[observer]

If the base of the St. Regis tower is 'great' as noted by ardecila, what words do you use to describe the base of a building like the one being proposed in New York at 175 Park Avenue (Grand Hyatt)? Not built yet, but as a big idea for the base of a tall tower, I would call that 'great'. Or the lobby of the built Lotte Tower in Seoul? My point is if someone created a list of top 10 or 20 building bases on tall towers, this one would likely not be on the list compared to all the other amazing things that have been done at the bases of tall towers. It is great compared to other buildings at Lake Shore East, but is it good enough for the scale building it is and considering how rare it is that buildings of this scale get built in Chicago? There is ultimately no comparison to dollars spent in NY on buildings as compared to Chicago. Might as well be different planets. The critique I have likely has more to do with the developer and budgets than the architect. Studio Gang has demonstrated many times how to deal with the base of buildings in a memorable way.