Aqua Tower
Photo: Steve Hall © Hedrich Blessing
Location
Chicago, IL
Status
Completed 2010
Client
Magellan Development Group LLC
Type
Office, Residential
Size
1.9 million sf / 82 stories
Sustainability
LEED-NC Certified
Tags
At 82 stories, reaching a height of 876 feet, Aqua Tower is one of few tall buildings to create a community on its facade.
Combining a hotel, offices, rental apartments, condominiums, and parking, along with one of Chicago’s largest green roofs, Aqua facilitates strong connections between people and to the city.
The design for Aqua uses architecture to capture and reinterpret the human and outdoor connections that occur more naturally when living closer to the ground. Its distinctive form is achieved by varying the floor slabs across the height of the tower, based on criteria such as views, sunlight, and use.
Strategically sculpting the shape of each floor slab offers comfortable outdoor terraces, where neighbors can casually and comfortably interact when desired, as well as views to Chicago landmarks, navigating sight lines around the corners and through the gaps between existing buildings. The overall design is the cumulative result of responses to specific conditions of density, environment, and use.
Sightlines between neighboring terraces encourage social connections. Photo: Steve Hall © Hedrich Blessing.
Borrowing from the characteristics of terrestrial topography, the tower was imagined as a vertical landscape made up of hills, valleys, and pools. Photo: Butler V. Adams.
Independent parameters combine to create Aqua’s architecture.
Aqua’s green roof is one of the largest in Chicago. Its features include a water-efficient irrigation system. Photo: Eric Hausman.
Photo: Steve Hall © Hedrich Blessing
A large-scale spiral staircase seamlessly connects the tower and public park below. Photo: Steve Hall © Hedrich Blessing.
Consultant Team
Abbott Industries, Inc., plumbing consultant
Advance Mechanical Systems, Inc., mechanical engineer
dbHMS, LEED consultant
Gurtz Electric Co., electrical consultant
Horvath Reich Cdc, facade consultant
Hugh Lighting Design, lighting designer
IE Consultants, Inc., civil engineer
Khatib and Associates, Inc., energy consultant
Loewenberg Architects, architect of record
Magnusson Klemencic Associates, structural engineer
McHugh Construction, general contractor
Northstar Fire Protection/McDaniel Fire Systems, FP
Wolff Landscape Architecture, landscape architect
Awards
Great Places, AIA Illinois, 2018
International Highrise Award Finalist, Deutsches Architekturmuseum, 2010
Honor Award, Distinguished Building, AIA Chicago, 2010
Skyscraper of the Year, Emporis, 2009
Annual Design Review Honorable Mention, Architect Magazine, 2009
“Proggy” Award, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), 2009
American Architecture Award, Chicago Athenaeum, 2008
Related
Dwell — "The 9 Most Influential Buildings of the Decade"
Martha Thorne, executive director of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, includes Aqua Tower in her list of the most groundbreaking structures of the last decade.
