so when Sir Norman Foster designed the gherkin, the sony centre in berlin, hearst tower in nyc or the metropolitan in Warsaw- he didn't give a rats ass about the finishes in the common areas?- it was the investors who decided? seriously?
of course its investors who design the buildings. of course architects plans are changed. even on site plans are changed. i know many architects, and the process always goes like this:
investor - we want it to look like this and with these fantastic ideas. our budget is $10
architect - ok, we made it look even better, with your fantastic ideas and some of ours
investor - omg we love it. how much?
architect - $12
investor - oh, then lets change this to save some more money.
architect - ok, we can do that, itll still look good. $9
investor - hmm our budget has changed, change this.
architect - thats not going to look good, but we'll try. $7
investor - nope, still too much. that cool stuff has got to go, too expensive, and we're going to use bare concrete for everything.
architect - ummm. but... ok. $6
investor - hey, it doesnt look like the fantastic rendering you first submitted! btw, budget cuts again, and this empty space over here, for a park? lets put some kiosks in there. oh, and......
and of course foster and his investors cared or sometimes didnt care about what they put where. i can give you many examples of where some architects/investors went out of there way to take into consideration what was around them, for example lodz's manufaktura or poznan's stary browar, wroclaw's renoma, or where other just went f'ing nuts, like the sol pol in wroclaw.