I have lived in two of the cities that made your list - Baltimore and Nashville - and you completely missed the mark in both cities.
Transamerica Tower - Baltimore
I actually had to google this because I was like "what's the Transamerica Tower?" Now I see - you mean the Legg Mason building. Hard to get a long-standing name out of your head once it's there. From a distance, the building is indeed nothing much to look at. Not really ugly, just nothing special. But the ground level is actually a serviceable Mies rip-off glass box through which a gorgeous red marble core is visible. The lack of corner offices is intentional - at the time the building was built, there wasn't much to look at except a run-down, polluted harbor. There were even huge marble plinths on every floor designed to block the view below and direct the eye outward. These were removed (minus one that an endangered bird has nested in for several years) during recent renovations.
Snodgrass Building - Nashville
Another "nothing special, but not really ugly" candidate. The building is actually a nice, clean form study. At ground level, a large, open plaza grounds the building and gives it a pleasant setting. I used to walk over and eat my lunches there.
And now for the proof of just how far you missed the mark.
William Donald Schaefer Tower - Baltimore
There apparently wasn't the budget for a sufficiently tall tower to honor our former Governor and Mayor, so they planted a big middle finger on top.
Flickr user anomalous_a
The ground level looks like something off of the set of "The Wiz" with all of its faux-copper faux-pipery
msa.maryland.gov
AT&T Building - Nashville
wikipedia
Locals call it the "Batman Building" which is generous, in my estimation. Proportionally, it is very...odd. Very squat. Without the twin spires, it would be even more so. Ground level is essentially non-existent. Most street-level facades are blank slabs of granite that crowd the sidewalk. The main entrance has some grass and benches, but there is nothing particularly inviting about it.