[denizen467]

Some initial thoughts -

-I agree the massing is kind of awkward. (Maybe it could be mitigated by having a lighter color or feel to the tallest protruding portion, and a heavier color or feel to the lower portions, or some other commonly-deployed visual sleight of hand.) I wonder why the center and west portions are so short; it would look better if they were taller by a frustum or two. After all, rents are higher on higher floors.

-Magellan will no longer be in control, as Wanda is buying 90% of the project. With Magellan retaining only 10%, and this being a new 5-star hotel market entry for Wanda, maybe we can expect much less VE-ing?

-Despite it becoming a Wanda project, they're sticking with Gang and the basic plans she and Magellan came up with. This seems it could raise the prospect that other successful local developers could become "pre-developers" who prepackage location identification, parcel and approvals preparation, programs, and designs for Chinese or other information-poor, capital-abundant developers who come in and take over. (Probably what Davies was thinking at the Post Office, although he found a local partner, so far.) It goes beyond just raising debt or equity from those parts of the world; it provides an excellent, easy conduit for foreign developers to successfully, quickly enter the Chicago market, and also could allow our local developers to quickly free their teams to start looking at further projects.

-This height would exceed NYC's One57 and most supertalls proposed there, other than three that are impossibly thin and would be impressive if completed but are hardly assured of reaching that stage.

-If there wasn't a Chinese word for "frustum" yet, there sure will be now.