Jeanne Gang brings feminine touch to Chicago's muscled skyline

[Omaha Steve]

http://sistersinthebrotherhood.blogspot.com/2010/01/female-led-architecture-firm-brings.html

Aqua, the undulating, 82-story structure, brings a fresh approach to skyscraper design.


Aqua, a new 82-story hotel and residential tower in Chicago by architect Jeanne Gang, is the tallest building ever designed by a female-led architecture firm. (Steve Hall / Hedrich Blessing)

By CHRISTOPHER HAWTHORNE Architecture Critic

January 17, 2010

Reporting from Chicago - Before we turn to an assessment of Aqua, a new residential skyscraper in Chicago, permit me a quick (and relevant!) detour to a sidewalk news conference in Lower Manhattan, held recently at the foot of the under-construction Beekman Tower.

We join the event, held to celebrate the completion of its 76-floor steel frame, just as developer Bruce Ratner is ceding the podium to Frank Gehry, the Beekman's 80-year-old architect. Gehry pauses for effect. He looks out at the assembled crowd. He jabs a finger up at the tower. He says two words:

"No Viagra!"

At the risk of sounding foolish for trying to parse the triumphantly brief statements of the world's great architects: Really? I mean, couldn't you argue that during the recent boom years the easy credit that Ratner and his fellow developers came to rely on was to the skyline what the little blue pill is to, um, blood flow? That pouring 903 Gehry-designed apartments into an already saturated real-estate market is the sort of development folly or feat of architectural daring -- depending on your point of view -- possible only with the financing equivalent of a pharmacological boost?

Of course, that's not what Gehry, who understandably cares far more about architectural than economic symbolism, was getting at. What he meant was something more direct, and old-fashioned, about sex, swagger and verticality, particularly since the Beekman is roughly twice as tall as any of his previously realized designs and because there were moments after the credit markets seized up when it looked as though it might have to be cut down to a much more modest size.

Which brings us back to Chicago, where the $308-million, 82-story Aqua is another of the high-design towers that just managed to slip through the tightening noose of the faltering market. Located just north of Millennium Park and finished in the last weeks of 2009, it was designed by Jeanne Gang, Studio Gang's 45-year-old founder. That makes it the tallest building in the world by a female-led architecture firm.

In other words: No testosterone!

FULL story at link.