I'm pretty meh about the change. Balconies certainly detract from the upward thrust of a tower, which is especially important if you're trying to have an Art Deco feel. (Lucien LaGrange never understood that.) On a podium I don't mind them. Especially in this case, they added some depth to the facade and made it look less like a West Loop office econobox.
Also, I LOVE seeing people's crap on balconies. That's about
as urban as it gets. Marina City is glorious.
I'm sure this wasn't a purely aesthetic decision, though. It's pretty clear to me that they carved a chunk off the south side of the podium, maybe to preserve sightlines to Holy Name's steeple. Because of that loss of SF, they had to remove the inset balconies to maintain the same approximate number of units and SF on each floor of the podium. (Presumably basket balconies over the sidewalk were not acceptable) Looks like they added the balconies back onto the shorter tower so they have something to offer when a tenant absolutely can't live without a balcony.