Architectural Gem

The last time I visited Chicago was the first time I got to see this award winning high-rise building called simply "Aqua".  I was very impressed with the look of this building.  So much so that I did some research on who designed it and I was amazed to find out that the architect was Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects.

It turns out that this building is the tallest high-rise building designed by a woman in the United States.  And what a design.  The building was designed with balconies of different shapes and sizes creating an undulating, almost liquid effect.  Because of that design, the base of each floor of the building is a different size and shape.

The building was completed in 2009 and that same year it won the Emporis Skyscraper Award.

The building contains a Radisson Blu Hotel, condominiums and apartments.  I checked and those apartments run anywhere between $1400.00 to $4000.00 a month.

I also checked the price of the condo units and all the ad said was all listings  over $1,000,000.

One interesting note is that each site I visited to gather information for this post listed a different number of floors in this high-rise.  One said 84, another said 87 and still another said 82.  I wonder which is correct.

When I was working a 2-year contract in Chicago back in the late 90's, I lived in this building.  I had a gorgeous one bedroom apartment facing south and east with views of Grant Park, Lake Michigan and the Chicago River.

The new Aqua building is now right behind where I used to live.  You can see it peeking out behind this building. If I still lived in that same apartment, my windows would now be looking right at it.