2012 in photos… January 13 – Relics of the Future, an art project inspired by Marina City, opens at Packer Schopf Gallery west of the Loop. Captured from Wacker Drive, this image by Dutch-Canadian photographer Toni Hafkenscheid uses an optical effect that makes Marina City look like a miniature model. (Click on image to view larger version.)

February 1 – (Above) A “casually cool” Bar Louie opens in a 10,000 square foot commercial space on the west side of Marina City that had been vacant for more than a year. Over its first weekend, the bar/restaurant sold more than 1,300 martinis and estimates it served 5,000 customers in its first week. (Photos by Steven Dahlman unless otherwise noted.)

March 18 – On the warmest St. Patrick’s Day in 141 years, thousands of people – possibly as many as 100,000 – flock to the main branch of the Chicago River for the annual tradition of turning the water bright green. Seen here from the State Street Bridge, a very yellow Chicago Water Taxi passes Marina City through a very green Chicago River.

March 31 – (Above) Ryan Alan, lead singer of the Chicago band Marina City, belts it at a sold-out show at House of Blues. April 1 – (Right) Two kids in propeller beanies aptly symbolize Marina City in an April Fool’s joke from Google. The search engine released an old-timey low-resolution version of Google Maps.

April 12 – A proposal by two French architects to retrofit Marina City wins the top prize in the International Algae Competition, a global challenge to design algae food and energy systems. A video by Influx_Studio shows the top floors of Marina City re-imagined with wind turbines and algae to absorb carbon dioxide.

April 18 – Guests at a “launch party” at Marina City’s marina are treated to rides on the Chicago River aboard two electric-powered boats, including the Miss Chloe seen here, owned by a new venture by two Jefferson Beach Yacht Sales executives.

May 21 – Part of an unprecedented police presence in downtown Chicago during the NATO summit, two officers with the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System guard the plaza level of Marina City.

May 26 – A large American flag carried by members of VFW 5079 passes Marina City during Chicago’s Memorial Day Parade.

May 29 – (Left) ESPN’s Randy Pederson interviews Bowling Hall of Famer Pete Weber and Jason Belmonte after winning the championship match at the PBA Summer Shootout at Marina City’s 10pin Bowling Lounge.

June 10 – (Above) A replica of the fabled cow of Mrs. O’Leary launches toward Marina City and a successful leap from one raised end of the State Street Bridge to the other. The stunt was performed for Conan O’Brien’s television show, which produced the video from which this frame was grabbed. June 30 – (Right) Marina Towers by Enoc Perez, one of about 70 artworks in an exhibit that opens at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art. Skyscraper: Art and Architecture Against Gravity examined how skyscrapers are interpreted in contemporary works of art.

August 3 – Working top to bottom, the condo association at Marina City installs 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.

August 5 – (Left) Monocle, a global affairs magazine published in London, devotes seven pages to Marina City. For Marina City, Life In The Round, Monocle’s design editor, Hugo Macdonald, traveled to Chicago to spend two days interviewing residents as Chicago photographer David Robert Elliott captured views of and from Marina City, along with interiors of four units.

September 8 – An exhibit of nanny/photographer Vivian Maier (1926-2009) opens at the Chicago History Museum. In this image from 1963, Marina City is reflected in the storefront window of E. G. Men’s Shop near the corner of Wacker and Dearborn.

September 28 – (Right) This is the cocktail napkin sketch that won Architectural Record’s third annual cocktail napkin sketch contest. Brian Droste, age 25, a 2010 graduate of Notre Dame and intern architect at Wight & Company, an architecture and engineering firm in Chicago, won in the non-professional category. Droste completed his sketch in about ten minutes using a fountain pen.

October 17 – Inside Marina City, an exhibit of large photographs of Marina City residents and residences, on display at WUHO Gallery on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. In April, they were at an art gallery in Boston. Over four months ending in January, the photos, part of a project by architect Iker Gil and photographer Andreas Larsson, were displayed at The Art Institute of Chicago, next door to a major exhibit on the life’s work of architect Bertrand Goldberg. (Photo by Andreas Larsson.)

November 6 – With camera operator Oded Bino, Channel 2 Tel Aviv journalist Yonit Levi interviews a voter at Marina City. The polling place on the 20th floor of Marina City’s east tower was also the focus of an Associated Press camera, which fed video to numerous television stations throughout Europe.

November 12 – A five-foot-tall ice sculpture – carved by Armand “Hawk” Ramirez of Nadeau’s Ice Sculptures in Forest Park – in the shape of Marina City’s towers, at Tortoise Club, an upscale restaurant that opened seven days later on the east side of Marina City. The sculpture was for a party for unit owners at Marina City, as the condo association celebrated the 50th anniversary of the complex as a residence. Each ice tower was 20 inches in diameter and weighed 600 pounds.

Text by Steven Dahlman

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