3D print the Aqua Tower
A free, printable model of the Aqua Tower with the tall buildings, water and green space around it in downtown Chicago, generated from real map data in your browser.
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North
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East
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South
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West
- Real height
- 262 m
- On a 160 mm print
- 74 mm
- Scale
- 1:3,750
262 m of the Aqua Tower, 74 mm on your shelf
Make this print opens the generator on a 600 m square around the landmark. Buildings print at close to true scale, so the landmark grows with the print size.
- Wavy slab edges
Every floor slab has a wavy edge, so the tower is covered in fine layered lines. Layers of 0.12 to 0.16 mm keep them crisp, and a bigger print size keeps more of the waves.
- A slender tower on a wide base
The tall tower rises from a wide lower block. Printing slowly with good cooling helps tall thin parts, and Print friendly adapts small rooftop details on the base to the print scale.
- One piece with the ground
The Aqua Tower is joined to the ground in the exported file, and the four-side check found no floating parts, so nothing needs gluing.
- Pick the detail for your nozzle
In the Buildings settings, set Landmark detail to Print friendly to adapt thin parts and small details to the print scale. Full detail keeps every modeled feature, for larger prints or a finer nozzle.
- Colors
Buildings, roads, water and ground arrive as separate filament slots in the 3MF. The Aqua Tower takes the building color.
- File format
You get a 3MF for Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer or PrusaSlicer. Any of them can save it as STL if you need one.
About the Aqua Tower
Aqua Tower rises 82 stories in Lakeshore East, in downtown Chicago, Illinois, as a mixed-use skyscraper at 225 North Columbus Drive. Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects led the design team, and James Loewenberg of Loewenberg & Associates was the architect of record. For Studio Gang it was a first skyscraper project, and no larger project had been given to an American firm led by a woman. At completion it was the tallest building in the world designed by a woman, a distinction that the nearby St. Regis, another Studio Gang design, surpassed in 2020.
The tower stands on a former rail yard beside the Chicago River and Lake Michigan, surrounded by high-rises. To give residents views of nearby landmarks, Gang stretched the balconies outward by as much as 3.7 m (12 ft). The result is irregularly shaped concrete floor slabs that give the facade an undulating, sculptural look. Gang cites the striated limestone outcroppings found around the Great Lakes as inspiration. Magellan Development Group gave the tower the name Aqua, which fits the nautical theme of the neighboring Lake Shore East buildings and refers to the balconies' wave-like shapes.
The lowest floors, 1–18, hold 215 hotel rooms; floors 19–52 hold 476 rental apartments; and floors 53–81 hold 263 condominium units and penthouses. Retail and office space totals 5,100 m² (55,000 sq ft). It was the first in downtown Chicago to bring condos, apartments and a hotel together. Its base carries a 7,669 m² (82,550 sq ft) terrace holding a fire pit, a walking and running track, hot tubs, pools, gazebos and gardens.
About this model
The Aqua Tower is one of more than 4,300 landmark models in Mini Skyline. They are made with AI, and each one is checked from four sides in its real surroundings before release. Everything around it is built from OpenStreetMap and Overture map data. If you would rather print the shape from map data, turn off Landmark models in the Buildings settings.
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