The old and the new pressed shoulders here, plastic fronted buildings wedged in between brick and plaster.

But the more typical scenery in Taipei is of dowdy mid-rise buildings wedged together, spewing out neon and wooden signs for shops and restaurants, overlooking sidewalks crowded with street vendors and shoppers who nervously glance over their shoulders for an early warning of the motorcycles that periodically roar down the sidewalks.

To hear some residents describe it, the 17-story building, wedged between a tiny post office and a diner, loomed like a dragon spewing muggers, rapists, prostitutes and pimps.

The inhabited interior of Plenty, she realized, was like a gigantic sponge, its buildings wedged into cellular, shadowy holes piled with slowly mouldering rubbish, suppurating fungi, forgotten bodies.

The front buildings, wedged between private one-family houses, face Adrian Avenue.

Invisible from the fabled Place du Casino at the center of town, it is an ultramodern building wedged into the side of a cliff adjacent to the Hotel de Paris.

It was an ancient and surprisingly large building, wedged between a tannery and a tailor who made suspicious leather goods.

His home was a large fortified building wedged into the western wall of the gate, with two entrances, one for his family leading into the town and the other an official door that led from his office directly into the zigzag passage.

Now housing experts point to the low-rise buildings, wedged between a garbage dump and a freeway in Northeast Washington, as a model of what can be done when tenants have a financial stake in the operation of their property.

Mayor Gherkin was seated toward the rear of the building, wedged behind two tables that had been pushed together.