The Foreigner cast a glance at the tall buildings in the quadrant bordering the ponds, and it became obvious that he was seeing the place for the first time, and that it interested him.

Thats my attempt. Not sure if 'embordering' is a word, but your 'the square of the buildings' is probably more like what the author was trying to say than my talk about 'quadrants'... I like 'as interesting as unfamiliar to him', but I think maybe the 'seeing' and the 'being interesting' are 2 different ideas, not related in that way? My guess anyway.