Building: Mies van der Rohe
Oh, c'mon, this is taking Chicago homerism WAAAAAYYYYY too far.
Homerism? Guilty as charged. But would you say the same if I said other Chicagoans such as Sullivan, Wright, Burnham, Adler, Holabird & Root, Weese, SOM, Gang or others? You even cited the Wrigley Building, designed by Chicago's own Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, which was the successor to Burnham's firm.
Mies DESTROYED the Chicago skyline, particularly Lake Shore Drive. Absolutely ruined it with that skin and bones, glass box on stilts crap. The guy was a utilitarian hack with no sense for style. I rue the day he got his first job in this town...
We used to have absolutely beautiful buildings in this town. Still do. But no thanks to Mies, that's for sure...
860-880 Lake Shore Drive destroyed the Chicago skyline? That entire stretch of LSD leaves something to be desired -- as does much to the north. The only real personality on LSD is the East LSD stretch that runs from the Drake to the lake.
And are there other contributions to the skyline besides 860-880 and the IBM Plaza? Admittedly, IBM Plaza is not Mies' best work, especially for that high visibility site. On a smaller scale, Crown Hall at IIT and the Farnsworth House, are perfect examples of "form follows function."
If nobody understands what I'm talking about, just compare the Wrigley Building or Tribune Tower ...
There's no doubting that the Tribune Tower and Wrigley Building are two tremendous designs and Chicago classics. The former is a favorite, but I'm hard pressed to name another building by its designers, John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood, who won the famous design competition.
PS- no need for any other views of IBM Plaza, or for that matter, any of his other buildings -- because from any angle of any of them, they all look EXACTLY THE FRICKING SAME!!
So is Mies the Raynor of building architecture? No wonder I'm a fan of both.