The column can be considered the fundamental “unit” of society. This aspect is reflected in its Tuscan order, which is considered the most basic of the architectural orders. More dramatically, a single column is framed on center in several of the openings that can be accessed from the side paths leading to the Lawn. As one approaches the colonnade from these paths, the isolation of the single column emphasizes its individuality; by the time one enters the walkway, this reading gives way to an understanding of its participation within a multiplicity, as the entire colonnade comes into view.  Its original beige sandstone color further emphasized its distinct but plural identity. While the repetition of the column is what gives the Lawn its immediate coherence, its seeming constancy and symmetricality is belied by what is actually a mobile variability.

The colonnade is in fact not symmetrical. Due to the terracing of the Lawn, as well as the different widths and orders of the Pavilions, the spacing of the colonnade, or intercolumniation, must shift accordingly. Furthermore, as mentioned above, each Pavilion interacts with the colonnade in a different manner. In Pavilion VII (the first Pavilion to be built), the columniation (at the ground level) is entirely suspended, an arcade of piers being substituted. Several of the Pavilions (such as Pavilion V), have giant orders which connect the colonnade on either side of it, although the orders are pushed forward to designate their position in the hierarchy. Pavilion VIII, on the other hand, has a giant order that is recessed into a niche that forms the entrance to the building. Pavilion VI has no giant order at all; its order is the same as the colonnade, although it is shifted forward to designate its belonging to the Pavilion. The intercolumniation becomes compressed around some of the Pavilions: sometimes the compression is symmetrical (as in Pavilion III), and sometimes not (as in Pavilion V, due to the sloping terrace). The columns flanking Pavilion X are grouped in twos to reflect the spacing of the Pavilion order, in effect appropriating that section of the colonnade along with its dormitory cells to imply that they are part of the Pavilion complex. Rather than a static entity, the colonnade exists in a dynamic equilibrium, since the column unit can enter into highly variable relations with each other and with the Pavilion orders, depending on each contingent situation; as an image of how “order and liberty seek their integration,” it could not be more vivid.