^^
http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/6344/aqua44td.jpg


http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/9796/photo0001zx7md8.jpg
While they don't look exactly alike, I think it is fairly obvious how the two have a similar facade...

Aqua turned out way better considering both renderings. Beekman looked nicer on paper

Aqua turned out way better considering both renderings. Beekman looked nicer on paper

What the fuck? Have you seen the Beekman? Its cladding looks 10x better than the renderings.

Skipless in Chicago (Sept 4)
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/SrfArZB92eI/AAAAAAABa7o/16iKHWehx4Q/s800/P1520827.JPG

As seen on TV
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/SrfAsJAs5mI/AAAAAAABa7w/b5KVZotDvo0/s800/P1530692.JPG

Deep Tunnel dude's fountain
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/SrfAsmxMjTI/AAAAAAABa74/Hn8gmAcwZzg/s640/P1540529.JPG

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/SrfAtC5WVsI/AAAAAAABa8A/djMleX8Yw6k/s720/P1540532.JPG

@ Charlotte:
those pics spyguy posted were taken from one of the rooms in the Swissotel...
remember that because I have made almost the samen pics when i stayed there 1,5 week ago :D

My pics of chicago and the several u/c threads and so are coming in the next 2 week or so (have too much pics to choose from ;) :D)

Thank you Patrick for the provided information. I love the last picture taken from the fountain. There was this documentary once I saw in which Chicago was mentioned as an open museum of architecture, ( sure it is, but that can also be said about NYC or Madrid/Rome many other places off course), so, I understand there are too many pictures to be shared with us. I miss Chicago for sure and thank you to all of you for sharing the pictures with those like us. (will it be appropriate if I use them on my desktop?)

Taken tonight:
http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/6374/aquaetal.jpg

It's the most beautiful and modern building in the world :) cheers

I don't really like the building from a sideways angle. Only looks really awesome when seen from below.

The whole point of this building is to look really awesome from below.

WOW! what a beautiful picture. You can easily feel like being there on that right spot where this shot is taken. beautiful.

I still think this looks like a casino. Especially the base. Not a bad thing at all, just different.

I spent a few days in chicago over the weekend. This building looks tall immeaditely. Other supertalls leave that "something else to be desired" feeling. But this building looks tall instantly. Maybe it is the narrow profile and lack of spire?

wow

http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/1265/dsc0488312.jpg

http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/8133/dsc0488612.jpg

^^The 1st one is just perfect!!! Really nice shot! *__*

Nice stuff Neils

Top
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/SuRO2RhsWGI/AAAAAAABcDY/g_Q4Dv8j-SQ/s800/P1560698_699_700.jpg

Clouds
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/SuRO4MS05jI/AAAAAAABcDg/IzG1BtsFNgM/s800/P1560720_1_2.jpg

Fog
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/SuRO5HbeEBI/AAAAAAABcDo/gXeXUwzigOA/s800/P1590007.JPG

Sun
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/SuRO6A6GAQI/AAAAAAABcDw/7IyG3WTNAcw/s800/P1580631.JPG

Thanks Harry,

Finally got to see all those buildings myself :)

wow, what a beautifull effect of waves and clear silent water.

I love that effect. Shall we assume that this builing can mean a shift in designing more significant buildings than using odd shapes only?

Anyways, I am not an expert but as said again, I find Aque already a statement with regard to the art of Architecture and an iconic structure.

wow, what a beautifull effect of waves and clear silent water.

I love that effect. Shall we assume that this builing can mean a shift in designing more significant buildings than using odd shapes only?

Anyways, I am not an expert but as said again, I find Aque already a statement with regard to the art of Architecture and an iconic structure.

I sure hope so....this tower is a nice break from the curtain wall of old....maybe we'll have a new art deco movement going!

I LOVE this building! How much is a condo there???

Up to at least 2.5 million I think. It's also mixed used? I saw a fitness room on the second floor and it's already in use. I think there might be a hotel and several congress rooms in there 2.

