Jay,
Good examples. I haven't been in those situations, but expect that I probably would have similar thoughts. Of course, and unfortunately, Strantz probably was aware that MPCC was going to be his legacy in other ways, as well.
That said, I would love to hear a bit from Tom about how they did that. I know they wouldn't want to copy either NGLA or SH, but try to create something complementary and different, but of similar - or actually greater quality, given the historic head start the other two have, to make them be considered equal, or nearly so.
I guess the real question in my mind is, can you design well when you are thinking of things outside of site factors? For any bunker or green at Sebonack, how does it distract to not only be considering the best, most site specific solution, while adding in the factor of "how do we make it different than next door?"
I wonder if its similar to playing in the Super Bowl. Don't the players play best when they kind of forget that its the big game, and consider it "just another game?"