you might like from Chicago Carless:
When the Wind Blows (at Marina City)
Friends rarely believe me when I tell them about the grandmother on a rocking chair who lives in the walls at Marina City. At least, that's who it sounds like inhabits the cast-in-place concrete of my high-rise corncob home every time a stiff wind blows through downtown Chicago. Here's proof.
Elevator Lobby Flowers #3: The Power of Levitation
Some readers have wondered about the reason for these weekly flower posts. The short of the story is a condominium association at Marina City that appears to be of the opinion that it's doing residents a favor by allowing a volunteer floral terrorist-cum-arranger to plop awful, phoney flower arrangements in our main elevat...
Pea Soup with Birds and Bugs
Yesterday afternoon I had just settled down in a newly cat-hair-cleaned window seat to slog into The Subterraneans when the fog rolled in. I decided to take the chance for some real-world escapist fun and headed to the roofdeck to watch the city play peek-a-boo through the clouds.
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5 Comments

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