Craig D. forwarded me this great shot posted at Shorpy. It’s the parking garage of the upscale Marina Towers luxury high rise apartment building in Chicago, and gives a good idea what higher-income folks were driving back then. Click on image for full size view.
I do see 3 ’64 Cadillac’s, available in late ’63, but this picture is probably from ’64.
Fin heaven looking at this beautiful shot, great find.
Actually, there are 4 ’64 Caddies in this shot.
GM was king in this time period, all GM except for 1 Dodge, 1 Ford, 1 Mercury and the lone import MG.
Isn’t that an Imperial in the lower right?
Yep!
There are four ’63 Cadillacs, a ’59 and a ’62.
MG, you are correct on all counts.
I stand corrected.
Wow, those are some wild buildings.
Put me down for one of the Buicks, those are some of my favorite fins.
Shot from this past spring. Taken with an iPhone so not high enough resolution to see the makes of the cars.
It looks like there is a requirement that you back into your parking space based on your photo, Moparlee. That is a good idea for any parking space, really. It’s much easier to pull out than back out. Now if I could only convince my wife of this….
That was the first question to myself when I saw the picture:
How many women did the parking here?
I tried to google recent pictures and it seems to be the same.
Is the answer that the building is run by valet parking?
Do not want to prejudice, but where else do see this?
I was very facinated by the towers, when I first saw them during my visit to Chicago in 1980 – (parked in the Hancock Center) – but I would hate having my fine vehicle exposed to all sorts of weather conditions whilst parking at home, keeping in mind how tough winters can get in Chicago.
I have a sneaking suspicion this photo was staged. All the upper decks empty,
only the lower decks have cars, and you can’t tell how far ’round they go. For the picture date, look to the Shorpy posting — Oct. 1963.
It appears to be a photo of the north tower from the parking garage of the south…
on the left you can see a bit of the ‘Marina City Office Building’ and maybe the back of 444 N. Michigan. To the right of the core, you see nothing, looking out towards the Lake.
Agree, the old roadster (TD?) driving above all the parked beautiful whales appears to be some type of statement.
MG TC.
The photo was staged – the MG belonged to John and Sandy Dienhart, among the first tenants of the complex. It was part of an article about the Marina City complex entitled ‘Living at the Top” in the January 14, 1964 issue of Look magazine that I still have in my library. The whole issue was devoted to “How We Live,” including vignettes on urban, suburban, and rural life in America. Bertrand Goldberg’s Marina City was designed to be a self-contained community: “When Marina City is completed, the Dienharts won’t even have to go outdoors to attend a theater, visit a doctor, exercise in a health club, or, if they wish, buy a bottle of Scotch, fill a prescription , make bank deposits (via TV) or enjoy a bowling match.” Presumably the cars could be reserved primarily for recreation. Typical of the mid-20th century “We can control our environment” optimism of the early 60’s.
The text adjoining the photo indicates that “A parking attendant roars up the spiral ramp to the 17th floor with one of the Dienharts’ two sports cars. After parking the car in its stall, the attendant scoots back to the ground in a ‘man lift,’ a constantly revolving contrivance that is like a cross between an escalator and a ferris wheel. Tenants pay $30 a month for parking.”
There’s a scene in the Steve McQueen movie, “The Hunter” where someone drives a car off this.
A beautiful, new, two-tone green ’78 Pontiac Grand Prix.
And someone posted that scene on Youtube. 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQfFLyD9yEw
If one day, someone do a remake of that movie, I wonder if Toyota or Honda might enjoy to see an Camry or an Accord being served as a guinea pig falling from the Marina Towers to the Chicago River for that stunt scene? 😉
I really thought that Steve McQueen was a better driver than that! Of course he is piloting a Chevy Tow Truck, and not the Original Bullitt Mustang in this movie. ;o)
I just watched the clip of the green GP on YouTube. Ouch! It was a bad day for the Pontiac Grand Prix, as there was also a black ’79 initially hooked to the back of the tow truck McQueen was driving, and the front bumper and grille got ripped off…
Is the whole movie worth watching?
I stand corrected, GN – the green one was also a ’79. (I thought I had remembered that!)
That scene at the end doesn’t get any easier to watch…what a waste!! And the Chicago River back then was positively toxic. There was no salvage on that car after “end scene” – probably straight to the scrapyard.
