(Photo: If you plant it, they won’t grow.)

For the better part of a year the elevator lobbies in both Marina City towers have been graced with officially sanctioned rotating floral displays. Lucky for us Marina Citizens, to keep costs down, instead of using the services of a floral designer, or of an actual flower for that matter, these budget bouquets are created in-house by Marina City’s stealthy florist, let’s call them Deep Stem, using plastic parts in place of pistils and petals.

Those busy bees at the independent residents’ blog, the Marina Watchdog, have been positively abuzz for months with commentary about these persistent petroleum petunias. No wonder, the faux flowers are spotlit atop a glass altar at the back of both elevator lobbies, offering every resident and guest entering Marina City a head on view of these fleurs-de-less every time they head for the up elevator.

Judging by some of the comments on the Watchdog, it’s frequently not just the elevator that wants to come up:

“We all have different tastes, but what’s up there week after week is just crap. If you like surprises, have the woman who makes the flowers put a vase of them next to your door every week. They don’t belong in a city lobby.”

“The cheap fake flowers that appear each week in often bizarre arrangements (see this week’s funereal-like offering) do nothing to improve Marina City’s image.”

“To the lady who makes them, are you over-medicated?”

“They look like they belong in a Filipino hotel.”

Perhaps that’s a little harsh? I don’t know. The plain-spoken two-cent opinion shared by most Marina City residents and visitors seems to be the reasonable contention that prominently featured fake flowers in any building — but especially a famous, architecturally significant high-rise like Marina City — serve no greater purpose than to make the building look like it can’t afford real flowers. Or, more bluntly, fake flowers make your condo look ghetto. Get-TOE, people.

a fake flowers But maybe you should decide for yourself. I give you a new, recurring feature of Chicago Carless: Marina City’s Elevator Lobby Flowers. Love them or not? Leave a comment and tell me what each new arrangement, er, brings up for you.

My take on this week’s offering: are those supposed to be leaves or rabbit ears?

As for the mirror, let’s just not even go there.

Categories: Elevator Lobby Flowers

Tagged as: Chicago residential high-rises controversial flower arrangements Deep Stem Elevator Lobby Flowers Marina City

Mike

I’m an #OpenlyAutistic gay, Hispanic, urbanist, Disney World fan, New York native, politically independent, Jewish blogger in Chicago. I believe in social justice, big cities, and public transit. I write words and raise money for nonprofits. I’ve written this blog since 2005. And counting...

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