Minimalist, I'd say, wasn't the lobby supposed to be much bigger? I thought it stretched all the way along to 5th street - here it looks to be about a 3rd the size of what I was told.
I just came across this board and I am surprised at the lack of knowledge about this project. I live in Chicago and have heard many rumors about the developer, I am also surprised that he wasn't pulled from it already. When the project stopped apparently it was because Mr. Mclean had been using funds from the VUE's financing for other reasons - he was caught and so the project was halted. Several Million had to be a accounted for. A friend in Charlotte has told me that he changed the Sales team to a non licensed in house arrangement. I went on and checked the MLS and low and behold no listings for the VUE, for a project that is only 5 or 6 months from completion this is very surprising!! We figure the reason for changing the team was to save money on commissions when the project closes. A 3% Sellers fee against a probably 1% fee now for the unlicensed staff is whole lot of money in a building that probably is only 40% sold.
All that being said I hope it gets completed and everything works outs - it will be a great addition to the skyline.