[mhays]

1. Seattle's rents and prices are far lower than Manhattan's, leaving less room for crazy designs and expensive materials.

2. We're a seismic zone, which encourages stronger and more straightforward structural designs including more use of concrete in lieu of or along with steel.

3. We're not a trailblazing city architecturally, and our process doesn't encourage it. Design review is about not offending rather than breaking the mold.

4. Our zoning is very restrictive relative to heights (all buildings in nearly all areas) and floor area ratio (commercial buildings in all areas). This means land in highrise and even lowrise (say 65') zones is very expensive. Developers need to maximize square footage. Nobody does a setback or geometric shape unless it fits with the pro forma.