Most skyscrapers will keep the chiller on the roof or in the basement. And that is enough to cool the entire building. The domestic air cooled condenser in most homes and small offices just don't scale.
The system in the article uses a pipe loop underground in place of an evaporator. This uses less water/energy but require a higher first cost and very specific location requirements which is why the cooling towers are still more popular.
Some systems will have a closed system using water or ammonia as the intermediary medium. The coolant is pumped to an air handler on each floor where it cools a condenser filled with refrigerant.
Most chillers are just a big empty box where water is poured over the coils. The evaporating effect cools the medium inside and vents as steam or water vapour.
The big empty box with water is an evaporative cooling tower used to cool the condenser side water.
This allows the hot/high pressure side to be cooled to lower temperatures than possible with only air cooling, which increases the efficiency of the unit. Since water is evaporated, this required a continuous supply of new water.
Another use of water is in the distribution of the cooling -- basically using the above system to chill a different water supply, then using this chilled water to pipe the cooling to various areas of the building. This is typically a closed loop system and shouldn't require any additional water over the amount required to initially fill the system, unless there is a leak.
http://www.buildings.com/article-details/articleid/5757/titl...
In the discussed example, the water cooled system uses ~1/2 the energy of the air cooled system.
I used one when I worked with a friend in LA on a car restoration project. They can generate a LOT of cooling very quickly as long as it is dry outside.