All language subtitles for How.Did.They.Build.That.S04E02.Medals.and.Marinas.1080p.FUBO.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-FFG_track3_[eng]

How do you create
a breathtaking resort hotel

from towers that appear
to be about to topple,

built on land
reclaimed from the sea?

It was how to get these
two faces of the buildings

moving in relationship to each
other that they were dancing.

How do you balance
4000 tons of museum 40 feet

in the air,
built to honor America’s finest?

All together, our jaws just hit
the ground of, like, "Wow!"

Can you build
something like that?

And how do you design
an office building

that tracks the sun
to protect an iconic park below?

If we were to build a building

that casted shadows all over
the High Line,

that would have been a real sin.

Welcome to a world
where anything is possible,

the space where innovation
and creativity collide.

This isn’t just impressive.
It’s revolutionary.

Where the only limit
is human imagination.

This wasn’t just
ambitious. It was audacious.

No one had ever
attempted anything like it.

Unpacking the miracles

and mysteries of construction.,.

Sometimes buildings
can change the world.

And this is one of them.

To ask,
How Did They Build That?

In 164 years, just over 3,500
US military personnel have been

awarded the National Medal
of Honor for bravery in combat.

So designing a museum

to honor these incredible
individuals called

for a building
that was not only functional,

but would also embody
the huge weight

of responsibility and sacrifice
of these true American heroes

through every inch
of its construction.

Heroes like Colonel Jack Jacobs,
who repeatedly faced enemy fire

to rescue wounded men
in Vietnam.

Nobody goes into combat

with the objective of becoming
cited for battlefield valor.

Everybody wants
to complete the mission,

take care of each other,
and go home.

In Afghanistan,

Britt Slabinski led a rescue
mission to save a teammate.

Outnumbered and outgunned,

they held out until the team
was extracted.

This is really
about being human.

We’re seeing
a very bad situation

and realizing I can do
something

to make the situation better

and willing
to give your life to do it.

In Vietnam,
Patrick Brady carried out

a daring helicopter mission

to evacuate
wounded soldiers.

You’re rescuing
great American soldiers.

And if you get killed
doing what you’re doing,

what better way to die?

I mean, come on.

By March 2025,

3,528 personnel have been
awarded this medal

reserved for the bravest
of the brave.

Yet at the start
of the 21st century,

there is no place
that celebrates these heroes.

But that’s about to change.

We wanted these recipients

to know how much
they were appreciated.

To know that there would
be a home for their story,

and to know that their sacrifice
was not for naught.

In 2019, Arlington, Texas

is chosen as the home of a new
museum to honor these heroes:

the National Medal
of Honor Museum.

The military is
a big deal in Texas.

Almost 100 of the medal’s
recipients have lived in Texas,

and 1.8 million veterans

and serving military
call it home.

The museum foundation has
a building site

and 300 million U.S. dollars.

Now it wants
an incredible design.

Just having a normal
four-sided building with a roof

that’s a square or rectangle
wasn’t going to cut it.

They turned
to Rafael Viñoly Architects.

Viñoly’s designs are the perfect
antidote to normal.

Viñoly is inspired
by the recipients of the medal.

You notice this burden

of responsibility
that the recipients feel

after they actually
receive the Medal of Honor.

The hunch that he had
is that this museum

shouldn’t be a building.

It should be
more like a monument.

This translated itself

to a symbolic steel block
lifted by five columns,

which are the five branches
of the U.S. Army.

Viñoly’s design will
give Arlington a building

unlike anything the nation
has ever seen.

A beautiful metal box

which appears impossibly
balanced in the air.

Somehow, they will need
to engineer five slender columns

to represent
the then five branches

of the U.S. military,

and be strong enough to carry
the entire weight

of the building.

Then they need to create
an incredible frame

that can support
the 4000-ton museum,

as it appears to float 40 feet
in the air.

Finally, they need to create
a dramatic way

to transport the visitors
up into the monument

and to the inspirational
stories inside.

Incredible, but also
incredibly challenging.

All together, our jaws
just hit the ground of, like,

"Wow, can we actually do that?

Can you build
something like that?"

It’s one thing to design it.

It’s another thing for
the actual workers and engineers

to put it together up
in the air, suspended by cranes,

wind blowing, metal bending,
and put the bolts together.

But there was no doubt this was
the way we wanted to go.

So in March 2022, the team
begins by excavating the site

and constructing a seriously
sturdy foundation.

The responsibility
of delivering this idea...

all of a sudden
became that as "Wow...

Now we have to do it".

The first big challenge

is creating the five enormous
columns

that will allow the building
to float 40 feet up in the air.

The design load for each
of the mega columns was

nearly 2,000 kilopounds,

and that’s a pretty
significant load.

It has to be not only
a strong column,

it has to be a beautiful column,
and to design,

this was the challenge.

Viñoly wants them to be
finished in bare concrete,

but pouring them on site?

