Aqua

The Aqua Tower, one of the most beautiful skyscrapers in Chicago is located on the 200 block of North Columbus Drive. The 82-story tower- the tallest building designed by a woman, Jeanne Gang, resembles the waves of the Lake Michigan that is only a couple blocks away. The architectural and conceptual idea and deign was well planned by the architect to create visually interesting and practical skyscraper in Chicago downtown. Its unique structure cannot be unnoticed by the passerby, because it is the opposite of the typical repetitive, boxy skyscrapers that surrounds it- it has movement that is visually created by the uneven and irregular balconies. The balconies are actually the main component which from exterior view makes the building so unique. The fluidity and the curves of the balconies make the tower building a very outstanding and beautiful architectural structure. Gang’s designed balconies are breathtaking; and it is an example how concrete and steel materials can seem so soft and flexible. As viewed from different perspectives, and as a whole, the balconies create a seemingly organic shape across the towers facades unlike anything before seen in a tall building design, and yet they are carefully planned to provide solar shading, and amazing views. These unique terraces have a very sculptural appearance and differ in shape from floor to floor causing each floor plate to be different and unique. From afar, the balconies don’t have much of a skyline impact, but from a close –up view, they become a stunning presence, flowing like waves across the facade and forming organic, irregularly shaped layers.

  Sustainability was an important factor in Aqua’s design. The tower’s east-west orientation maximizes its winter solar performance, because the balconies are extended further out to provide shading, reducing sun exposure in the summer. Another very important design detail is the high performance glazing that increases energy efficiency throughout the tower. Glass on the east and south facades are reflective in areas without a protective balcony, while the glass facing west had a tinted coating that improves its shading coefficient. In total, the Aqua Tower has six different types of glass- tinted, clear, reflective, spandrel, fritted and translucent, the placement of which is determined by the orientation and function of interior space. Fritted glass is used and combined with handrail design to minimize bird strikes. According to statistics, as high as one billion wild birds are killed each year from birds flying into glass, including mirrored buildings and skyscrapers, so Jeanne Gang not only designed the economically efficient design, but also created a protection for birds. Yet another very important architectural and engineering problem that Gang was able to solve was the performance of the structure under high wind. Undulating slab edges “confused” the flow of wind around the tower, effectively reducing the wind demands, and this, combining with the effectiveness of the structural deign, eliminated the need for a supplemental damping system.

Overall, Aqua Tower is an outstanding and beautiful tower that is not only first Chicago development to combine condos, a hotel and a retail space, but also LEED certified building. Aqua has been built to minimize its impact on the environment while enhancing the lifestyle of its residents.  

review on morbid curiosity

Honestly, the exhibition could easily make one physically sick, and emotionally affected. “The Morbid Curiosity the Richard Harris Collection” held in Chicago cultural center is one of those rare and memorable experiences that could get stuck in one’s head for a lifetime. Richard Harris’s art collection expresses his fascination about death with nearly 1000 pieces that explore the iconography of death across time and culture. A central theme, the hollowness of this world’ s pleasures in the face of death is represented with objects that represent the seductive attractions of life and symbols that remind the viewer of the rapidity of the passage time. The two main components of this exhibition are the “War Room”, a collection of five great war series, and the “ Kunstkammer of Death”, a collection featuring a wide- ranging survey of mortality across different historical periods and different cultures. Both rooms filled with fearsome and dreadful collectibles were evenly appalling, and only few things such as three dimensional objects like sculls that were made of beads, glass, wood or metal, chandelier made of bones and “The Death of Venus” was not too bad to look at. Everything else in the exhibition literally could made one sick to his stomach. One of the creepiest things in the gallery was the baby in the highchair with a bomb attached instead of his head and the children in the circle holding hands dressed up in the military uniforms. Art pieces and arrangements like these two really affect and encourage the viewer to focus on human mortality and the purpose of life. The probably grossest object that was there was a shocking “meat art” piece that was named “Are you still mad at me?” It was a representation of realistic human body, or whatever was left of it, as an anatomical model. The theme mainly emphasizes the fragility of the human body and explores biological aspects of human body as well. Another very interesting piece of Richard Harris collection was “Hanging Figure” were the artist emphasizes on transitional nature of death. The suspended human skeleton figure shows the parts of body reassembled and held together with a sea grass. Overall, his collection was fascinating by the variety of different art pieces that he was able to collect. Photographs, paintings, three dimensional objects in a very large or miniature scale, represented both interior and exterior of the human body in a very unique and traumatizing way.

BlackDog

Old good expression, ‘what goes around comes around’- is the perfect description of “Black Dogs: the possibly true story of classic rock’s greatest robbery” written by Jason Buhrmester book’s plot. This means, that all characters in the book harm someone else, and ultimately pay some sort of price for their bad behavior.

            The story follows a group of Baltimore punks who want to become big time thieves. The leader, Patrick, comes up with the idea of stealing money from the Led Zeppelin- the biggest rock band on the planet at that time (the book takes place in 1973). Surprisingly (or not) his or his friends’ ideas become the reality in every step they make. The book is written mostly from Patrick’s point of view, but in the first couple chapters, the author just tells the reader that Patrick is a Black Sabbath fan and from there makes the reader guess everything else about him. That is what Buhrmester does with every character-give each one of them just enough detail to help the reader to visualize them. Besides Patrick, the other three main characters in the book are his three good friends and partners in crime- Keith, Alex and Frenchy. Keith, dirty, always broke dude who installs and then steals the same stereos for a living, Alex- ex-convict, who was locked up for eight months for robbing Tina’s house was described as a tough lady’s man who grew up around blacks and tried to fit in by acting black, and Frenchy- who works at Record Barn and has couple cover bands playing at bars and private events. Overall, the gang is described as a group of long-haired stoners who are trashy, filthy thieves that love to smoke pot, drink beer and steal.

The author fills each chapter with needed plot device to make the story go at an incredibly fast pace, but he never takes a break to reflect on the story or its characters. It just gets so twisted and complicated, that at some moments it seems that Buhrmester loses the focus of the main concept  of the book and adds new and unnecessary information which extends the length of the story but does not make it more interesting or intriguing.  The main idea of the book was to rewrite the partially true story about the robbery of the Led Zeppelin rock band, so the author created this flat plot of many different robbery stories to finally reach the culmination in last two chapters and to describe “the robbery”. The main events start to take place when the gang decides to rob the Haven Street Pawn shop that is owned by Backwoods Billy-mean and psychotic convict and a leader of “Holy Ghosts” gang, to steal a guitar that they plan to sell to Led Zeppelin. They unwisely steal some very important tapes that are in the Billy’s safe, which ultimately forces them to rob Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin after selling him a 1958 Les Paul guitar. Eventually, they accidently succeed and get away with all the cash that is hidden in the guitar case. True fact: during Led Zeppelin’s 1973 tour, someone stole 203,000 dollar from Led Zeppelin’s safe deposit box at the Drake Hotel in New York after the band played the sold out shows at Madison Square Garden. The thief or thieves were never caught.

‘What goes around comes around’- according to the Jason Buhrmester, the rock band Led Zeppelin stole songs from Willie Dixon, Sleepy John Estes, Howlin’ Wolf, Bukka White and that’s how they became rich and famous…the group of stoners and small scale thieves eventually became just rich…