Aqua Tower

Aqua Tower rises in Chicago's Lakeshore East development, completed in 2009 to a design by the architect Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects, combining a hotel, apartments, condominiums and retail space within a single 82-story mixed-use tower. Its most recognizable feature is a facade of irregularly undulating concrete balconies, each floor plate extended outward by a different amount so the building's outline ripples and shifts continuously from base to top, a form Gang designed in part to maximize views of Lake Michigan and nearby parks from as many units as possible while also reducing wind loads on the tall, slender structure. At the time of its completion, Aqua Tower was widely cited as the tallest building in the world designed by a female-led architecture firm, a distinction that drew significant attention within the profession. The building has received numerous design awards and is frequently cited as a defining example of a tall building whose structural and environmental logic is made directly visible in its exterior form.