Architectural Record — "Innovative Housing Portfolio"
Aesthetica Studio
“The studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom apartments will be rented to those making between 30 and 80 percent of the median income for the Chicago area, now about $90,000 for a family of four. The tower will rest on a podium, called NeighborHub, featuring a food hall for minority-owned restaurants, office and meeting spaces for nonprofit groups, a health clinic, and a grocer. Such measures as modularizing the facade and building it in a factory will keep costs down, Gang says. . . . Using glazing on just 25 percent of its envelope, the tower offers proper daylight without excessive heat loss or gain and keeps operational energy use low. Reducing embodied energy is also in the mix, literally: concrete will be made with industrial byproducts in place of much of the cement.”
