Look, both here and at the forecaster we're talking about the cladding of a wall that faces a lot line. These are likely to be invisible for the majority of these buildings lifespans. And it's hard to imagine a developer, even a generous one, agreeing to invest in making that wall a showpiece - especially when it comes as a trade off with investment in other pets if the structure (which it must).
These walls should not be decisive in the assessment of either building. The forecaster is otherwise pretty thoughtless. The Lucas at least is making a thoughtful attempt.
And in both cases a lot of legacy architecture and urbanity was preserved at considerable expense. Be careful what you wish for.