I don’t remember watching the entire movie, so I can’t make a recommendation either way. I did, however, see this part of it on TV when I was maybe 11 or 12 during Saturday afternoon “Award Theater”.
I think about that scene every time I walk past those buildings. I had a friend who was living in Chicago while both The Hunter and The Blues Brothers were simultaneously being filmed. A lot of fast cars and helicopter shots.
Wow, so many cars I find highly desirable. The Starfire, the Cadillacs, the Riv, the Pontiac and Chevy convertibles, and especially the ’60 Buick. I should be most attracted to the MG (TD?), but I can’t stop musing about having one of the GM cars pictured. Great shot.
Oh yeah, that Monza looks inviting, too.
The corn cobs.
The MG seems to have the larger diameter wheels of a TC – not the smaller diameter (and usually steelies) of the TD.
The door cut is also lower. Paul is right, it’s a TC.
I’ll take the ’63 Impala convertible, please. ;o)
The corncobs.
Marina City, onetime home of Top 40 Rocker WCFL.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ALrCerYP0Q
I’ll take the ’63 Impala convertible, although the Riv is quite tempting…
This looks like a Matchbox toy garage.
GREAT photo, thanx .
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Definately an MG TC there .
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Hard to choose which car to like best .
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Different times to be sure, NO TRUCKS .
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-Nate
Also only two cars more than five years old. Different time indeed.
A true picture of the affluent midwest of the time – 2 old FoMoCo cars and 1 Mopar. Pretty much all the rest were all snazzy late model GM stuff, except for that oddball with the MG.
Tough choice – do I choose the lone Imperial of indeterminate age and body style? Or do I cave, follow the crowd, and take that 63 Pontiac convertible? Tough choice.
The Imperial with those gunsight taillights is a ’60, probably the Southampton 4DR hardtop as popular as they were. They were Mopar’s answer to the mid-’50s Lincoln Continental Mark IIs, in that both companies lost about $1000 per copy – but the attention those halo cars got was incalculable, drawing people into the showrooms the way they did. Their Packard-like quality of fit and finish put a mere Caddy to shame.
I’d take the Imp, the Corvair (not sure if it’s a 700 or the Monza, but definitely a ’62) or that ’59 Ford Fairlane. The first-year Riviera is tempting, too.
Oh, hell. Let me hit the Powerball and I’ll buy them ALL. 😀
???
Putting aside the staging, wonder when the corncobs went import. I would guess 25% import 1968, 50% 1973, 75% 1978, 95% post 1985.
It’s still a pretty classy place to live, with views of the river to die for. Apartments are odd and shaped like a piece of pie. Parking is ONLY by attendant. If cars were all at the bottom, the car hikers were simply working their way up. The lower you are, the quicker to get back down.
I’ll take that Merc, please! And throw in that fine ’59 Ford too, I’ve always been a sucker for them.
Looking at the picture, I noticed 2 things: Parking space is very tight, especially for such large cars, and (compared to the height of parked cars), fence is way too low for such tall building. I wander if it is the same fence is still there (I bet it does not comply to current security standards).
The wheels hit a bump, before the bumpers hit the fence.
My father installed the same parking bump in our garage, when I was a kid 🙂
This place still gives me the willies, even in pictures. I can just picture myself re-enacting that scene from “The Hunter” mentioned above. Give me a nice enclosed underground garage and I’m much happier.
A great pic of great architecture. Riv for me, please
Great album!
I’ll also take the Riv.
Don’t forget the Imp. Fortunately with a low-enough toilet seat profile for ease in backing into that space.
That Imp is impossible to forget ?!
I want the Riviera, but I’d settle for the Corvair.
When I saw this on Shorpy, Paul, I crossed fingers someone would alert you.
Nice two-minute Chicago Architecture Foundation video about these; the fencing/rear-wheel stops seem unchanged: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMrW1DAJxMI
The very first car up the ramp = more prosaic than what’s in the Shorpy picture:
Great shot, even as staged. 18 cars, 6 Caddies, 4 of them ’63s. And I thought that was a Starfire. One question – is the older, 2 door coupe to the right of the lone Mercury a ’54 or maybe ’53 Dodge? It appears to have the crease in line with the tail lights those cars had.
I’m not going to claim “expert” status, but to me I’ts a 1953 Oldsmobile 88… YMMV!