[spyguy]

Anyway, my complaint with "the state of Chicago architecture" would be that commissions are concentrated in a few firms.

I think I once tried to count the number of buildings designed by SCB, P/H, and a few others out of the total number of buildings proposed or UC and the proportion of work they get is staggering.

It's a shame that Chicago has tons of young talent that could certainly handle smaller 10-30 story projects but never get the chance. And when the cost of a project justifies an international starchitect, like Mandarin Oriental, we get another SCB or Lagrange building.