The more I look at the cover to the Symbol album, it looks like those buildings are actually a small model, and the overhead photo of Prince was combined with the shot of these small structures.

It just doesn't seem like a straight shot for some reason. I don't have the album cover in front of me as I type this, but if memory serves me right, some of the shadows are missing too.

Tom said:

It always looked like a fairly unconvincing soundstage to me, made slightly more realistic by the image being somewhat out of focus. But that's just my mental snapshot of the cover, as I don't have it next to me right now...