Aqua tower

I've been participating in Thematic Photographic, a photo challenge, and this week our challenge was to show our photos of "Water in any form."

Well, this isn't my photo. It's from Architeria.com, which I encourage you to visit. This is a rendering of a design for a building in downtown Chicago, called Aqua tower, by architect Jeanne Gang of the firm of Studio Gang. There are more images at the site that show how the concrete terraces on the outside of the building are contoured to undulate and shift and transform a typical glass box into an amazing shape through a relatively simple idea.

Another benefit of the rippled surface created by the balconies is that they break the force of the strong Chicago winds, dampening the stress on the building, and making it possible for people to enjoy balconies even on higher floors where, in conventional buildings, the wind is too fierce to withstand.

Go read more about it in this article at The New Yorker.

What do you think? Cool, crazy, wonderful or ugly?