Quote:
Originally Posted by the urban politician
Fine, the most obvious and glaring difference is the zig zag thing. But what else? What makes it "not even remotely close to Optima in regards to quality or overall design"? And I ask this not to put pressure on you in particular, but because I'd like to understand what details I'm missing.
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The entire curtainwall is garbage, just like 550 N LSD it is all wavy glass with absolutely no depth. Optima's glass is actually very good (despite occasional complaints otherwise from people who see a single wrinkled reflection and flip out). This glass just looks washed out, just like 550.
They did a very poor job of addressing the existing site conditions to bring them into line with the new design. The bow in the front of the building could have been corrected fairly easily, but I suspect they didn't want to spend the extra dollar or two a square foot on those floors to extend the edges of the floorplates out to make the front flat and in keeping with the new scheme. The same goes on the rear setback where they created an awkward set of steps in the process of pouring the new transfer floors. Also, the bow further emphasizes the crappy glass by spreading and bending the reflections even further.
There are several spots where the facade grid just randomly changes. Rather than take the extra time to think little aesthetic issues like that out, they just said "fuck it, we can just have a random shift in the grid".
They aren't done with it yet, but the entrance is also looking to be an awkward dud as well.
Overall the design of the building isn't horrible, but the problem is just terrible execution as was the case at 550 N LSD. This is why I think we need to cross our fingers and hope Related doesn't get control of the Spire Site or we will be looking at another half-assed building at another prominent site downtown.