May 29, 2016 – (Left) Marina City appears to have broken out with a case of small, white squares. They are inward-facing signs that remind residents their balconies are closed.

A multi-million-dollar balcony restoration project is underway at Marina City.

After inspections, some balconies were considered unsafe because some railing posts are not rooted in concrete as solidly as they should. Various parts of the railings are being repaired or replaced and, according to a building permit issued on March 4, it will cost $2.1 million to do that.

Being an official City of Chicago landmark now, the restoration project had to be approved by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks, but the designation has led to help with paying for the project.

In exchange for being allowed by the city to build a bigger building at 311 West Illinois Street, The John Buck Company will help Marina City pay for at least $1.1 million of its balcony project under an “adopt-a-landmark” offer that gives zoning benefits to developers if they help pay for improvements at a landmarked building.

(Above) Closer view from a balcony on Marina City’s west tower. Photo by Frank Youngwerth. (Click on images to view large versions.)

Some residents of Marina City say they have been locked out of their balcony and must wait as long as eight weeks for repairs to be made.

According to Marina City resident Ken Schadt, repairs start at the top floors and work down, meaning residents on lower floors have to wait longer, with no access to their balcony, than residents on upper floors. He’d like to see repairs work their way up ten or even five floors, then down.

“We are all paying assessments,” says Schadt, who lives on the lowest residential floor. “This burden, and to those of us who love our balconies it is an odious burden, should be shared more or less equally.”

Schadt later learned that work will start at the bottom, with railing posts being pulled and then start again at the bottom to replace them, “so at least everybody will be inconvenienced equally.”