June 2014 | Eyesore

Commentary on architectural blunders in monthly serial.

Behold the Aqua Tower by architect Jeanne Gang, Chicago. Of course, the skyscraper is an obsolete building form because the ones we’ve already got will never be renovated in the coming era of resource and capital scarcity. But that doesn’t stop the developers and architects from creating new ones — especially at this climax moment of the turbo-industrial economy. Remember: societies create their biggest monuments just before they roll over and swoon. Now, the reason the developers and architects do this is because they can’t resist the temptation to maximize the floor-to-area ratio of the building lot. That is, to stack as many salable or rentable units over one plot of land. Everybody makes more money in the short term. In the long term, society is left holding the bag in the sense that the building ceases to be an asset and becomes a liability for the city. In the case of this monstrosity, that will happen when the need for major renovations arrives. All buildings are faced with this. As a living organism, the city needs buildings that lend themselves to adaptive re-use, which these skyscrapers do not. The PR bullshit for this building crows about LEED certification and having one of Chicago’s “largest green roofs.” In fact, there is nothing sustainable about this building. It’s just a way of leveraging the future for short-term gain.

The big sell here are the undulating terraces around the skin of the building. The architect claims that this “creates a community on its facade.” Community is another phony buzzword, of course. Check out the ridiculous rendering below for how that works.

Thanks to Adrian Pols for sending it in.