"Chillers" are actually direct expansion cooling devices for liquid. They have a condenser and evaporator just like an air cooled air conditioning system. The evaporator will be on the chilled water supply side and the condenser can be cooled by water or air.
The big empty box with water is an evaporative cooling tower used to cool the condenser side water.
If you use an evaporator tower you do need to replenish that water. The tower is usually used to cool a closed loop of water (or glycol/water mix depending on the climate) that cools the refrigerant in a chiller.
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.
Larger systems can use cooling towers which leverage evaporative cooling. Also, arid climates can use swamp coolers to cool a space. They work on the same principal. When water evaporates, it pulls energy from the surrounding medium, causing the temperature to drop.