I sure hope so....this tower is a nice break from the curtain wall of old....maybe we'll have a new art deco movement going!

Oh me too, I hope you ll be oh so true and been proven right regarding a nouvelle art-deco movement/age. There was recently this beautiful documentary on BBC about the art of Art Deco and the start of the movement and the documentary make believed that the current economic downturn or recession and the depression that will follow if it holds for a few years, might lead to new movements in arts and perhaps the revival of a new new classism or even perhaps the beautiful Art Deco with its splendid curves, clear motives and jagged patterns, bright beautiful colors and the urge to feel good, to feel chic and be happy again!

A nice break from the curtain wall of old AND BLUE/GREEN-ish glass, tanslucent towers we see these days all over the world.

This one truly is a jewel.. waves seldom disappoint! Although from this perspective (http://lh5.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/SuRO4MS05jI/AAAAAAABcDg/IzG1BtsFNgM/s800/P1560720_1_2.jpg) the building looks more like a traditional filler.

This building is completely different to the typical Chicago skyscraper.I get the feeling by looking at it that it will change for almost like a wave.I understand why they named it the Aqua tower.

Despite the unfortunate flat top, this tower is refreshing for a city with so much trashy historicist garbage going up. Sort of renews my faith in Chicago as the birthplace of the modern skyscraper.

the unique design really makes this tower stand out among the rest in that area.

:applause::applause:
Beautiful building, it really is a beauty of modern architecture, is something unusual, really wonderful.
Chicago is known for its good constructions.

The winding city has it all.The cleaning of the building is going to take good part of the resources.

The winding city :lol:

Awesome!

very nice design as well as the cladding!

Nice...i find this building rather unique!:nuts:

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/SwRfGhwa-MI/AAAAAAABc4c/vCSUXmK89bA/s800/P1610432.JPG

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/SwRfI5tBUTI/AAAAAAABc4k/otQao9cjzvY/s800/P1610434.JPG

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/SwRfGhwa-MI/AAAAAAABc4c/vCSUXmK89bA/s800/P1610432.JPG

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/SwRfI5tBUTI/AAAAAAABc4k/otQao9cjzvY/s800/P1610434.JPG

hey buddy,when complete?

It looks nice, but I expected more.

Prefer to see it in the night ;)

In render Aqua looks better, then real building. But i think its one of the most beautiful project in Chikago.

I love this tower!!! It's quite something and the effect was so successful, IMO.

I have looked back through this thread all the way to August, however, and out of all the pictures of the tower, there are none of the base.

Can someone post some pics. of the base? I saw it only in a rendering and I am very curious to see real life pictures of it.

I love this tower!!! It's quite something and the effect was so successful, IMO.

I have looked back through this thread all the way to August, however, and out of all the pictures of the tower, there are none of the base.

Can someone post some pics. of the base? I saw it only in a rendering and I am very curious to see real life pictures of it.


http://lh5.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/SO1h2-I4SVI/AAAAAAAA0aY/YfXnO7fEzpE/s800/2008_10_08p.JPG
Oct 8 2008

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/SVGP-bWnlDI/AAAAAAABA0g/2wi_v3ssNa8/s800/P1180659.JPG
Dec 17 2008

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/SVGQCu72-uI/AAAAAAABA04/KxURbbIE36o/s800/P1180665.JPG
Dec 17 2008

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/Sam8_M-n96I/AAAAAAABHRI/AfVL-4FcEro/s800/2009_02_22A.JPG
Feb 22 2009

Thanks so much!

The base looks like it's inspired by sea life-- like a stingray or something. I like the fact that it makes a statement- it's quite interesting. It does look rather oppressive to the pedestrian though.

I think brine.

11/22

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2565/4127637017_11396e94ef_b.jpg

You made a very beautiful contrast in that picture. an artistic view!

Amazing tower.........

Thanks. Another from 11/23:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2657/4130518458_2ed0833d00_b.jpg

Wrabbit... > I am speechless...

THIS IS REALLY ARCHITECTURE... this is ART!

wowwww beutifulllllll pics nices building. congratulation chicago. the last pics is wonderfulll.

