Atmospheric Wave Wall

The artwork was unveiled on January 12 by EQ Office, the US office portfolio company wholly owned by Blackstone's real estate funds and the company that manages Willis Tower. Atmospheric wave wall is part of EQ's Art of the Neighborhood program that started in early 2019 as a way of bringing art into the orbit of the 108-story tower. In addition to Eliasson's piece, another permanent installation already unveiled is Jacob Hashimoto's 2019 piece, In the Heart of this Infinite Particle of Galactic Dust, located in the lobby facing Wacker Drive.

Eliasson's installation, made of hundreds of curved metal tiles, was inspired, according to a press release, by Chicago's waterways, specifically the "unpredictable weather" the artist witnessed "stirring up the surface of Lake Michigan." Atmospheric wave wall, the artist says, "appears to change according to your position and to the time of day and year. What we see depends on our point of view: understanding this is an important step toward realizing that we can change reality." He intends that the artwork makes an impact on passersby "by reflecting the complex activity all around us, the invisible interactions and minute fluctuations that make up our shared public space."