As with Stravinsky’s scale, Seligmann would often use Le Corbusier’s Modulor, both the blue and red series, as a point of reference.

One also finds variations of scale in these buildings: very large surfaces might be punctuated with intimate apertures adjusted for varying eye levels (as in some of the units of the Ithaca Scattered Site Housing complexes), small structures might present moments of grandness with windows that themselves become almost like inhabitable spaces (as at the Cortland Historical Society Addition).

So, the ubiquitous Corbusian Modulor figures populating the drawings aren’t simply an homage or a nod to Corbusian thinking—not just a signal of allegiance like a soccer scarf, or a signal that a specific scaling device is being used, like a key signature—but, more importantly, the waving characters are an index of the human scale and the consequent presence of embedded proportions. One might even say that, as important as the columns, walls, and beams, and as weighty as the steel, concrete, and wood, Seligmann’s buildings and projects were constructed of regulating lines—“constructed” as one might construct a drawing—so as to fully engage harmonies present in the contexts, both external and internal; and of proportions that engage the human actor.

This is not to say that structure and construction were suppressed. As Seligmann says (undoubtedly overstating) in his essay, “Le Corbusier as Structural Engineer,” “Admittedly, structure is but one of several parallel themes in the architecture of Le Corbusier. However, in my opinion, it is clearly the most significant.” Seligmann links Le Corbusier’s structural acumen with the education that the teenage Jeanneret received from Charles L'Éplattenier, based on observations from nature such as tree growth patterns; with his travel studies to places like the office of Peter Behrens, where long- and short-span steel structures were often combined; and with his work with architects and engineers experimenting in concrete, like Auguste Perret and Max DuBois. At the same time, Seligmann notes that, from Jeanneret’s first houses in La Chaux-de-Fonds to his later buildings at Chandigarh, Le Corbusier tended to utilize a limited number of structural systems, occasionally combined, and with varying degrees of emphasis.

What was important throughout Le Corbusier’s career, Seligmann concludes, were the spatial implications of the systems he chose to utilize: neutral versus directional grids composed of round versus square columns versus piers; parallel walls, vaulting, and so on. Seligmann quotes Rowe regarding Le Corbusier’s fundamental spatial paradigms, the horizontal versus vertical “sandwiches” of space: horizontal, like the Dom-Ino system, emphasizing the horizon and the placement of objects in a field; vertical, like the Citrohan, emphasizing the interrelationship of stacked spaces, often connected visually. Parallel walls, especially when combined with vaulting, emphasized linear “tubes” of space.