Set on a small central-city site, the intensity of both program and context was the catalyst for this design. Here, I considered the question of how a building might take advantage of high-density urban form while ameliorating density’s disadvantages. The stepped, multi-terraced form of the street-facing bar addresses the public, and is read from the exterior as a richly activated vertical landscape of human activity - the formal expression of the space reflects the richness of its use.