(Above) Marina City residents gather on the roof of the east tower to watch fireworks last July. This image by Clint Bautz is featured in the premier issue of MAS Context, a quarterly journal that “addresses issues that affect the urban context.”

April 8, 2009 – Marina City is compared to world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali in the premier issue of a new journal about urban context.

What is urban context? According to MAS Context editor Iker Gil, “Urban context is the area that has enough density of people, with the possibility of accessing and enjoying different activities in a walking distance (and that includes open space) and has different modes of public transportation to move around. In the end it is a system in which the different layers of uses, open space, and transportation work together.”

Marina City was chosen as “an architectural example that embodies positive qualities.”

“More than forty years later,” reads the article about Marina City, “it still relates to its context, represents resistance, generates program, offers opportunities, and provokes discussion.”

 Web site: MAS Context