Area Soldier Killed In Fort Hood Rampage
Stroger Makes Hollywood Play
Put Down Your Nanowrimo And Leave The House
Sox Shuffle Continues
If you like the Aon Tower but wish it weren’t so boxy looking, get ready for Randolph Street’s next fabulous new building: Aqua Tower. Haven’t you heard? Buildings that look like buildings are so last century! Chicago’s latest architectural craze is to build drill bits, hotels that disappear into themselves, and now, shimmering optical illusions. Aqua, as designed by Loewenberg and Studio/Gang Architects, adds to the typical glass box a series of wavy, rippling balconies that evoke Lake Michigan’s restless tides.
If Aqua’s design makes you nauseous, take comfort in knowing it’ll have plenty of aesthetically pleasing amenities that you’ll probably never get to enjoy including pools, hot tubs, a running track, a wine room, private party suite, and a skygarden (which less imaginative real estate agents call a winter garden or a greenhouse). Owners plan to mark the higher floors for condos and the bottom half for a hotel.
The proposed 83-story structure is touted as sculpture as much as architecture, which means it will invite praise and criticism from professionals, discussion groups and message boards in both the art and architectural communities.
Image via Chicago Architecture.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
The idea here is : moving architecture into the 21st century. Things don't look like the used to because there's no reason for replication. Technology has changed and we should be learning from the past to do things better than before. Art AND architecture learn and grow. Someone painting like Monet today has talent, but is that really furthering his/her thinking? Or the viewers?
The building here is not only sculptural but the floor plates / balconies act as sun screens to reduce heat gain and are all placed very specifically according to analysis and study.
But the real statement here:
Finally, Chicago is moving on from the Miesian box, albeit just a little.
We really don't need more Trump Towers.
I think we're entering into a very exciting time for Chicago architecture, made possible in part by the success of Millenium Park. And not a moment too soon either, after that developer threw up all those hideous tan, nondescript highrises in River North and Streeterville over the last decade...
Add some missile batteries on the top to aid in the destruction of some of the recent River North monstrosities.
The only sad thing is that the windowed surfaces of this and the other new, interesting buildings are going to reflect all the hideous Eastern-Bloc highrises ...
Otherwise, it's already been really nice to see the skyline pop from seemingly out of nowhere on my long-ass commute home; great that it's going to become even nicer.