Thank you. It is a very interesting tower.

Looking towards BCBS:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2533/4132795220_1f9890f2b0_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2514/4132030773_b6920e19f4_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2757/4132074783_512b424463_b.jpg

Update from EB on SSP

Update released by Magellan 11/24/09:

Aqua has received a certificate of occupancy through floor 67 at this time. In addition, dry wall is being completed on the Penthouse floors 80 & 81. Closing are on-schedule with 30-day closing notices distributed through floor 68.

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/2382/4169579684a046404d09b.jpg
Jimmay Gina/ flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmaygina/4169579684/)

I love this tower! :cheers:

So awesome that seems unreal :drool:

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/Sx_Q6wznLvI/AAAAAAABdf4/-Ez1z5hUdz8/s800/P1620594.JPG

^^ Nice shot of Bruce Wayne's apartment from the "Dark Knight" movie. :)

spyguy....that's a damn good shot!!!

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/Sam8_M-n96I/AAAAAAABHRI/AfVL-4FcEro/s800/2009_02_22A.JPG
Feb 22 2009

Ah ha! So there are entrances below street level just like Trump Tower! That must be why the CTBUH readusted the height to 262 meters.

Random that is the upper deck of Columbus (looking E)

This is from the other side (looking SW)
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/SO1h2-I4SVI/AAAAAAAA0aY/YfXnO7fEzpE/s800/2008_10_08p.JPG
Nov 8 2008

The band you see on the Right (above the construction) is the same one that is pictured in the upper Columbus shot.

The roads are 3 levels here. Upper columbus is the top level in this photo - the grassy area in the photo above is at the same level as the reiverwalk seen here.
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/SFcQ1iuTlnI/AAAAAAAApQw/QIZk0BBinZU/s720/P1390545.JPG

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/Sz088jNHEKI/AAAAAAABeTs/ge0OFRsGAHY/s800/P1630975.JPG

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/Sz089gFaBFI/AAAAAAABeT0/F3VmMLz48gU/s800/P1640003_4_5.jpg

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/Sz08_p73kDI/AAAAAAABeUE/DGTjJ7R873M/s800/2009_12_30A.JPG
full size (http://picasaweb.google.com/harry.r.carmichael/Aqua#5421556590710329394)

WAVE EFFECT; The Sky Line
1 February 2010
New Yorker

Aqua--a new, eighty-two-story apartment tower in the center of Chicago--is made of the same tough, brawny materials as most skyscrapers: metal, concrete, and lots of glass. But the architect, Jeanne Gang, a forty-five-year-old Chicagoan, has figured out a way to give it soft, silky lines, like draped fabric. She started with a fairly conventional rectangular glass slab, then transformed it by wrapping it on all four sides with wafer-thin, curving concrete balconies, describing a different shape on each floor. Gang turned the facade into an undulating landscape of bending, flowing concrete, as if the wind were blowing ripples across the surface of the building. You know this tower is huge and solid, but it feels malleable, its exterior pulsing with a gentle rhythm.

The building would be an achievement for any architect, but Gang, who has run her own firm since 1997, had never designed a skyscraper before and happened into this one almost by accident. A couple of years ago, she was seated at a dinner next to Jim Lowenberg, a developer who had built a number of mediocre condominium towers in a huge development over the old Illinois Central rail yards, known as Lakeshore East. A prime site in the project remained, Lowenberg told her, and he envisioned doing something more ambitious there. He liked Gang and offered her a shot.

A lot of attention--in Chicago, at least--has been given to the fact that Aqua is the tallest building in the world designed by a woman. That's nice for Gang, but beside the point, and dwelling on it leads too easily to predictable interpretations of skyscrapers as symbols of male identity. Gang's achievement has more to do with freeing us from such silliness. Her building is most compelling as an example of architecture that is practical and affordable enough to please real-estate developers and stirring enough to please critics. Not many buildings like that get made at any height, or by architects of either gender.

