Aqua (Chicago)

This article is about the skyscraper in Chicago. For the skyscraper in Valencia, see Aqua Multiespacio.
Aqua
Aqua (Chicago) is located in Chicago metropolitan area
Aqua (Chicago)
Location within Chicago metropolitan area
Aqua (Chicago) is located in Illinois
Aqua (Chicago)
Aqua (Chicago) (Illinois)
Aqua (Chicago) is located in the United States
Aqua (Chicago)
Aqua (Chicago) (the United States)
General information
StatusCompleted
TypeHotel
Residential
Retail
Office
Architectural styleContemporary architecture
LocationChicago, Illinois, 225 N. Columbus Drive
Coordinates41°53′11″N 87°37′12″W / 41.8865°N 87.6201°W / 41.8865; -87.6201
Construction started2007
Completed2009
CostUS$300 million
OwnerAqua Realty Holdings LLC
Height
Height261.8 m (859 ft)
Technical details
Floor count82
5 below ground
Floor area1,990,635 sq ft (184,936.0 m2)
Lifts/elevators24
Design and construction
ArchitectsDesign: Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects; Architect of Record: James Loewenberg of Loewenberg & Assoc.
DeveloperMagellan Development Group
Structural engineerMagnusson Klemencic Associates
Main contractorJames McHugh Construction Co
Other information
Number of units747: Apartments
334: Hotel
Website
www.rentaqua.com
References
[1][2][3][4]

Aqua is an 82-story mixed-use skyscraper in Lakeshore East, downtown Chicago, Illinois.[5] Designed by a team led by Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects, with James Loewenberg of Loewenberg & Associates as the Architect of Record, it includes five levels of parking below ground. The building's eighty-story, 140,000 sq ft (13,000 m2) base is topped by a 82,550 sq ft (7,669 m2) terrace with gardens, gazebos, pools, hot tubs, a walking/running track and a fire pit. Each floor covers approximately 16,000 sq ft (1,500 m2).[6]

Aqua was awarded the Emporis Skyscraper Award as 2009 skyscraper of the year,[7] and was shortlisted in 2010 for the biennial International Highrise Award.[8] In celebration of the 2018 Illinois Bicentennial, Aqua was selected as one of the Illinois 200 Great Places[9] by the American Institute of Architects Illinois component (AIA Illinois) and was recognized by USA Today Travel magazine as one of AIA Illinois' selections for Illinois 25 Must See Places. It has been compared to 8 Spruce Street in New York City.[10]

When it was completed, the skyscraper was the world's tallest building designed by a woman. It was surpassed in 2020 by the nearby St. Regis, also located in Chicago and designed by Studio Gang Architects.

Architect

Aqua was designed by Studio Gang Architects, led by firm principal and founder, Jeanne Gang, and it was the firm's first skyscraper project.[11] The project was the largest ever awarded to an American firm headed by a woman.[12] Loewenberg & Associates are the architects of record, led by James Loewenberg.[13]

Design

The Aqua Tower is located at 225 North Columbus Drive, and is surrounded by high-rises. The location where the tower was built was a former rail yard that is adjacent to the Chicago River and Lake Michigan.[14] To capture views of nearby landmarks for Aqua's residents, Gang stretched its balconies outward by as much as 12 ft (3.7 m).[15] The result is a building composed of irregularly shaped concrete floor slabs which lend the facade an undulating, sculptural quality.[2][16] Gang cites the striated limestone outcroppings that are a common topographic feature of the Great Lakes region as inspiration for these slabs.[17] The tower is a late project for the repurposing of the site from industrial to commercial and residential use.[14]

The building contains 55,000 ft2 (5,100 m2) of retail and office space, in addition to 215 hotel rooms (floors 1-18), 476 rental residential units (floors 19-52), and 263 condominium units & penthouses (floors 53-81).[17] Aqua is the first downtown building to combine condos, apartments and a hotel. Strategic Hotels & Resorts had agreed to acquire the first 15 floors of hotel space upon completion of the building, but terminated its $84 million contract for the space in August 2008, citing significant changes in the economic environment.[18]

