Chicago Architecture
According to the chicago architecture tour by the Chicago Architecture Foundation, philosophers have defined architecture as a building that is pleasing to the eye as well as permanent in structure. However, modern society has put other pressures onto architecture such as disability accessibility, drastic weather patterns such as hurricanes, and the specific issue that I would like to discuss today, environmental awareness.
More and more drastically, society is pushing for it's cities to be more environmentally aware. A recent development in this was many United States cities signing onto the Paris Agreement, a global United Nations agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, even as the President Donald Trump took the whole of the US out of that deal. According to the City of Chicago Press Office, Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel was one of those many majors that have signed onto that very agreement. In fact, the city of Chicago commits to environmental sustainability that require all new buildings built within the city of Chicago to be LEEDs certified, meaning that they meet minimum requirements of sustainability.
While some architects would see this as something that would hinder their work, adding further restrictions on their already code restricted art, Jeanne Gang saw true artistic potential in fusing environmental awareness and appreciation with architure. The award winning Aqua building was lauded by the Chicago Architecture Center as both “inspired by and friendly to its natural environment”.
The main part of the building is built the same as any other skyscraper in the city of chicago, a 819 foot rectangular glass box. The true beauty of the building however comes from the varying white concrete balconies are each uniquely shaped in the form of a wave. This unique effect makes the entire surface of the building look as if it is moving like a wave, lower valleys pooling together and peaks coming together to create tidal waves. The building is aptly named aqua for the feeling of moving water, especially fitting considering that it's glass windows reflect the moving water of the Chicago river. The Chicago Architecture Society view the whole effect as “sculptural” in nature, meaning that the very building itself looks more like the many Chicago sculptures rather than just a building. According to the Guardian, the building also brings nature back to Chicago by boasting one of the cities most extensive roof garden.
Where the building truly becomes spectacularly aware of the environment is not just in its reflection of the natural world in it's design but in the way that the building itself protects the environment. Reportedly, the buildings unique balcony design breaks up the patterns of wind vortices and wind shear, as well as help reduce the death of birds from building collision. According to the Guardian, this positive effect for birds is no happy accident either but was the explicit intentions of Jeanne Gang and her team. The Guardian reports that the architect has a love for birds so she purposefully designed the building for bird to see easier. Mrs. Gang also purposefully used local materials for the building to add to it's environmentally friendly attitude.
Her work is a part of a larger city wide strive to help improve safe bird migrations. According to Suzanne Malek, the deputy commissioner of natural resources at the Chicago Department of the Environment, in 2001 hundreds of thousands of birds died every year from striking buildings. Outside of Jeanne Gang’s Aqua building there was also a citywide effort to dim skyscraper lights at night as to help the birds not confuse the lights with the stars that they use to navigate.
Aqua stands in Chicago as a shine beacon of hope for all environmentalist for it's recognition that environmental awareness does not have to be a burden on modern city planning but an opportunity for a more beautiful and environmentally friendly future.
https://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/16/us/city-lights-a-siren-s-song-for-birds-are-dimmed.html
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