Furthermore, the success of Aqua isn't just that Gang figured out a smart, low-budget way of turning an ordinary glass condo tower into something that looks exciting. The design is anchored in common sense in two ways that aren't immediately apparent, making the building, from a technical point of view, even more remarkable than it looks. The balcony overhangs of the facade serve an environmental purpose, shading apartments from the hot summer sun. More ingenious still, they protect the building from the force of wind, one of the most difficult challenges in skyscraper engineering. The landscape of rolling hills and valleys created by the balconies effectively confuses the heavy Chicago winds, giving them no clear path. The wind is broken up so much that the building didn't require a device known as a "tuned mass damper"--a mass weighing hundreds of tons that engineers place at the top of tall buildings to stabilize them against the vibrations and sway caused by the force of wind. And using the curves to dissipate the wind gave Gang a bonus: she was able to put balconies on every floor, all the way up. Usually, condominiums sixty or seventy floors above the street don't have balconies, because it's just too windy up there to go outside.

When you catch your first glimpse of Aqua's swirling facade poking out from between its boxy neighbors, you might think it's a gigantic version of one of those "blob" buildings of the past few years, curvy forms designed largely by computer. But Gang isn't Greg Lynn or Hani Rashid. She brings aesthetics and engineering together in a way that is more aligned with the tradition of Chicago's canonical modern architecture than the building's appearance suggests. Chicago is where architects like Louis Sullivan, John Wellborn Root, Mies van der Rohe, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill elevated pragmatic solutions to structural problems to the level of art. And that is precisely what Gang has done, albeit with a different aesthetic. For all its visual power, Aqua is mostly free of conceit. In an age in which so much architectural form--even, sometimes, the best architectural form--has no real rationale beyond the fact that it is what the architect felt like doing, there is something admirable about the tower's lack of arbitrariness. It reclaims the notion that thrilling and beautiful form can still emerge out of the realm of the practical.

In this sense, Gang could not be more different from Zaha Hadid, who is the most famous female architect around. Hadid is a brilliant shaper of form, but her buildings are nothing if not arbitrary, and the combination of her fame and her flamboyant designs has insidiously led people to assume that female architects tend to favor shape-making over problem-solving. In fact, there are plenty of women who have built successful architectural practices by selling themselves not as divas but as purveyors of reason who also happen to be able to make beautiful things. In New York, Deborah Berke, a fifty-five-year-old architect and professor at Yale, directs a firm that has designed hotels, art galleries, academic buildings, houses, and the high-profile 48 Bond Street condominium. (Berke's Web site describes her work as "simple, not simplistic; elegant, not extravagant; luxurious, not lavish.") In San Francisco, Cathy Simon founded a firm, SMWM--until a recent merger, it was among the largest women-owned firms in the country--that numbers the restored San Francisco Ferry Building and the San Francisco Public Library among its projects. Marianne McKenna (the "M" in the big Toronto firm KPMB) just finished an acclaimed concert hall at the Royal Conservatory of Music, in Toronto, and has been in charge of a new downtown university campus in Montreal. Denise Scott Brown, of the Philadelphia firm Venturi, Scott Brown & Associates, has been a dominant force in the field of planning and urban design for more than a generation.

Female architects like these share a high interest in modern design combined with a low interest in ideology. They approach design less as an opportunity to demonstrate a set of ideas than as a way of answering a series of questions about the nature of a place, a client, or a function. "I like to do research about a place, about materials, and about a program," Gang told me. "The longer I can delay coming up with a form, the better. Developers don't always like that, but it's the part I like the most." In the case of Aqua, she experimented with several ideas before she settled on making a facade out of what she calls the "built contours" of undulating concrete balconies. Gang worked for Rem Koolhaas in Rotterdam for two years after she got her architecture degree, at Harvard, but she considered becoming an engineer before she decided to be an architect, and she thinks primarily in terms of what is buildable. Still, she is passionate about what her buildings look like--"I have a preference for light structure, for things that look light, almost fragile," she told me--and as capable of obsessing over a single detail as Norman Foster. But she seems determined to approach her projects without preconceived notions of what they should look like. "I don't think I could have sketched Aqua on Day One," she said.

