Some thoughts
How could these fins have compromised the views from inside the building (and presumably below the roof fins)? I guess that without before-and-after floor plans for the affected floors we will never know -- perhaps the fins required extra steel supports, partly blocking the views?.
Bill
The Brookfield guy and the KPMG guy on the panel said that it was two things. To paraphrase:
(1) instead of looking through one layer of glass in your corner office, you'd be looking through your window plus the fin depending on what direction you were looking, and
(2) they tried many mock-ups and couldn't get the lighting to work, because it's hard to light up clear glass and even if the lightning worked visually from outside, they were unhappy of the distraction it would present from the inside the offices, and the utility of the space always trumps aesthetics for Brookfield.
Because they were going to pass off the lighting as their 1% public art contribution, the guy from Brookfield said they will be coming up with something else in the way of public art to replace it. They are also spending more than most developers would to address security in the wake of their World Financial Centre experience on 9-11.
It would be an understatement to say I don't sense a passion for architecture and design from Brookfield, but that is not unusual. Like many (but not all) developers, they are mostly all about the Benjamins. As a public company, they are especially sensitive to the bottom line quarter to quarter. Plus, Toronto tenants, like KPMG, have never rushed to support great design (ie they won't pay the incrementally higher rent resulting from use of innovative architecture and materials). I work in the commercial real estate industry, and I've heard many times that the perception is that if a tenant's space is too fancy, they must be charging their clients too much.
The main reason many tenants are willing to pay the extra rent associated with Green Buildings (ie LEED Gold certification, which BA is trying to attain) is that the tenants are actually willing to pay a bit more to appear au courant.
Maybe all of this is a Toronto thing, and that's why we don't have great office buildings. Sorry for the long post.