Sentence:  He turned back to the scene before him and the enormous new block of council dwellings. The design was some way after Corbusier but the block was built up on <WSD>plinths</WSD> and resembled an Atlantic liner swimming diagonally across the site. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A block or slab upon which a column, pedestal, statue or other structure is based.