Comments on: Aqua Tower: Chicago http://plexdesign.wordpress.com/2009/06/17/aqua-tower-chicago/ Plex Design is a design practice based in Chicago, Illinos specializing in architecture, products, and graphics. Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:11:51 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: kevsperry http://plexdesign.wordpress.com/2009/06/17/aqua-tower-chicago/#comment-10 kevsperry Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:11:51 +0000 http://plexdesign.wordpress.com/?p=96#comment-10 Calling anyone who disagreed with me jealous, ill-informed or naïve was clearly ludicrous on my part. But I could not disagree more with your assertion that the Aqua Tower is a post-modern expression of ornament. While the Starlight Theatre is yet another beautiful, innovative expression of Jeanne Gang’s imagination, it is situated on a college campus in Rockford, Illinois. Not even close to the public, difficult site the Aqua Tower resides on, just South of the Chicago River. It’s quite a bit easier to achieve an imaginative product when the audience is a small, well-educated, private group of clients. Regarding the Aqua Tower, I can’t quite figure out what’s so wrong with taking the well known and inexpensive typology of glass storefront system on cast-in-place concrete, and subtly modifying it to create an affect, which is new, contemporary, and perceptually deep. By slightly extending the concrete slab past the glass envelope in a curvaceous and parametric manner, Studio Gang has achieved exactly the opposite of a stagnant, useless post-modern expression of ornament. They have allowed the function of the building to give it its character. With each new floor plate and variation on the balcony sequence, new relationships of unit types and adjacencies are achieved, creating a migration of user types, purchase prices, and social networks. This is perhaps the most contemporary example of high-rise residential architecture in, at the very least, the city of Chicago – where the building’s program has a definitive influence on the building’s appearance, which creates a feedback loop and redefines the functions inside. I had the distinct pleasure to work with Ali Rahim and Contemporary Architecture Practice (C.A.P.) in developing his “Migrating Coastlines” tower project in Dubai. While the Dubai residential tower is certainly more ambitious on some levels, the two towers act similarly in that they use a generative external, formal stimulus to agitate the unit types within. This is a thoroughly parametric concept, and one that has implications from top to bottom of the structure. Post-Modern ornament, described even by Venturi as non-functional elements used to communicate a “meaning” to the public, has no direct affect on the use or interior space of a building. I cannot begin to see where you draw connection between these two concepts, and fully disagree with your assertion that Studio Gang's Aqua Tower is neither ground-breaking nor innovative. Calling anyone who disagreed with me jealous, ill-informed or naïve was clearly ludicrous on my part. But I could not disagree more with your assertion that the Aqua Tower is a post-modern expression of ornament.
While the Starlight Theatre is yet another beautiful, innovative expression of Jeanne Gang’s imagination, it is situated on a college campus in Rockford, Illinois. Not even close to the public, difficult site the Aqua Tower resides on, just South of the Chicago River. It’s quite a bit easier to achieve an imaginative product when the audience is a small, well-educated, private group of clients.
Regarding the Aqua Tower, I can’t quite figure out what’s so wrong with taking the well known and inexpensive typology of glass storefront system on cast-in-place concrete, and subtly modifying it to create an affect, which is new, contemporary, and perceptually deep. By slightly extending the concrete slab past the glass envelope in a curvaceous and parametric manner, Studio Gang has achieved exactly the opposite of a stagnant, useless post-modern expression of ornament. They have allowed the function of the building to give it its character. With each new floor plate and variation on the balcony sequence, new relationships of unit types and adjacencies are achieved, creating a migration of user types, purchase prices, and social networks. This is perhaps the most contemporary example of high-rise residential architecture in, at the very least, the city of Chicago – where the building’s program has a definitive influence on the building’s appearance, which creates a feedback loop and redefines the functions inside.
I had the distinct pleasure to work with Ali Rahim and Contemporary Architecture Practice (C.A.P.) in developing his “Migrating Coastlines” tower project in Dubai. While the Dubai residential tower is certainly more ambitious on some levels, the two towers act similarly in that they use a generative external, formal stimulus to agitate the unit types within. This is a thoroughly parametric concept, and one that has implications from top to bottom of the structure. Post-Modern ornament, described even by Venturi as non-functional elements used to communicate a “meaning” to the public, has no direct affect on the use or interior space of a building. I cannot begin to see where you draw connection between these two concepts, and fully disagree with your assertion that Studio Gang’s Aqua Tower is neither ground-breaking nor innovative.

]]> By: Z. Dovol http://plexdesign.wordpress.com/2009/06/17/aqua-tower-chicago/#comment-9 Z. Dovol Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:58:10 +0000 http://plexdesign.wordpress.com/?p=96#comment-9 I am neither jealous, ill-informed, nor naive, however I completely disagree with your assertion that Studio Gang deserves "immense credit" for designing a building that capitalizes on the public's love of spectacle. You list several possible criticisms that are all based on a lay-persons observation of the tower such as "too wavy" or "not beautiful enough". What your post ignores, however, it that aside from the protruding slabs of the undulating terraces, this is just another concrete tower with a cheap storefront glazing system sitting on a giant parking deck (with some ground level retail). Not what I would call ground-breaking or innovative. Studio Gang's Starlight Theater with it's operable lotus-blossom roof and innovative structural system is a masterpiece: groundbreaking and beautiful. Aqua on the other-hand, is an almost post-modern expression of ornament. I am neither jealous, ill-informed, nor naive, however I completely disagree with your assertion that Studio Gang deserves “immense credit” for designing a building that capitalizes on the public’s love of spectacle.

You list several possible criticisms that are all based on a lay-persons observation of the tower such as “too wavy” or “not beautiful enough”. What your post ignores, however, it that aside from the protruding slabs of the undulating terraces, this is just another concrete tower with a cheap storefront glazing system sitting on a giant parking deck (with some ground level retail). Not what I would call ground-breaking or innovative.

Studio Gang’s Starlight Theater with it’s operable lotus-blossom roof and innovative structural system is a masterpiece: groundbreaking and beautiful. Aqua on the other-hand, is an almost post-modern expression of ornament.

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