CHICAGO | Aqua | 858 FT / 262 M | 87 FLOORS

[wrab]

Originally Posted by honte

.....I can't stand the tacky planters. Can't wait to see how they post-rationalize those - "Oh, it's about framing views of the oncoming traffic!".....

Branding, maybe. But Gang is on record as saying that she dislikes "Aqua" as a monicker for the tower - waves of water weren't an inspiration for the balcony forms - so I'm confused as to why the wave motif is appearing on the planters.

[intrepidDesign]

yeah the planters are awful. I love this building, i don't even mind the base, but it seems like they knew the base didn't compliment the rest of the tower, so they made these gimmicky planters to try to gloss this fact over. They should have just kept it simple and made tasteful rectangular planters, maybe with some lighting or nice railing. These look like they belong in florida.

[dropdeaded209]

ok so the planters are gimmiky. are they truly awful? i mean, they're going to mostly be covered by flowers or some sort of planting for a large part of the year, and honestly i find them more innocuous than anything else. just my opinion...

[avngingandbright]

Some trees would be nice here, in addition to or in replacement of the planters.

Question, though, as I've never set foot in Chicago: what is the street life like in this area? Is this base going to bring more foot traffic to the area, or deaden it, or is it this sort of a high end area which rarely sees traffic other than the odd cab and rich folk that never walk, like the Trump World Tower on the East Side of Manhattan?

[Nowhereman1280]

^^^ Its a very strange area. There are three hotels within a block of it, then everything except one building to the West of it is Office. The whole area is built with a multi-level road system with three layers. This diverts almost all of the car traffic off of the top level and into the second level with garage entrances. Unlike most of Chicago, there are no Alleys here because the third (Bottom) level acts as the service level where all of the dumpsters and such are. Therefore there is almost no vehicular traffic other than buses or cabs on the top level.

Aqua lies right where the three level system ends and drops off to a ground level park. Therefore the base of the building has to deal with a 3 story drop from the west side to the east side. This is why the development includes two huge staircases.

As far as pedestrian traffic goes, there is currently no retail at all in the area, the CVS in the bottom of Aqua will be the only store for blocks in each direction. That should greatly increase traffic on this level. Right now this street only gets foot traffic during the day from the offices, at night it is almost completely empty since the only place people would be walking to and from is the hotels. Aqua should increase the 24 hour liveliness of the area. To the East there are thousands of units of residential which until the construction of the two Aqua stairs have been almost completely cut off from the rest of the city by the 3 story gradient change due to the streets. The stairs should allow the residents of these buildings to more easily get to Michigan Ave. and the rest of the city by foot. I expect that once Aqua opens everything up (CVS, Stairs, apartments) foot traffic in the area will greatly increase especially outside of business hours.

[wrab]

Originally Posted by avngingandbright

Some trees would be nice here, in addition to or in replacement of the planters.

Question, though, as I've never set foot in Chicago: what is the street life like in this area? Is this base going to bring more foot traffic to the area, or deaden it, or is it this sort of a high end area which rarely sees traffic other than the odd cab and rich folk that never walk, like the Trump World Tower on the East Side of Manhattan?

This is a quiet part of town with an unusual & very Chicago multi-level structure, with the Loop to the immediate West and Grant Park/Millennium Park to the immediate South. Office complexes, hotels, lots of new condos. Almost no retail & zero nightlife. Not a no-man's land by any stretch, but the decked structure raises it above and tucks it away from the rest of the downtown grid.

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Edit: I see that Nowhereman1280 beat me to it!

[avngingandbright]

Thank you both. Excellent imagery.

[denizen467]

^^ I think you guys might have painted an overly desolate picture here. Other retail is not that many blocks away; there is a market at Stetson / South Water, 1 block away, and the existing CVS and Giordano's etc. are basically 2 blocks away (and these are all short blocks). Then there are the many retail concourses 1 level down from the highest street level, which admittedly are invisible from the street, but do contribute a little to street life during the day - including plenty of taxis (an important practical aspect of streetlife). Finally, between the bars at the Fairmont and the Hyatt, and 5+ hotel or residential towers of 40-50 stories within a one-block radius, the nighttime isn't really as dead as it was years ago. Also in the summertime, people are walking back from Millennium Park music and dance performances.
However, absolutely true that CVS and the staircases, and 80 stories of living space, will be huge game-changers, finally tying everything into one urban fabric. Already, the new connection of the Tides with Upper Wacker is adding pedestrian life to the Upper Wacker / Columbus area.

