The Aqua

Life is without water does not exist. Life without art is meaningless. With the addition of the Aqua tower to the cityscape, Chicago architecture can continue to thrive with purpose.

Located at 200 N. Columbus drive, the 86 story mixed use building is a functional sculpture. The facade of the building is composed of curved , stark white balconies that extend from the surface of the building as much as 12 feet in some places. Each floors balcony design does not copy the one above or beneath it, but rather compliments it. The balconies rise and fall across all floors. The resulting effect is massive standing waves.

This ripple-and-swell design break up the lakefront winds which allows for the balconies to exist on every floor. Traditional designs of copy- and-paste rectangular balconies can not extend past the 60th floor because the wind is just too strong. Taking on this challenge, architect Jeanna Gang of Studio Gang Architects pushed the limits design and technology when creating this masterstroke. The balconies also provide some shady comfort from the hot summer sun.

Gang embraced her first skyscraper project with the desire to do something new in a town with a lot of potential that was sitting in a rut. Traditionally buildings are designed with a strong entrance, a lackluster body, and an ornate top. Look at the Rockefeller and the Empire State. They are monoliths with decorated, vertical bookends. The Aqua Tower takes this blueprint and inverts it. The body of this gorgeous building is everything. The top has no golden greek goddess or phallic spire. The bottom is some unimpressive slab, but the body is unique and complex and makes one wonder how the lady got concrete to do that. The ingenious efforts did not go unnoticed as the Aqua won the Emporis Skyscraper Award in 2009 and Gang received the prestigious John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship Grant in 2011.

By distributing artistic efforts and aesthetic design across the entire structure, instead of concentrating it on the top and bottom, Gang was able to create a building that is different and that makes it captivating.

Indeed, the Aqua is a building that you will stare at, but be sure to change your vantage on the structure. Walk around it. Go under it. Sneak a sliver of it from Millennium Park. The pronunciation of the waves change based on time of day and perspective, so you’ll get a new building every time you look.

Aqua is a structure that fits into the surrounding pieces of Chicago architecture perfectly. It is situated just across the street from the northern edge of Millennium Park. With the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Cloud Gate, Boeing Galleries, Nichols Brideway, and Crown Fountain all within walking distance, this section of the loop is a massive outdoor museum. The Aqua fits right in as a perfect extension of the breathtaking park.

With the innovation it has brought to modern architecture, the Aqua tower is definitely a welcomed Chicago landmark that everyone should see in their lifetime.

The Hunger Games

It’s a full proof formula. Input a popular teen novel. Add tons of cash. Output a film trilogy (or, in Harry Potter’s case, a seven-logy) that makes the studio millions. Usually the movies are pretty painful, but the most recent input, Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games is a fan’s dream.

The story is set in Panem, a country formally the United States. Panem is divided into 12 desperately impoverished Districts, each with a specialized industry. The Districts serve the Capital, a place where excessiveness is a way of life. The costumes and makeup in the film highlight the extreme disparity between the Haves and the Have-nots in this fictional land.

The Capital hosts an annual tournament where two children between the ages of 12 and 17 are chosen from each District. These 24 young tributes are placed into an elaborate arena to fight until only one remains. The televised tournament is known as The Hunger Games.

Sent to the 74th Hunger Games is Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawerance) from District Twelve. She’s tough, beautiful, and Panem will never be the same after her debut.

Lawerance played a similar character in Debra Granik’s Winter Bone. Fierce, strong, and independent is a niche that fits the young actress. She is phenomenal in this role. The pressure to cast and portray the perfect Katniss was severe as a whole generation of young, impressionable girls were undoubtable going to idolize the character. Other notable performances are Woody Harrelson as Everdeen’s drunk mentor Haymitch Abernathy , Lenny Kravitz as Cenna her kind and supportive stylist, and Amandla Stendberg as sweet Rue, another tribute.

The books are dense with detail and written in first person, so adapting it to a faithful film made many fans skeptical. However, the result was a thoughtful and true production. It will be difficult to understand some things though, if you have not read the books. The shaky cinematography plays a key role in establishing the mood of frenzied desperation in the Districts and in the heroine. The special effects are also on point in the Capital.

The battle scenes in the film were also well-crafted. Dealing with a plot that requires children to participate in a homicidal bloodbath AND trying to keep a PG-13 rating required director Gary Ross to give the audience all of the pieces without putting it together. Visual gore is kept to minimum, but the essence is there, and it is heavy. Dystopian science fiction is never an upper, though.

The Hunger Games is a wonderful adaptation of a book that is all about girl power. Readers want to see and enjoy the onscreen version of their favorite books. Hopefully, studios get the hint and add thoughtfulness to their formula.