Amenities abound: Aqua gives you way more than you could ask for

Increasingly, new Chicago area apartment buidings are finding ways to throw in common area amenities for their renters, but Aqua goes above and beyond in their services. I guess when you consider the building will also be a hotel and condos, it's a little more par for the course, but they seem to have thought of just about everything indoors and out. Let me show you:

From the 27th floor birds-eye view: The reddish brown path is a 1/5 mile soft rubber-like running track around the building.  A full-length pool, complete with cabanas (the white boxes) is already open for business, even if you've bought a condo and don't live in it yet. The light green oblong shape is an outdoor exercise class pad made of the same soft material as the track. Next to that are umbrellas over picnic tables near a series of gas grills open for resident use.

That's just for the building. The entire Lakeshore East complex shares this fabulous park

The colored surfaces in the middle of the park are a children's playground, while the trees near front and right provide shade for a dog park. The fountains along the curved path provide a great sense of motion. And the park is the city's first WiFi equipped park. The gravelly area to the right will house a retail area, which will include a Roundy's grocery store (although the store may rebrand with a different name).

Inside the building, you'll also find an abundance of amenities:

This movie viewing room will be avaialble to residents for fun or busines meetings. In addition, there's a business center with a conference room, computers and a copying machine. A game room hold a 10-seat professional-style poker table and pool table.

For those into fitness, there's a half-court basketball gym, a spinning studio, free weights, weight machines, a cardio room and an indoor pool and hot tub. Wall mounted iPod docks can play music to the whole room or even underwater in the pool.

Security at the building includes separate entrances for each of the three components (the hotel entrance is on one side of the building, the condos and apartments are on the other with separate doormen). There's an abundance of elevators, so you should have to spend a lot of time waiting.

The breadth and depth of amenities at Aqua makes the price seem pretty reasonable- after all, you won't need a gym membership and maybe you won't spend so much money on going out. Magellan really did think of just about everything most people would want in a living facility. Way to go!