New doorplates tell Marina residents where they are, on their floor and in the universe

August 3, 2012 – Working top to bottom, the condo association at Marina City is installing doorplates that include a map of the stars and planets as they appeared on November 22, 1960, the day ground was broken and construction of Marina City started.

The doorplates evolved from upgrades first announced in December 2009. The 8½ inch square metal plates, which are slightly curved to fit against a rounded surface, display the unit number, star map, and a message in five languages that accompanied the original map when it was presented to Marina City on a silver plaque by Robert Adler in 1962. Adler is the son of Max Adler, for whom Adler Planetarium is named.

While that version of the map was displayed in the lobby of the east tower in 1962, another was printed onto a copper scroll, covered with hot asphalt to protect it from moisture, and buried beneath the east tower in a mass of concrete 50 feet in diameter and eight feet thick.

In 2010, on a model floor completed at a cost of $16,000, the star map was smaller and part of a contemporary styled doorknocker. The goal of creating the model floor, the 53rd floor of the east tower, was to “spur sales and rentals and improve overall property values,” wrote property manager David Gantt in a memo to residents on January 14, 2010.

On Thursday, the doorplates had been installed on the top 15 floors of both towers.

The star map, in its original size of about three feet wide by two feet in height, will soon be displayed once again in the lobby, on the lower concourse level of both towers.

(Below) The new doorplates as they appear in a corridor on the 51st floor of the west tower at Marina City. (Click on images to view larger versions.)