[Mojava]

Not to get too far off topic but I know that the New East Side was/is trying to make Stetson a more pedestrian friendly street. They are trying to make Stetson a major access point to Millennium Park from the river. I know that the Mandarin was suppose to be a major component to the new street scape plan so not sure where that stands now.

[FlashingLights]

Ya, sorry those wave planters are just tacky. I would have prefered a more classy upscale base then some cheesy gimmicks.

I still consider the building more cheese then artistic style, but the tower part came out much better in the end then I expected especially after seeing it lit at night.

[Nowhereman1280]

I don't get why everyone thinks the planters are cheesy... I mean what makes them any cheesier than the balconies? The planters seem pretty plain to me and could end up looking pretty good when filled with plants perhaps spilling over the sides in the troughs of the waves...

[Jibba]

^They look pretty awful in person: ham-fisted, clunky slabs that look like a half-brained attempt at being "contextual" but end up being Aqua kitsch. I really do not care for them at all. There is nothing subtle or elegant about them at all and they're really, really corny IMO.

[ChiPsy]

I haven't seen them in person yet, but if they look as bad as photographed, they'll also burlesque the elegance of the concept they emulate -- sort of like putting cartoonishly twisted lighting standards around the base of the Spire, or catenary-curved sidewalk gates on the grounds of the Gateway Arch.

(Or iron-lattice pedestrian-direction signs around the Eiffel tower, or mini-Picasso newspaper boxes in Daley Plaza: A great work of literature doesn't keep repeating its denouement, a comic doesn't keep repeating his punch line, a forum contributor doesn't keep repeating his ... oh wait )

[ethereal_reality]

^^^ lol funny

[jackie60]

I don't understand the metal railings on the balconies. It would have been much better looking if they would have spent the money and upgraded to glass.
For me it is so distracting and spoils the elevation.

[Dr. Taco]

Originally Posted by jackie60

I don't understand the metal railings on the balconies. It would have been much better looking if they would have spent the money and upgraded to glass.
For me it is so distracting and spoils the elevation.

trust me, the railings are much less noticeable as they are than if they were constructed using glass. and aqua is basically sold out, so obviously the residents don't care that the railings aren't glass. win-win

[honte]

Originally Posted by Nowhereman1280

I don't get why everyone thinks the planters are cheesy... I mean what makes them any cheesier than the balconies? The planters seem pretty plain to me and could end up looking pretty good when filled with plants perhaps spilling over the sides in the troughs of the waves...

Well, to add to the great points others made, there is a major issue here because the real vocabulary of the balconies is not carried through to the planters. The geometry is totally contrary to Aqua.

Add to that the pure randomness of the planters, which pokes fun at the supposed rigor that went into the placement of the balconies. The planters are true kitsch - misinterpreting the result of an action as a design move and not understanding the real purpose. Even if one believes, as I do, that the curves of the tower are primarily a visual effect, the planters miss an opportunity to relate to the effect, instead trying to copy the resulting form, and therefore don't manage to relate visually in a meaningful way either.

Then you have an issue of scale. The thickness of the planter edges is entirely off, the lack of detail is off-putting. They look chunky and cheap. And don't get me started on the goofiness of having these things just run into the ground.

Last, the base of the tower won some points with me recently for two reasons. 1) The massive cantilevered form seems to act like a giant, Manwich, inhabited slab edge. I think that's kind of cool and could be seen as a strange, mannerist way of relating back to the high-ceilinged entries of the past, or the traditional proportion of a first floor being more massive than the floors above. 2) The slab edges relaxing into a square form at the bottom verges on working with the mostly rectilinear base. So, it kind of works for me, especially at night when you can't really notice the designer EIFS that was used.

Then one reintroduces the flowing geometry, and it seems to negate anything happening at the base, instead saying, "we really wish we could do funky flowing stuff here, but all the developer would let us do was gnaw on this bench bone for a few hours."

[the urban politician]

Yup, this is definitely my favorite tower of the the "boom".

[CHAPINM1]

Earlybuyer I will admit, dispite my criticisms about the building's dementions, I'd definetly like to live there if I'd live in Chicago! It's exciting seeing this project finish.

[Nowhereman1280]

^^^ I'm glad the dimensions of Aqua are no longer preventing you from wanting to live in Chicago.