Look out the window while traversing the eastern corridor and you might take notice of one particularly monolithic building passing you by – that would be Provident Center, a private residential estate in North Point built in 1984.
There isn’t much that is historically significant about Provident Center itself, but its architectural style is interesting. That hulking, sea-facing facade is a reflection of the social conditions of the era it was built in, when the government was under particularly high pressure to build new homes. Building codes were more lenient back then and developers would push them to their limits, constructing buildings that were designed to accommodate as many residents as possible – hence the sheer length of that awe-inspiring facade. However, these sorts of buildings greatly restricted airflow and natural light from reaching the urban environments below them, leading the building codes to be rewritten in order to favour slimmer towers.