Shoey suggested an album of the month, and I have taken that to heart …. substituting ‘month’ with ‘year.’ Oh, and ‘album’ with ‘building’. Close enough.
This is the 82-storey Aqua in Chicago, the 2009 international Skyscraper of the Year. The signature feature is the undulating balconies, but they have greater purpose than eye candy, man.
Hands up everyone who remembers Chicago = the Windy City. Those winds whip across the sea-like Lake Michigan, so the ‘waves’ of balconies are not only visually informed by the Great Lakes and their limestone shorelines, they also diffuse the massive wind gusts, reducing heating costs. Chicago is smack dab on North America’s major bird migration route, so flocks of birds tend to crash into the city’s skyscrapers. This one’s irregular lines and reflections are meant to prevent that.
The balconies shade the occupants, earning more green points. The whole building uses green building materials, it has public charging stations for electric cars, and a terrace that doubles as a green roof.
Significantly for unshackling future architects, a new concrete forming apparatus had to be invented to allow each balcony to be individually shaped without delaying construction or adding huge costs.
Building of the year? One for all time, seems like, and in music terms, a crossover hit. How many other buiildings has the ‘Spill reviewed?
It’s a gorgeous building. Who is the architect? Someday i’ll get to Chicago. Only time i was there was on a half hour layover on a train from SF to Boston. I bet you can still smoke in bars there too.
It was Jeanne ‘no relation to James’ Gang
by the by, there has been a lot of press about this. My faves are when a paper dispatches a girl reporter to do an article on this up and coming female talent and her new building and they call up a bunch of men architects and ask what they think.
Tincanman, I loved your review but two things were a bit off line. First, there is no “e” in 82-story building. Second, Chicago got the Windy City moniker not because of Mother Nature’s wind but from the blowhard politicians occupying city hall. As I recall Chicago was actually ranked the 16th windiest city in the U.S.
cheers for that Larry (whoever you are)! Still, never let the facts get in the way of a good storey, huh?
EDITED:
Ah ”(whoever you are)” = PR guy with the developer. Man, you are quick!
Looking for Larry, I found much better pictures of the building. It really is lovely.
And in the I learned something new dept., it’s storey in British but story in American. UK blog vs US building; which rules?
UK blog.
It looks like someone, Ms Gang? has been dreaming of Gaudi.
Love the idea of individual balconies more for the effect than the option. If we don’t have it, architecture should be one of our categories.
Yes, i thought Gaudi the moment I saw the photo.
Tinnie – Love this post. I read about this last fall & I remember thinking this must be an archetectural doh! moment. If I remember by breaking up the wind it also reduced sway loading on the building. Don’t mind Larry keeping tabs on his project as that is what he’s probably being paid to do but spinning Chicago’s meterological status seems beyond the call. Bit creepy he took time to correct our little endevour tho’. If he starts critiqueing the Deep Dark Woods I might need to have a go at ‘em.
I just told Mrs Tin that my breaking wind reduces my sway load and she said ”oh ok, go ahead whenever you need then.”
(bet Larry wishes he hadn’t found us now, huh?)
On a serious note, I’ll be impressed when they can harness that wind for power.
Nice curves. I guess I’m a bit sceptical about the gust reducing bit, but the balconies certainly break what would otherwise be a monotonous outer skin, and I can believe the bird-deflecting part. Though I can’t really imagine actually using said balconies as an inhabitant, beyond the odd bracing peek out over the lake.
This isn’t exactly a “green” building, I don’t think. Unless I’m very much mistaken (Larry will put us right here); like any other tower it has air conditioning, mechanical ventilation, artificial lighting switched on during the day, a considerable net waste production per year, and would cease to function if the city’s electricity grid broke down and the diesel tanks of the emergency power generator were empty.
That’s not to deny that it is a handsome and elegant building.
Incidentally, as regards harnessing the wind power, you’d be a lot better off doing that in the middle of lake Michigan than you would in downtown Chicago.
Agree fully about harnessing the wind Nilpferd. However, if you are going to have tall buildings anyway, why can’t they harness what energy they can? Mid-lake structures would be more efficient, but they also have to be built.
I’m surprised we don’t focus more on harnessing smaller bits of power from ubiquitous things we already have and aren’t about to give up – factories, shock absorbers on cars, elevators, etc. Grand utopian projects that let us keep wasting and aren’t overly efficient anyway don’t impress me much.
Mind I’m not an engineer or anything. It’s just a gut feeling.
back in a bit – need to trim the wind sail on my car.
I was just thinking about that yesterday….most actions produce some kind of energy, you just need to capture it.
The ticket gates in Tokyo station are powered by the energy created of people walking through the gates….surely that can’t be too difficult to do elsewhere..
Nice post by the way!
Wasn’t it Lou Rawls who said something like, “They call it the Windy City, because of the ‘Hawk’, mighty Hawk. That’s the wind, takes care of plenty business around wintertime”. But then he knew fuck all about PR.
Thanks tin, nice post. But I just need to go and open a window….
Green building? Looks grey to me.
It’s certainly an interesting building, I just wish they’d thought about wind when they built Bridgewater Place in Leeds:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgewater_Place
To quote from Wikipedia “The building’s shape appears to be accelerating winds in its immediate vicinity to the extent that pedestrians have experienced severe difficulties walking past. These winds have led to some of the entrances to the building being closed for safety reasons.”
As one of the lucky people who walks past it quite often, it never ceases to amaze me that they didn’t consider this before they built the thing. On one occasion the road was sealed off by Police and pedestrians were redirected down the river to the next crossing point. There are also concrete barriers around the pedestrian crossing because people were actually being blown into oncoming traffic.
My brother-in-law works at Bridgewater Place, I’ll have to ask him if he’d troubled by the wind. It really is a very ugly building, though one gets accustomed.
Interesting building, Tin.
Two other structures that use shape to deflect downdraft are in the City of London.
One is the Gherkin where the curved outer shell means there is very little wind at street level. It also uses a series of shutters inside to regulate airflow in the building and keeps air-conditioning and heating costs to a minimum. If any of you ever have the chance to go to the top of this one on a sunny day, the view is incredible and I speak as someone who worked in an office on the 79th floor of the Empire State Building (1982, it still had sash windows and you could lean out. I’m chicken – I’d only do that if I were on my hands and knees on the floor.)
The other one I know of is the giant (deliberately) rusting sculpture, called Fulcrum, at the entrance to Broadgate at Liverpool Street Station.
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1238069
Fantastic structure Tin, and thanks for bringing it to our attention. I am deeply dubious of buildings that claim to be green espeically ones that assist flocks of birds from migrating. Forgive my cynical laughter. But architecture has 21st century concerns evidently, and any new build that didn’t include such crumbs for the green movement wouldn’t get built.
In fifty years time those concerns will be a little more acute, and the buildings will reflect that.
With giant mirrors.
Walking in the precsene of giants here. Cool thinking all around!