When I went to Chicago to see Aqua, Gang took me through the building, but she seemed more interested in making sure I got to see two new projects that were barely larger than the biggest Aqua apartments: a community center and a video-and-film production center for Columbia College, both on the South Side. The community center has a facade made up of several layers of different types of concrete, added unevenly one atop the other, so that the exterior looks like a gargantuan sand painting, an abstract composition in gray and beige--another instance of a powerful aesthetic statement achieved with conventional materials used in an unconventional way. At Columbia, an arts college housed in a series of old buildings, Gang's center, the first entirely new structure that the college has built, is an exuberant building of concrete and glass whose interior is laid out so as to emphasize framed views from one area to another: Gang approached the project thinking in terms of how a director might frame shots through a camera. She also tinted some of the glass in the facade to resemble the blocks of color in a television test pattern.

That's the sort of idea that could be a gimmick, but Gang is good enough to pull it off. She designs by trying to identify with the client, and coming up with something that she wouldn't do for anyone else. For an environmental center, also on the South Side, she decided to construct most of the building out of recycled material, and ended up using not only recycled steel for the exterior cladding but recycled bluejeans as an insulating material. For a housing complex in Hyderabad, she is trying to find a way to reinterpret the traditional Indian courtyard house in high-rise form.

Gang has no interest in establishing a look that marks her buildings as hers. Her instincts are modern, but style alone doesn't shape her work; materials, technology, and an ongoing attempt to see from the perspective of the people who will use the buildings mean much more to her. "You know, a lot of architects get into fetishized objects," she said to me. "But when you can design anything you want without actually having to make it, you do wild things that can't work. And that's not what I want to do."

Jeanne Gang and architecture's anti-divas.

does anyone know where I can find the renderings of the townhomes goin up in this park

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/theampersand/archive/2010/01/26/fashion-guest-blogger-lara-presber-s-spring-collection-inspired-by-wavy-be-finned-aqua-tower.aspx

Retail Therapy Guest Blogger: Lara Presber's spring collection inspired by wavy, be-finned Aqua Tower
Posted: January 26, 2010, 1:00 PM by Karen Hawthorne

The inspiration for my spring 2010 collection started with a trip to Chicago a couple of years ago. I was staying at the Fairmont and had a room with an amazing view of the lake and also this incredible skyscraper that was under construction. I had no idea at the time what it was, but couldn’t get the image of the horizontal concrete waves cantilevered out from a glass tower out of my head.

It wasn’t until almost a year later that I discovered the identity of this mystery building — the Aqua Tower, by Chicago-based Studio Gang Architects. It wasn’t just the physical expression of the tower that intrigued me, but also that it was the first high-rise tower in North America to be built by a woman-led firm (according to numerous articles, but not confirmed by the architect). It was at this point that I was overwhelmingly convinced that this needed to be the basis for my next collection.
http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/5540/2486415.jpghttp://img688.imageshack.us/img688/3929/e11g.jpg

So interesting.... the marriage between Fashion and Architecture ( I mean really good architecture unlike most other stupid stuff we see these days)

The Aqua tower is already an Icon and perhaps the newest sight-seeing spot of Chicago.

A friend of mine is travelling to Chicago soon and I told her to not only visit John Hancock and Sears plus the great Chicago museums (really unique btw, I love each and all of them) but also to visit or at least ask a local to show her the Aqua tower!

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/2382/4169579684a046404d09b.jpg
Jimmay Gina/ flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmaygina/4169579684/)

I do not often comment on, but at this point, I must say: WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of the most beautiful tower I´ve ever seen! :drool:

Truly amazing tower :)

Is it possible for the New York Times to write any article about anything in Chicago without mentioning the "heavy Chicago winds"?

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/S4Hw8vjRHgI/AAAAAAABgB4/w7a6G1uNLm4/s800/P1660896_4_5.jpg

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune....kyscraper.html

More praise for Aqua: Global building database selects it as 2009's top skyscraper

Chicago architect Jeanne Gang's Aqua skyscraper continues to reap high praise.