Carlson announced May 12, 2010, that it agreed to spend $125 million to open the first Radisson Blu hotel in the United States (Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel) on 18 vacant floors of the highrise.[19] The 334-room hotel opened on November 1, 2011.[20] The building was designed by the lead architect of Studio Gang Architects, Jeanne Gang.[21]

The name 'Aqua' was assigned to the building by Magellan Development Group LLC. It fits the nautical theme of the other buildings in the Lake Shore East development, and is derived from the wave-like forms of the balconies; the tower's proximity to nearby Lake Michigan also influenced the name.[2] Concrete Superintendent Paul Treacy, was nominated as one of Engineering News-Record's (ENR) top 25 news makers of 2008 for the design and implementation of the exterior formwork to mold the undulating façade of the Aqua.[22]

Sustainability

Sustainability was an important factor in Aqua's design. Gang and her team designed the balconies to shade the apartments from the sun in summer, to reduce the air-conditioning load. Windows that are more exposed to the sun have glass with a tinted, reflective coating to minimize solar heating in summer.[23][24] The tower is LEED-NC certified.[25][26] Only 16% of the waste from the tower's construction was disposed of in landfills; the remaining 84% went to recycling centers.[24] A garden on the roof, one of the largest rooftop green spaces in Chicago,[26] helps cool the building in summer; an efficient irrigation system provides water for its plants. The building has features to deter birds from colliding into its windows, including fritted glass on many of its windows. The apartments feature bamboo flooring, a recyclable material, and plumbing designed to conserve water.[23]

Despite its eco-friendly features, there has been controversy over Aqua's energy efficiency. Building engineer Joseph Lstiburek has criticized Aqua's design, calling it "a thermodynamic obscenity" and "an 82-story heat exchanger in the heart of Chicago".[27] He says the building wastes significant amounts of heat in winter and that its design fails to incorporate relatively simple insulating techniques that could have made it more thermally efficient. Aqua's greatest heat losses, he says, are through its balconies, which he says act as thermal bridges, comparing the balconies to the metal fins on a standard baseboard radiator. In particular, he cites infrared images of Aqua that show large regions of the building in colors indicating significant heat loss — oranges and magentas. An image detail shows that the warmest areas (i.e., where heat loss is greatest) are its balconies.[27]

Gang admits that Aqua's balconies are a source of heat loss in winter, but says the building's green features that help cool the building in summer more than compensate for those losses. She says methods to insulate the balconies from the inner floors were considered during the design process, but ultimately were deemed too difficult to implement.[23]

Curve balconies

Jeanne Gang was a rising architect when she and Studio Gang (her firm) took on the project. With the training Jeanne had received during school, Jeanne began with her design that would included balconies extending 2–12 feet (0.6–3.7 m) outwards. Jeanne was inspired for this design from the topography layered limestone outcropping along the Great Lakes. The balconies are 9 inches (230 mm) thick and get thinner as they extend outwards to help with drainage. James Loewenberg helped SGA by finding an efficient way of creating the concrete balconies. He found that having an edge-form steel plate would guide the pour and once it was done drying it could be snapped back into a straight plane and reused for different curves on the other balconies. This method did leave the balconies without thermal breaks which caused criticism as it would cause a loss of heat during winters due to radiator effect.[28] A function of the curve balconies is that they protect the building from harsh winds which happens to be one of the most difficult challenges in skyscraper engineering.[24]

  • The facade departs dramatically from the surrounding modernist high-rises
    The facade departs dramatically from the surrounding modernist high-rises
  • From the southeast
    From the southeast
  • From the east
    From the east
  • Aqua's southern facade
    Aqua's southern facade

