The centripetal reorganization of the prewar city has resulted in its division into two separate and non-intersecting worlds: a closed centripetal form and its spatial residuum.

While the historical center has always functioned as a palimpsest -- recording the traces of urban transformations -- this form of organizational schizophrenia seems unprecedented. In contrast to the familiar qualities of traditional "urban space," the emergent qualities of the ellipsis are perceived as alienating and hostile. The elaborate skywalks or tunnel systems interconnecting increasingly defensive urban structures constitute a new centripetal labyrinth which, like a self-fulfilling prophecy, fuels a fear of the outside and the excluded.

These armatures and the spaces they connect produce a virtual second city over and below the implosion of contemporary urban space.