Aqua

There is a city that critics, art historians and average citizens alike will agree is at the top of the list regarding architecture in the United States. We are of course talking about the great city on the lake, Chicago Illinois. The city has brought forth works by such architectural greats as Rem Koolhaas, designer of the McCormack Tribune Center, the design firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst & White who’s works include the Field Museum and the Wrigley building, and of course the architectural mastermind Frank Lloyd Wright.

However if one were to journey to this fine city in recent times he or she’d be sure to notice a very out of place looking building rising up from the skyline. It’s called Aqua, and for good reason, its unique design makes it seem as if it simply rose from the waters of Michigan itself. Great white fins protrude from the buildings exterior and ripple throughout creating the illusion of waves on water. Standing at 859 feet this monolith looms over Millennium Park and gives one of the best views over Chicago’s south loop, the river and Lake Michigan. Also regarding height, a lot of attention has been given to the fact that this is the tallest building ever designed by a female.

Aqua was built and thought of with the environment in mind. For instance, the crazy curved balconies that give the building its unique look also aid in shielding the building from intense sunlight lowering cooling costs, an 80,000 square foot planted garden on its roof helps to reduce the heat island effect that plagues urban areas ever so often, they’ve even added aluminum columns that aid in keeping birds from flying into it. The developer has gone so far as to offer the city’s first electric vehicle charging station that is open to the public in its garage. On the inside the its unique looks and revolutionary design execution truly makes this building stand out amongst the many more geometric and straight-laced buildings that surround it.

The execution of these great ideas were challenging at times due to the buildings unique form. To create the wavelike effect on the sides of the building each floor plan had to be different. Even though computer modeling was used for the project its style still made things difficult. However its almost needless to say that something like this is going have hitches or hangups.

Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects, a company in which she is also the founder, designed the building taking an early design of the 1.9 million square foot building from architect James Loewenberg and giving it life. She started her own firm in 1997 and has previously designed things such as an outdoor theatre in Rockford Illinois, a handful of houses in the Chicago area and the media production center for Columbia College Chicago. It’s not hard to see Gang’s contemporary style illustrated throughout the entirety of these previous works and future works alike.

This building is a breath of fresh air for Chicago, in more than one way in fact.
Of course there is on one hand the incredible amount of eco-friendly features that makes this building a great role model for how architecture should be in the future. On the other hand there is the look of Aqua that, at times, wants to mimic its surroundings with its great rippling waves yet tends to stick out from the other buildings that stand alongside it. When people in the past thought of how the future would and the way cities would progress, Aqua would fit in well amongst those visions.