In its undisturbed state, this tower’s plan is an ellipse, containing circulation cores encased by a ring of hotel rooms. The ellipse would suggest a straight extrusion, with a vertical repetition of identical plans.

However, the tower is disturbed.

The insertion of a second structure containing public programs agitates the glass high-rise. The brick stranger makes room for itself by pushing half the hotel upward, carving into the tower’s center at its base. The penetration stretches floorplates internally, forming an atrium, in which the foreigner takes up residence. Now, the original ellipse is only suggested from the roof plan. Descension from there reveals the gradual displacement of a circulation core and surrounding structural walls. Some of the steel members move out of the way for the newcomer, but some go to battle. When they vertically puncture the brick building, they rupture its internal organization. Programs are forced to fit within their radial pattern.