How Christopher Nolan used architecture to alienating effect in 'The Dark Knight'

The movie begins with a smash.

Specifically, an explosion of glass as a clown-masked bank robber blasts a window from the flank of a corporate tower from the 1980s. The robber and his various masked accomplices then prepare to wreak mayhem as they abscond with the mountains of money stored in a neighboring bank (played by the old Chicago post office, an Art Moderne structure from 1932).

"The Dark Knight," the acclaimed second entry in director Christopher Nolan's blockbuster Batman trilogy,