Wall Street Journal — “Jeanne Gang”

October 25, 2012

“The work of 48-year-old Jeanne Gang may at last herald the end of the starchitect era. The founder of Chicago’s Studio Gang Architects puts more faith in her raw materials—and the purposes they can be put to—than in the pursuit of iconic shapes or the mind- bending possibilities of computer-aided design. That’s not to say her buildings aren’t expressive in form. The rippling concrete balconies of her 82-story skyscraper, Aqua Tower, flow in gentle undulations. But they’re also functional: Their shape disrupts gales off Lake Michigan, allowing residents to sun themselves eight hundred feet in the air.

Gang designs slowly, buying time to consult her team of ecologists, hydrologists, artists and engineers. She also delves deeply into the limits of her materials, first exploring their physical capabilities in her Wicker Park studio, then allowing their attributes to dictate her projects’ form. Gang is the rare architect who loves nature and tall buildings, classical techniques and new technology. She sees herself not as an artist, but as a dot connector, a problem solver.”

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• Wall Street Journal — “Jeanne Gang”