Completed 1986 | Architect Bertrand Goldberg | |
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Type Mixed use:
Residential, Commercial, Parking, Marina Location 800 South Wells Street, Chicago, Illinois, United States | ||
River City is a mixed-use building at 800 South Wells Street in Chicago, Illinois. It was designed by Bertrand Goldberg, to whose Marina City it bears clear affinities, and was completed in 1986. The S-shaped structure located in the South Loop neighborhood of Chicago alongside the Chicago River houses a 70 slip marina, indoor parking, commercial space, apartments (later converted to condominiums), and even a preschool.
River City was originally conceived on a much larger scale. It was to consist of six of 72 story mixed-use skyscrapers capable of housing 20,000 people, the grand culmination of Goldberg's utopian vision of a "city within a city". Goldberg was unable to secure approval for this ambitious project from Chicago's Plan Commission, however. The project went through various re-designs over the next decade, ultimately resulting in the scaled-down S-shaped structure we see today.