They can’t guarantee
the right finish.

We decided it should
be precast concrete

under laboratory conditions,
which is more controllable.

And you get qualities
of the surface

which is--
which is much, much better.

Even then, the precast
concrete sections have

to be finished when they come
out of the factory molds.

We had to sandblast them
and acid wash

to make the clean finish
that the architect wanted

on the exposed columns.

Once complete,
the 35 rings are delivered

from their factory in Dallas,
Texas, to Arlington,

where they will be carefully
lifted into position

to form each column.

It’s a task that falls to tower
crane operator Nico Clayton.

Being an operator out here,
every piece that I install,

I can honestly say
there was no room for error.

Those engineers
did a lot of math checking,

and then the pressure was really
on us to not break them

when we got them into place.

For veteran Nico,

who served in the Marine Corps,

building the museum is like
a military maneuver.

We were all brothers out here,
just helping... one big team.

Shifting the 35 pieces

of precast concrete
into position is a slow process.

We had to make sure that
they were perfectly aligned.

We had some critical lifts.
We definitely had some moments.

But in February 2023,
all five columns are complete.

Then in March, the team is
hit with devastating news.

Rafael Viñoly dies
at the age of 78.

It was a big shock for us
as a team,

for me personally,
to hear when he passed.

I felt this huge responsibility
to carry on his vision.

To do that, the team has
to overcome the next challenge:

balancing 4000 tons of museum
on the five slender columns.

A lot of sleepless
nights went into this

because, even if we didn’t know
how to make it,

we had to take the lead to tell
the team that this is possible.

You have five columns
that make a pentagon

of narrow little support points,

and somehow they’ve got

to make it hold up a heavy
square building

40 feet in the air.

Their ingenious solution
is to create a spider web

of super strong,
interconnected steel girders.

We build the pentagon,
and then from the pentagon

you make the internal star,

and then from each of the
five apexes of the pentagon,

you do the star to connect
the corners of the square.

As if it’s not hard enough

constructing the web of steel
40 feet in the air,

they also have to compensate

for when the 4000-ton
building goes on top.

You have to actually fabricate
it slightly higher

so that when the weight actually
starts to act,

it actually sinks down into the
final geometry

where you want it.

It was complicated.

We had ambient temperatures
of 107 degrees,

and those steel
members would raise

and lower off
their temporary supports

just due to thermal expansion.

It was moving a lot.

It would move
two and a half inches

in and out in the course
of a day,

and maybe left and right an inch
and a third or so.

It was incredible.

The steel erector told us it was
the most complicated thing

he had done in a 40-year career.

In May 2023,
the intricate web of steel

that forms the frame
is finished.

Now, somehow,
they need to construct

the actual museum
40 feet in the air.

They’ve constructed
a firm frame,

but it’s only perched
on five points.

That makes building on it
a very delicate balancing act.

At the end of the day,
we needed a horizontal

exhibition hall and not
a crooked one.

The steel
had to be put on

in a planned
successive order

or the building would twist
or tilt out of alignment.

First, they need
to construct a steel box

that forms the framework
of the museum,

before carefully adding
the panels and insulation

that form the walls
and make it watertight.

The floor deck,
the walls,

and the metal panels...

You had to weight each part

of the building
relatively equally

so that it would come together
the way it was intended to.

In August 2023,

with the main structure
of the museum well underway,

it’s time to tackle
the next big hurdle.

We built a museum
40 feet up in the air.

How do we get people actually
in there, was the question.

In Arlington, Texas,

the team behind the construction

of the National Medal
of Honor Museum is facing

its next big challenge...

...how to get visitors

up to the steel box
floating 40 feet in the air.

Viñoly’s vision was
for two intertwined,

spiraling staircases that
represent the journey of valor.

Separating them represents
the rising up

to meet the extraordinary
challenges,

and then coming back down
to earth,

carrying the weight of those
experiences and memories.

A curved construction

like this is very
difficult to fabricate.

You basically need
to create the plates and bend it

and warp it in a way
which is very unusual.

With such high stakes,

they turned to
one of the world leaders

in curved steel fabrication,
5000 miles away in Europe.

The Netherlands have a tradition
of ship builders,

and hulls
of ships are also curved

with thick plates, and therefore
they have a certain advantage

to create these kind
of curved structures.

Created in sections,

they can only hope
their measurements are spot on

once the pieces are on site.

They had to bring it in,
and then miraculously,

it had to fit in place.

You can only know if it works

or not when you try
to install it,

and that’s when it’s too late.

So everything had

to be coordinated
to a quarter of an inch.

They’ve solved the problem
of getting people in.

But what about a showstopper
of an exhibit?

Well, that’s another story.

Somehow they need to get

Major General Patrick Brady’s
Vietnam War

helicopter in there, too.

I thought, "How in the hell
are they going to do that?"

It was an engineering
feat itself.

