Just because it's modern and glassy doesn't mean it's good. The crummy render has nothing to do with it, I'd say the same thing looking at an elevation. I don't see any scale, I don't see any proportion, I see two randomly sized blocks with an arbitrary facade treatment. The apartment section looks completely tacked-on, there's no vertical or horizontal expression.
The second one's lousy too, but if it were done in limestone and not cinderblock it would at least be decent. FitzGerald Associates isn't a bad firm, I think the client is the problem.
Here's an alternate elevation:
http://rogerspark.com/images/news_ar...levations1.jpg