If we're talking about cheapness, precast is a poor substitute for natural stone. Yet I can't say the podium is cheap with details like the entrance canopy, broadly curved corner, curtainwall, unusual pillars, and the cornice along the side. It has this unsatisfying ambiguity between its sleek modern elements like the curtainwall and entrance canopy and its PoMo details like the beige precast cladding and the cornices. Plus, the podium doesn't seem very metropolitan in its relatively flat, two storey facade. A midrise podium with some terracing would have been better and I doubt the city's planners would be hostile to it.
The tower will be more of the same. You'll see lots of glass in the contemporary fashion, and then these big precast cornices. The cornices suggest some ambition in giving the tower a visual identity, but it will again be ambiguously "in between" the new International Style and PoMo. I imagine it won't satisfy many people, be they architecturally conservative or craving a contemporary aesthetic.