A review of the exterior of the new residential tower Aqua, at 225 N. Columbus Drive in Chicago

This building designed by: Loewenberg Architects and Studio/Gang/Architects
located near both Lake Michigan and the Chicago River reminds me not of a wave in the Lake Michigan, but spread harmony on which the Chicago’s wind can play the melody of the Middle West. The name Aqua gives us some idea that the building must be close to those waters, just like other buildings around it such as The Tide, The Shoreham, and The Regatta.
The building more looks like a sculpture than a place where people live. It is tall. It has 82 floors and that means that it has a beautiful view. Its maximum height is 870 feet / 265 meters. The location of this building makes it very expensive. Not very many people can afford to live there because of today’s economy, even though this is 21st century architecture which we can see from vast distances. It is a brand new building, built between 2006-2010. The color of the building is white, and the balcony is shaped to the waves. The balcony will get mostly sun coming through the apartments, and the apartment might be cool in the winter and shady in the summer. Not every apartment will have the same size balcony, which should be painted blue.
The building has 225 hotel rooms, 264 condominiums, 474 apartments, and 718 other residences. It is 1,900,00 square feet in floor space. None of this would matter without Gang’s singular design, whose three chief components are hotel space(for now, without an occupant) on floors 4 through 18, apartments on floors 19 through 52 and condominiums from floors 53 to 81. There are also shops, parking and townhouses facing an adjoining park. (Chicago Tribune). If you have a doctor imagination this building could remind you of layers of tissues in the human body, one after another, which accumulate fat and water. The building is made of glass and steel, which makes it light in the air. It can make a good impression in sunny days, when the blue color sky looks magnificent. During the winter the shape of the building can remind us of icicles which in the beams of the sun could remind us of a clean look of angel chests. The shape of the building for the human eye in the open space, with the background of air is hard to see by us but will be seen well by birds passing by. That is very important because contemporary skyscrapers cause a lot of bird deaths. Even the shape of the building is rectangular, if you look at a distance; the balcony around the building makes the impression that building is oval-like. The oval shape of the architecture can remind us of a finger, pointed towards the heavens. This makes a good impression on the average bread eater.
The Aqua is the tallest building designed by a woman-owned architectural firm and the first skyscraper from Chicago’s Jeanne Gang, of Studio Gang Architects, who is just 45years old (Chicago Tribune). Because of the woman architecture, we can believe the building will be friendly for family and kids and living there will makes their lives more comfortable than all the other buildings around it.