The zoning guidelines of the master plan provide for increased building heights and densities toward the center of the new central business district so there is a gradual increase in height as the main intersection is approached. Most zoning, world wide, would allow coverages on a block like this of perhaps eighty or ninety percent. The low allowable coverage of sixty percent here, in concert with a market driven FAR, more or less forces the tower to be as high as the city will permit.

This tower is fifty one stories. It sits on a superblock of thirty thousand square meters. The FAR on this parcel is 8.0. It is separated only by alleys from parcels with FAR’s of 4.0 and 6.0- that is, densities half it own density.

The principal problem was to integrate the enormous tower into a series of well scaled adjacent blocks, streets, public parks and services alleys. The most jarring juxtaposition of scales is between the tower and the adjacent mosque to the east which sits at the base of the tower like Trinity church sits, somewhat overwhelmed, at the end of Wall Street. The full height of the tower shaft comes all the way to the ground on this side (see also the section on the mosque). A secondary problem was how to integrate a ten story parking structure into the block without diminishing the adjacent streets and alleys.

Lower buildings line most of the block perimeter. The volumes that face the lower density parcels are more or less the same scale as the buildings across the alley. Consequently the alley, about forty five feet from building to building, produces a series of spaces tailored to walking. The parking garage is sufficiently integrated into other volumes of the composition that, while discernible behind masonry screen panels, it is completely unobtrusive, even contributing to a general stepping of the volumes of the block up to the base of the tower.

The mandated open space, comprising forty percent of the lot area is distributed in three places- in the minimal perimeter setbacks (where they can have no positive impact), in a small courtyard that provides a secondary entrance to the tower from either the street or the parking garage, and- primarily- in a stepped semi-circular terrace minimally screened from the alley. The housing wing of the parcel across the alley overlooks the amphitheater, so the open space brings concrete value to two different parcels.

The terrace also affords a back entrance to the tower’s upper lobby. This route through the block and the tower lobby builds on a series of mid-block passageways, courts and plazas developed through all the blocks and it renders the tower base an integral and animated public space.

The tower itself has mixture of retail, office and residential floors. It has a base of 150 feet on a side. It tapers at decreasing intervals as it rises, its terrace setbacks spiraling around the center (core) bays. This geometry is best seen in the roof plan. The watercolor ground floor plan shows the means by which the tower is integrated into the street, the parking garage and the mid-block terrace. The tower lobby can be entered from three sides: off the street through a recessed porch opposite the mosque; off a side atrium at the east end of the parking garage; and mid-block from the upper terrace into an upper lobby.

The section shows how the tower is integrated into the block vertically. The lower lobby faces the street and the side entry atrium. The upper lobby, shown in gold on the section, is visible upon entry up broad central stairs. It is a tall (forty five foot) indoor garden that can open onto the outdoor terrace. A third floor hall over the lower lobby overlooks the upper portion of the upper lobby and has views out to both the mosque across the street and to the mid-block garden terrace.