Emporis, the global building database, on Tuesday will name the residential and hotel tower, located in the 200 block of North Columbus Drive and best known for its spectacularly undulating balconies, its 2009 skyscraper of the year.

"Members of the jury praised Aqua for its fascinating shape, whose appearance changes dramatically depending on the perspective. It was also cited as a brilliant technical achievement for the precision of its construction, and lauded as an application of green design innovations to an extremely large building project," Emporis said in a news release.

The honor, known as the Emporis Skyscraper Award, has been given since 2000 and recognizes excellence in aesthetic and functional design.

It has previously gone to such high-rises as Lord Norman Foster's Hearst Tower in New York City and Santiago Calatrava's Turning Torso Tower in Malmo, Sweden.

This marks the first time that the prize, which is given annually to a building at least 100 meters tall that was completed within the award year, has gone to a Chicago skyscraper.

Chicago's Trump International Hotel & Tower, designed by Chicago architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and former SOM partner Adrian Smith, finished fifth in the jury's voting, with 36 points compared to Aqua's 86.

The second prize winner was the O-14 high-rise in Dubai, whose perforated exterior provides a unique shield against the desert sun. (The building was not occupied when I attempted to see it in Dubai last month.)

Emporis editors from 67 countries make nominations for the prize and select the winners. Here are the jury's top results:


Top 10 Skyscrapers of 2009

(rank / building / city / country / points)
1. Aqua, Chicago U.S.A.. 86
2. O-14 Dubai U.A.E., 61
3. The Met, Bangkok Thailand, 43
4. Torres de Hércules, Los Barrios Spain, 38
5. Trump International Hotel & Tower, Chicago U.S.A., 36
6. The Red Apple, Rotterdam Netherlands, 34
7. Bank of America Tower, New York City U.S.A.. 32
8. Almas Tower, Dubai U.A.E., 16
9. Millennium Tower, San Francisco U.S.A., 13
10. William Beaver House, New York City U.S.A., 10

Love this tower! And Chicago:cheers:

I would like to congragulate Aqua the skyscraper for winning the 2009 Emporis Skyscraper Award. Sorry I had previously speculated for a different skyscraper (300 North LaSalle) to win the award. I give its design four stars.

Here comes my final Video for the awesome Aqua:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZMAEfedUbU

Music: David Guetta ft. Kid Cudi - Memories

Enjoy:)

I think it's less than 83 floors.

I think it's less than 83 floors.

You're right, CTBUH has it listed as 87 floors. They probably are counting some of the lower lobby/retail floors (which is why they readjusted it's height some months ago).

http://buildingdb.ctbuh.org/?do=building&building_id=886

Baaed on the success of the Aqua skyscraper, to the south, a similar-looking skyscraper should be built.

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/2382/4169579684a046404d09b.jpg
Jimmay Gina/ flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmaygina/4169579684/)

this building is the most spectacular one in the world:banana::banana:

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/S66Utk3Su9I/AAAAAAABgh4/N1liMoVDgcE/s912/P1670960.JPG

Can't make it to the railing yet (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrjuaanblC8)

cool video!..thanks for posting that!

Man, I just experienced vertigo just from watching the video.
It must be a really problem if you are there.
The effect is made worse by the buildings that are really close.

Eeek, I couldn't spend any time on that balcony at all! Nice view though.

what floor was the video taken from? seems strange to have a balcony so high, considering the high winds up there.

That must be a scariest place when the wind blows at high speeds :nuts:

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/S66Utk3Su9I/AAAAAAABgh4/N1liMoVDgcE/s912/P1670960.JPG

is that the carbon and carbide building on the right in the foreground there? I ddint think it was that tall but maybe its position makes it seem so. i love that building.

is that the carbon and carbide building on the right in the foreground there? I ddint think it was that tall but maybe its position makes it seem so. i love that building.

