Chicago's New Skyline - Love it or Hate it?

Sorry New Yorkers - history may repeat itself as the Chicago Spire, like the Sears Towers decades earlier, shoots ahead of a recently constructed Manhattan skyscraper to become North America's tallest building. The mortgage meltdown does make me wonder if this will ever be completed. What would be worse than a half-completed tower, marring Chicago's breathtaking skyline (the world's best?), serving as a giant, crap-filled birdhouse.

No fears, the weak US $ should entice Europeans and the rest of the world to buy up the units for a far lower relative cost than we Americans would pay.

I love any building that adds glamor and interest to the skyline, but I've talked with a number of people who hate the corkscrew design.



What do you think?

Atypical Rooms . . . Love Them or Hate Them?

Why do we all seem to subscribe to the established paradigm for just about everything in our lives? When I had the opportunity to rehab my kitchen, I had complete carte blanche to do anything I wanted, to really exercise my (admittedly limited) creative powers. But instead of creating a distinctive space, I wound up with the same thing as everybody else -contemporary cabinets, stone countertops, yada, yada. In fact, my mind, drugged by convention, struggles to even imagine ways to really upset the design dynamic.

The most recent Elle Decor showcases a home that doesn't just attempt to one-up the Joneses, but eschews tradition entirely. I'm especially digging the chair in the bathroom, the simple (yet elegant and functional) kitchen and the unusual placement of the bathroom vanity. And really, these are also minor distinctions. What else is possible?

What do you think? How have you made your space unique? And why are we all so intent on being the same?