"The intended spiraling effect may be lost on the casual viewer."

It certainly was lost on me, looking at that illustration.

[T]he buildings do not appear at first glance to be parts of a unified whole. Instead, it may look like an instance of urban randomness.

Yes, I'd say so. In fact, it looks an awful lot like that collection of block-like buildings that everyone got outraged about, that led to the design competition that Daniel Libeskind won. Talk about a spiraling effect. We've spiraled back around to the dull original attempt.