opinions of this city's most prolific firm's work:
heritage: easily, and BY FAR, the worst piece of shit this city has seen from this firm. i don't know what's worse, the way the beautiful wabash buildings were DESTROYED, or the tower itself... wait... the tower. WTF!?? what the hell was the design concept behind that graceless, drunken giant. from the over-sized, awkwardly solid base, the basket woven alternation of curves, angles, squares, and rectangles, the horizontal splashes of vomit toned beige, the echos of greek revival, to the tower of light that caps off the whole amazingly confused composition. the only successful thing about this project was the marrage of bad design and bad planning in a perfectly awful package. heritage is the perfect complement to the equally awful millenium park. -666 out of 10
340: ehhh... not as bad as the renderings promised it to be. what it lacks, badly, in design, it makes up for in good planning. the materials, which SCB has a tendency to use, are top-notch... but why is that such a great thing? it should be STANDARD, not something that is surprising or refreshing. nonetheless... 5.5 out of 10.
legacy: what looks like will become the latest in the destruction of our inner-city. these facade jobs NEED to stop. i expect a nice looking heritage. i fear it will be too tall. but i look forward to some nice glass to shoot out over the mich. ave. street wall. 3.9 out of 10 (well, let's see how it turns out)
b37 towers: i'm actually looking forward to these. perfect height, a GOOD simple design with subtle details (from what i've seen), and expect the smooth glass wall and horizontallity will flow very nicely with b36, the joffrey tower, the oriental theater, the delaware building, and delay... side note about b37... the p+w 22 w. washington tower is one of the more beautiful things seen in the loop in a while... 7 out of 10 (we'll see though)
parkview towers: FLOP. waste of a GREAT opportunity. LAME tower, LAME park, BAD planning, BAD design. 0.0 out of 10
streeter towers: i gotta say, the design really works. the tower flows well with the area, the height is great, the two tower(s) are (will be) a great addition for streeterville, i LOVE white buildings, the garage looks GREAT... only downside, i hate the landscaping and the drive-way entrance thing going on between the two towers... WHAT IS THAT? 5.0 out of 10
50 e. chestnut: PATHETIC, though saved by the fact that the height works very well with the area, as does the base. all around a shitty design that works and flows, unfortunately, well with the area. 0.1 out of 10
wells street tower: despite a pretty sloppy base, another glimmer of greatness from SCB. PERFECT height, PERFECT fit. they should stick to white. solid 5 out of 10, with a base that matched the rest of the concept, easily an 8/10.
the near north side is PLAGUED by bad design, these two aren't too bad amongst a sea of horrid design that is down right depressing.
sterling: pretty alright tower. terrible base. 2 out of 10
bristol: pretty alright tower. TERRIBLE base. 1 out of 10.
sky55: another glimmer of greatest from SCB. the height of the tower is perfect. the base flows well. the design of the tower flows well. it's a great tower that fits the south loop well. 7 out of 10.
111 w illinois: some of SCB finest work thus far if you ask me. chicago needs more buildings like this, more designs like this, more SCB like this. 9 out of 10.
215 w washington, millennium park plaza, and 200 w lake: too early to tell, but they're all looking good. potentially great.
the mandarin and the fairbanks: too early to tell, but they're not looking good. potentially awful.
the rest of SCB's work that i know of belongs in the trash can and is among chicago's worst architecture: library tower, the sheraton, embassy suites, kingsbury plaza, left bank, millennium centre, the fordham, 400 n lasalle, park place, AMLI 900, chicago place, plaza 440, the chicagoan, huron club, presidential towers... the list goes on and on...
over-all, i blame SCB for doing the most destruction to architecture in this city. SCB has almost single-handedly RUINED the near north side with their countless highrises. what used to be a beautiful area filled with rows and rows of old chicago brick beauties and handsome warhouses is now home to god awful highrise after god awful highrise via SCB. and what's worse is they keep getting taller and taller.
SCB: please, please try harder.