In enumerating these successive forms, we recognize the architect's brilliance in fusing varied geometries (rectangular, cubic, pyramidal and circular) into a coherent whole.
The hotel -- with a tower topped by a sharply pitched pyramidal roof -- became the Art Deco trendsetter for Shanghai as soon as it opened its doors in 1929.
When the whole enterprise is finished, visitors will be able to follow a 15-foot-wide pathway down to a central chamber underneath the rock's pyramidal form, which will ultimately rest on concrete rails.