Yes that is Carbon and Carbide - on of the nicer buildings in a city of nice buildings. It appears to be as tall because of the perspective ( it is 2blocks closer ) Photo taken from N end of Clark st bridge.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/S4Hw8vjRHgI/AAAAAAABgB4/w7a6G1uNLm4/s800/P1660896_4_5.jpg

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/Sam9DrMYYCI/AAAAAAABHR4/wsze9aza0os/s800/P1270298_6_7.jpg
Feb 2009

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/Sam9F2n1WMI/AAAAAAABHSE/G1aZDo7IrSs/s720/P1270307_5_6.jpg
Feb 2009

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002RJQT84?tag=anarchojose08-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=B002RJQT84&adid=1FQSFGYYWFNTN7EPCPMA&I think it's less than 83 floors.

yep, it sure is

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/3044/pn7m0ddi.jpg
excitations/ flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/excitations/4518704631/)

A hotel sets sail for Aqua

Blair Kamin | May 11, 2010 | Cityscapes Blog

Jim Loewenberg, the tower's developer and architect of record, told me this morning that a hotel has signed a deal to occupy Aqua's hotel floors. An announcement will be made by the end of this week or early next week, he said...

...Loewenberg declined to disclose further details. Crain's Chicago Business reported last May that Kimpton Group Holding, a San Francisco boutique hotel firm, was in negotiations to buy space in the 82-story tower, filling a hole that opened when another hotel operator backed out...

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/theskyline/2010/05/a-hotel-sets-sail-for-aqua.html

The new hotel at Aqua--it's not aqua; it's 'Blu'

Blair Kamin | May 13, 2010 | Cityscapes

...Carlson Hotels, one of the world's leading hotel companies, today announced that it has signed a landmark agreement to develop the first Radisson Blu hotel in the United States. This USD 125 million development in Chicago is scheduled to open in the fall of 2011. It marks the company's most important investment so far as part of Carlson Hotels' Ambition 2015 growth strategy...

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/theskyline/2010/05/the-new-hotel-at-aquaits-not-aqua-its-blu.html

Sorry but the building looks ten times more visionary in the renders. The final thing is just average looking imo.

Sorry but the building looks ten times more visionary in the renders. The final thing is just average looking imo.

ten times? Average? Did you see the pictue posted above? Have you ever seen a building that even remotely resembles this building? From a distance, you may be right, but standing below it, it is anything but "average". to each their own though.


http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/2382/4169579684a046404d09b.jpg

ten times? Average? Did you see the pictue posted above? Have you ever seen a building that even remotely resembles this building? From a distance, you may be right, but standing below it, it is anything but "average". to each their own though.


http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/2382/4169579684a046404d09b.jpg

When I looked at it closely and in different angles I found it's actually just a bunch of layers shaped differently. I think this building is simple, but the message is very clear and strong.. and that's why Aqua is so awesome.

I really wish Aqua looked good from every other angle, though.

There's a nice zoomable Chicago panorama here: http://www.gigapan.org/gigapans/24058/, and I took and merged some snapshots... it doesn't matter much that it's one year old. Aqua looks quite interesting from a distance, too, if you zoom in a bit: :)

Aqua from Millenium Park
24/May/2009 by Christopher Davis

http://i47.tinypic.com/6qvfwy.jpg

Now imagine the contrast forming a coporate logo.
Hey it might happen.

^^ One could read "4Y" - like a logo for a company named "For you". But I guess the tower should appear a bit lighter towards the top, so randomly the "balcony layers" are made smaller, showing more of the glass facade.

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_8TC_VUmf9Fw/TDPDJoXswxI/AAAAAAABiRM/JMGA8XtQrbo/s912/P1750670.JPG

I made a scale model of Aqua, posted in the Creative corner under scale models as well, in Tim's Paper model thread.

http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/1420/aquaphoto.png
By null (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/null) at 2010-07-17

http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/2220/aquacompleted.png
By null (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/null) at 2010-07-17

Taken by me:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4001/4694291783_6c68ed517c_o.jpg

:okay: