Sucking sound is right on. Many of these firms were high on supplying UAE with gluttony and gold leaf if there was no other advice they could offer them as architects. I remember people going on and on favoring the necessity of western art scene and temples to house them as if their cash was for us to spend. Risky business this is...
I remember talking to Thom Mayne and to his credit, he did say he won't go there for that kind of work. I respect him for that statement alone.

Thom Mayne and Morphosis had no problem in competing in the architectural design competition for the Signature Tower at Business Bay (won by Zaha).

They participated, they hoped to win, and they were/are part of the system.

I have the greatest respect for Thom and he had a good project, but this post-critical denouncement seems quite superficial and opportunistic.

dlb,
thanks for that bit of knowledge. i really don't follow these people's day to day business and i believe them when they say something face to face.
still though, i have more reasons to trust he is not that forthcoming at a level of many commercial firms' engegament in that part of the world. that might have to do with his position as demanded celebrity and his ideas of keeping his practice at a manegable levels of his liking as well as the definition of his financial ambitions.
btw, this was couple years before things got crashed in dubai et al.