[W]e don’t have to build tall to be great, or to have buildings of varying heights (though it is nice). But if buildings are to be constructed at the same height, there should at least be some architectural variation between them.
Even if you have simple-shaped, rectangular, glass buildings, you can still be creative about how the building looks… especially if you try enough.
For example, what if you took the City of Raleigh’s logo…
…and made it the facade of each of the two buildings? Kind of like a Raleigh Twin Towers? (plus this would probably look cool if you light it up at night)
(I used the generic shape of the massing models in the master plan, and took a bit creative liberty with the plaza. I apologize for the poor quality of the sketch.)
…or if you REALLY wanted to be creative, you could even use reinforced wood (“City of Oaks”, anyone?) in certain parts to make it look unique. And I’m not a professional architectural designer; I’m just a grad student from an unrelated field.
Point is, I don’t see a reason to feel like we’re going to be resigned to lame, boring mediocrity. Echoing what @elevatoroperator said:
This is a masterplan, not an architectural design. They haven’t designed the buildings yet
(just don’t use unethically sourced rainforest timber)