Aqua, Contemporary skyscraper in Lakeshore East, Chicago, US.
Aqua is an 82-story tower in Lakeshore East, downtown Chicago, completed in 2009. The wavy concrete balcony slabs extend outward at different depths on each floor, giving the structure a flowing, rippled surface.
Aqua was built on a former Illinois Central Railroad rail yard beside the Chicago River and Lake Michigan, part of the site's conversion from industrial to residential use. It was completed in 2009, the first skyscraper by Jeanne Gang's Studio Gang Architects, with James Loewenberg of Loewenberg & Associates as architect of record. In 2009 it won the Emporis Skyscraper Award, and in 2018 AIA Illinois named it one of 200 Great Places in Illinois.
The design comes from Jeanne Gang, who became the first woman in the US to shape a building of this height. The project changed how people saw female architects in a field long led by men and remains a reference for modern building today.
Apartments, hotel rooms, and offices fill the interior, with lower floors used mainly for public and commercial purposes. Visitors can view the building from outside at different angles, especially well from Millennium Park and the shore of Lake Michigan.
The balconies were calculated using computers to direct views toward known Chicago landmarks while reducing wind load. Each floor therefore has its own geometry that varies depending on height and orientation.
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