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Another
piece of unique Rotterdam architecture. From some
angles, this wafer of a building appears almost ready
to fall over. The crown affair at the top looks much
like a wave cresting and ready to crash down on the
people below. What makes this precarious balancing
act possible is the mass of offices attached to the
building's backside. Not only does it provide reassurance
to the eye that the building is more substantial than
it seems, but it also fills the requirements of the
laws of physics and keeps the building from becoming
a giant domino. The counterbalance doesn't go all
the way to the ground. It stands on legs to protect
a building from 1642 -- one of the few that survived
the German bombings of the second World War.