[edluva]

it looks like heron tower for the fact that it's flanked by much shorter buildings and it has an antenna. that's where similarities end. this hollywood proposal is much less graceful, and like many self-conscious buildings in la and other big 3rd world cities it aspires to significance by mimicry (eg see hearst building), the way mitsubishi mirage aspires to the c class.

an going on an even further tangent, i'll say that la is the wal-mart of big cities. a cheap but failed rendition of something prettier, more refined, or more sophisticated. la is not a city of great or even good architecture. in fact, la still struggles to find a singularity of place or purpose from which architectural identity can grow and be reinterpreted over time.

rather than being modern, la builds to look modern. rather than being urban, la builds to look like what "urban" represents in any prevailing concept of what "urban" signifies in pop culture at that moment. la always builds to resemble, yet it never actually is. many of its residents act the same way. in the sense that, culturally speaking, it rarely upsets the commonplace or challenges the status quo, la is one of the most predictable and stereotypical cities in the world. in the sense that it sells to the world a culture so stereotypical as to be offensive, la is unique.