At first I saw the lights and thought, oh maybe we're back in NYC, except it's just dark! Because NYC had a lot of huge buildings, or rather a particular island in NYC had a lot of huge buildings and everywhere else was just packed really really tightly.
But at least over there, the air wasn't as bad. It WAS bad, less so near Brakebills, but also there was at least sunlight!
So I'm taking a guess that this is not Earth at all. Can this building take us somewhere that is more Earth though? I feel like there are so many places there that I haven't visited and we just end up.. here.
God I miss Fillory