April wouldn’t have seemed complete without our now almost-monthly apartment fire. It was with great relief today at 5:45 a.m. I awoke to the gentle swooping of the rotor blades of the CBS 2 news ‘copter hovering outside my window, 250 feet from the head of my bed.
Marina City mismanagement reached a new low Tuesday night after a fire broke out in a unit on the 45th floor of East Tower. Fire fighters were dousing the flames, the smell of smoke was filling the upper floors, and 60 stories of elevators were taken out of service. But the evening’s biggest casualty: our fire-life safety plan. Because no one bothered to tell residents their building was on fire.
Many Marina City residents awoke this week to flooded apartments and ruined possessions. The culprit: a mistake made by a condo association-hired plumber that caused flooding in an as-yet unknown number of apartments in both towers. Yet even as damage reports continue to arise, the condo association remains silent–except to deny responsibility.
Loving where you live can be a double-edged sword. As much I as revere downtown-living at Marina City, the corncobs sure have their trying moments. In my ongoing quest to determine whether they’re still worth living in, I give you my top 10 reasons why I love Marina City–and my top 10 reasons why I wish I didn’t.
This post covers everything you always wanted to know about Marina City but didn’t know whom to ask. Irrespective of the scandals that have plagued Chicago’s favorite high0rise corncobs, Marina City still represents a stunning achievement in mid-century architectural design and urban planning. Here are links to the best information sources available on the iconic buildings.
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.
Much has been said about Gary Kimmel and his federal indictment on money-laundering charges for allegedly helping a national prostitution ring operate out of Marina City. An informed opinion is always a better opinion. So for the sake of fairness, here are links to the U.S. Department of Justice documents relating to the case. These PDF files contain the full text of the complaint and indictment against Dr. Kimmel. You be the judge…
Resident discontent stemming from last week’s high-rise hooker scandal involving former condo board member Gary Kimmel continues to grow here at Marina City. A ‘Security Meeting’ last night–the first for well over a year–billed in advance as a ‘Q & A Session’ with Marina City’s security contractor allowed for no questions until an hour into the meeting when residents pointed out the oversight. And we wonder how Kimmelgate happened.
Such was the description that arose last night at Marina City to describe the prostitution bombshell that earlier this week shocked residents and scandalized the condo board of this twin-towered, 60-story apartment complex. Lobbies, elevators, and hallways were abuzz with residents trying to gossip some sense out of now federally indicted dentist Gary S. Kimmel’s alleged high-rise hooker ring. The general consensus: you’d have to drill pretty deep to find enough reasonable doubt to save poor Dr. Gary.
Gary S. Kimmel is a longtime Marina City resident, a prominent condo board member, a respected family dentist, and a (several floors) upstairs neighbor of mine. Yesterday, he was indicted for laundering money for a nationwide prostitution ring that he allegedly allowed to operate out of nine Marina City apartments, in return for more than $400,000 in kickbacks. Although he did fix the prostitutes’ teeth for free. Are you kidding me?