Who would've thought Chicago's favorite pair of corncobs were a nest of gossip, threats, backstabbing and legal manuevers that make Bertrand Goldberg's famous architectural marvel sound like a hot spot for the next generation of reality TV shows?
Well, Lynn Becker would have. Becker is perhaps the city's premiere architecture blogger - and a resident of Marina City - and he has a tale to tell so (allegedly) dastardly he feels compelled to write that we are not living "in Vladimir Putin's Russia, where only one official version of the truth is permitted."
What has Becker so hacked off?
Well, it starts with the Marina Towers Condo Association apparently trying to take legal control of all images of the building(s), including its use in movies. Then comes alleged revenge by the condo association against Marina City Online, which, Becker writes, "regularly exposes the Napoleonic pretensions of the MTCA, including its addiction to closed-door meetings and banning of recording of its sessions." And finally, a theory that the condo association is trying to sabotage efforts to landmark the, um, landmark.
The MTCA is the pompous guy in a top hat strutting down the street as if he owned it," Becker writes. "He doesn't. And well-considered ridicule is the best snowball."
To that end, Becker is going to use images and the name of Marina City early and often on his site, just to tweak the condo board - and to make a point.
"Marina City," he writes. "Marina City. Marina City. Marina City. Marina City. Marina City. Marina City. Marina City. Marina City. etc."
Hey Lynn, if you ever have a fundraiser, Wilco may be interested in helping out.