See also

References

  1. ^ "Aqua". CVU Skyscraper Center.
  2. ^ a b c "Emporis building ID 190323". Emporis. Archived from the original on March 22, 2015.
  3. ^ "Aqua". SkyscraperPage.
  4. ^ Aqua at Structurae
  5. ^ Diesenhouse, Susan (February 28, 2007). "Work to begin on Aqua tower". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
  6. ^ "Aqua Tower Tour". Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. December 17, 2008. Archived from the original on December 19, 2014. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
  7. ^ Lutz, BJ (September 24, 2010). "Aqua Named 2009 Skyscraper of the Year". NBC Chicago News. Archived from the original on February 27, 2010. Retrieved February 10, 2013.
  8. ^ "The Met High-rise apartment building wins International Highrise Award 2010" (PDF) (Press release). German Architecture Museum. November 14, 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 19, 2014. Retrieved December 18, 2014. Commendation certificates were awarded to the 262-meter high-rise apartment building Aqua Tower (Chicago) by Studio Flores (Chicago)...
  9. ^ Waldinger, Mike (January 30, 2018). "The proud history of architecture in Illinois". Springfield Business Journal. Archived from the original on April 8, 2019. Retrieved January 30, 2018.
  10. ^ "25 Must See Buildings in Illinois". USA Today. August 9, 2017. Archived from the original on July 8, 2018. Retrieved January 30, 2018.
  11. ^ King, John (October 10, 2006). "Visionary architect fuses imagination, common sense". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved August 4, 2008.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  12. ^ Becker, Lynn (May 4, 2006). "The Third School". Chicago Reader. Archived from the original on October 27, 2014. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
  13. ^ Novak, Lawrence (2010). "Case Studies: Concrete Mixed Use Buildings: Aqua Tower, Chicago, Illinois". Portland Cement Association. Archived from the original on February 13, 2012. Retrieved February 10, 2013.
  14. ^ a b Harrington, Kevin (September 22, 2014). "Studio Gang". Grove Art Online. doi:10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T2271666. ISBN 9781884446054.
  15. ^ "Architecture Jobs Metro News". World Architecture News. February 10, 2008. Archived from the original on November 26, 2014. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
  16. ^ "Studio Gang Architects design Aqua Tower in Chicago". World Architecture News. February 5, 2008. Archived from the original on November 26, 2014. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
  17. ^ a b Sharoff, Robert (June 4, 2006). "How a Park Changed a Chicago Neighborhood". The New York Times. Retrieved April 25, 2010.
  18. ^ "Strategic Hotels & Resorts, Inc. Acquiring 15 floors of the Aqua Building in Chicago for $82.4 million; Space to be Completed as 200 Hotel Rooms and 20,000 square foot Ballroom". Hotel Online (Press release). Strategic Hotels & Resorts, Inc. September 28, 2006. Archived from the original on July 8, 2008. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
  19. ^ "Carlson announces the U.S. debut of Radisson Blu with Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel, Chicago on 11.1.11" (Press release). Carlson. September 22, 2011. Archived from the original on December 19, 2014. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
  20. ^ "Al Faisal Holding adds to hotel portfolio". www.artic.com.qa. Archived from the original on July 31, 2017. Retrieved February 1, 2017.
  21. ^ "Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel". www.alfaisalholding.com. Archived from the original on July 31, 2017. Retrieved February 1, 2017.
  22. ^ Van Hampton, Tudor (January 7, 2009). "Former Bartender Pours a Cutting-edge, Concrete Cocktail for Hip, New Skyscraper". Engineering News-Record. Archived from the original on September 11, 2015. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
  23. ^ a b c Stephens, Suzanne (January 2010). "Curves Over Chicago: Aqua, a new 82-story residential tower and hotel near Lake Michigan, adds a new dynamism to the city's skyline". GreenSource Magazine. Archived from the original on January 24, 2015. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
  24. ^ a b c Brown, J. Mariah (January 16, 2012). "The Aqua Tower". Buildipedia.com. Archived from the original on April 4, 2023. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
  25. ^ Giuroiu, Anton (March 16, 2025). "Aqua Tower / Studio Gang". ArchitectureLab.net.
  26. ^ a b "Aqua Tower". studiogang.com. Archived from the original on June 2, 2017. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
  27. ^ a b Lstiburek, Joseph W. (June 2, 2015). "Insight: Thermal Bridges Redux" (PDF). BuildingScience.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 19, 2025. Retrieved October 24, 2025.
  28. ^ "Aqua Tower, Chicago, USA". The Tall Buildings Reference Book. 2013. pp. 380–385. doi:10.4324/9780203106464-48. ISBN 9780203106464. Archived from the original on April 4, 2023. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radisson_Blu_Aqua_Hotel_(Chicago)