But observe more closely, and you’ll notice that tenants avoid stepping on the illuminated square of inlaid onyx by the elevators, the ceilings are precisely 9 feet 3 inches, a meditation room occupies the northwest corner on one level, and every single desk faces north or east. The maharishi died a year ago, but his followers—who include developer Jeffrey Abramson, a partner in the Tower Companies—are carrying out the guru’s vision. During the design and construction of Tower II, Jonathan Lipman, who serves as both institute director and chief architect of Fortune-Creating Building, vetted KGD’s blueprints and materials. To provide “cosmic harmony and support to the individual,” the maharishi decreed, a Vedic building must be oriented perfectly to the cardinal directions, with an easterly entrance to face the dawn; be constructed according to “precise mathematical dimensions in harmony with the cosmos” and “proportionally designed to mirror the geometry or architecture of the universe”; contain a core of silence called a Brahmanstan; and have each room “carefully placed to resonate with the different energies of the sun as it moves across the sky. Kinari Design principal Doug Atherley, having grown up in India and traveled extensively in Japan and Southeast Asia, considers vaastu part of a broader Asian aesthetic that influences his style. The limestone, fir, cherry, and etched glass of a Brahmanstan, or central core of harmony, in a San Francisco house by architect Anthony Lawlor.

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