Jeanne Gang’s Aqua Tower is completed
Photo: Michael Tercha/Chicago Tribune

May 25, 2010

Viewed from the street, the undulating white floor plates protruding here and there from the plane of the building’s glass façade create an effect so unexpected that you have to blink and look twice. The curvaceous patterns have been likened to pools or puddles, and the trick helped put Studio Gang on the map. As Gang told journalist Mark Bazer in 2017, the Near East Side location was less than auspicious: “We were thinking, ‘Wow, this site is really hidden, and no one’s ever going to see this building.’ ” That would never be a problem for Aqua Tower.