10-Dec-15 – There is beauty in the parking ramps at Marina City, just ask the Brits. The arts magazine Beyond, published in London for 600,000 worldwide customers of the carmaker Lexus, has published what it calls “a celebratory story on the Marina City car park.”

The article, Circular City, appears in the issue published on November 24. (Left) Marina City from Wacker Drive to the southwest. (Click on images to view larger versions.)

“An iconic Chicago residential development has decorated the Midwest city’s skyline since it appeared, like an architectural mirage, in the 1960s,” says Beyond, which describes itself as “a journal on design and craftsmanship.”

Writer Lawrence Lowe and photographer Adrian Gaut visited Marina City in May. While Hotel Chicago allowed them onto a sixth-floor terrace not open to the public, Transwestern, the manager of Marina City’s commercial property, said Beyond was “shooting a commercial” and would not allow them onto the parking ramps without paying $5,000.

“I would love to have others around the world know about the great architecture of Marina City,” said Transwestern vice president Andy Bartucci, “but I have a job to do and I hope you can respect my situation.”

(Right) View from terrace at Hotel Chicago that overlooks Marina City’s east tower in distance at left and House of Blues at right.

In 2012, Beyond’s sister publication, the global affairs magazine Monocle, devoted seven pages to Marina City for an article titled Life In The Round.