The engineers designed
an opening

in the actual steel frame

so we could pull
the helicopter through.

They picked her up with a crane,
and they turned that thing,

and then they fitted it
into the building.

With the helicopter
safely installed,

the building can be finished.

It’s always exciting
to see what you thought

about in sketches
or in your computer is actually

really built at the end
of the day.

On National Medal
of Honor Day, March 25, 2025,

the museum opens to the public.

I could not be more proud
to be a part

of this incredible mission.

It took three years
to build from 19,000 tons

of steel and concrete.

But it’s bigger than the sum
of its parts.

This building, while beautiful,
means more to our community

and our country
than the architecture.

It’s about our heroes.

This will be a legacy for us

to cherish forever,

and a pathway of hope

for a brighter America
for tomorrow.

The results of the Medal
of Honor Museum is remarkable.

We all take pride.

There is so much personal
suffering involved

that you feel the pressure

to make this one perfect
building for them.

When I first
walked into this room here,

I had an emotional moment
that "We got it".

Packed with the most
inspiring stories

of incredible courage, it’s
a fitting architectural marvel

to celebrate America’s bravest.

It’s a project that means
a lot to everyone.

This museum will allow
guys like me

to serve long after we’re dead.

It is so much more
than just the building.

It is an effort to pass
on the values

that made this country free.

What could you do
with 6,000,000 square feet

of waterlogged land?

World famous architect
Moshe Safdie

bet he could
build an iconic luxury resort

and casino stacked
like a house of cards.

It was a huge gamble,

but the developer took
the bet and hit the jackpot.

In the early 2000s,

the island city state
of Singapore had a population

of four million people

and around 11.5 million visitors
each year.

So when the government finally
opened the door to casinos...

...American casino magnate
Sheldon Adelson

saw an opportunity
he couldn’t pass up.

Mr. Adelson really changed
the, you know, the dynamic.

In 1999, when the Venetian
Las Vegas opened

with 3000 all-room suites
and half a million square feet

of retail space--

certainly every development
post-The Venetian Las Vegas,

by and large,
copied that business model.

In 2005,

the Singaporean government puts
out a call for bids

to construct a 6,000,000
square foot mega resort

on a waterlogged plot of land

on the coast at Marina Bay.

Determined to win,
Adelson teams up with one

of the world’s most visionary
architects, Moshe Safdie.

The Adelsons had known Moshe
from, you know,

his work in Israel
and other places.

And, um, you know, he was very
well respected in Singapore.

Adelson asked Safdie to
design the resort around

a single enormous statement
hotel tower,

but Safdie isn’t convinced.

3,000 rooms singular building
would have been just a wall

that separates the site
and downtown from the sea.

We said we must break down
the hotel into three towers,

and by slipping them,

that actually almost
created a sense of dance.

Safdie’s idea for
Singapore’s

first casino is breathtaking.

Sandwiched between the city
and the bay will be

three 627-foot-tall towers
soaring into the sky.

Building it will be challenging,
starting with the land itself,

which, like 20% of Singapore,
has been reclaimed from the sea.

Onto soggy, shifting soil,

they will need to figure out
how to build

three pairs of leaning towers
designed to create big windows

to the views in between.

Finally, they have to crown
the 57 floors with a sky garden

the length of four jumbo jets,

which will hang unsupported
over thin air and will hold up

one of the world’s
largest infinity pools.

It’s a very ambitious design,

but whether it can be
built is another story.

To make things more difficult,

the government wants the casino
opened in 27 months.

It would be a tight schedule
even for a simple tower,

let alone these.

In 2007, construction
begins and the team

immediately hits
their first challenge:

building on land
that used to be ocean.

Marine clay is every engineer’s
nightmare: soft, unstable,

like quicksand, dig a hole
and it instantly collapses.

So we introduce...

a quite innovative solution
using a circular basement wall

to resist the water
and the soil.

They’re a bit like
giant cookie cutters

that they plunge through
the soft ground,

and the circular shape

disperse the pressure
from the groundwater.

With the wall in place,

the team starts removing
the soft soil from inside,

ready to create
the solid foundations.

But in 2008,
a year into the project,

the world is plunged into
the most severe economic crisis

in 80 years.

At the time,

we were developing in
four different jurisdictions.

It put the company
in a very tough position

and it had to make
some difficult decisions.

It’s 2008, and the construction

of Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands
Hotel has been thrown into doubt

by the worldwide
financial crisis.

Across the globe,

construction projects are
put on hold.

Many never restart,
but businessman Sheldon Adelson

is determined
that won’t happen here.

Mr. Adelson wrote a very sizable
check

to keep the company afloat
during the financial crisis.

It means they can keep going.

But with many contractors
having gone bust,

the crash meant that opening
in 2009 looked unlikely.

The team’s next challenge
will be constructing

the leaning towers that will
reveal the views around them.

Safdie designed each tower
as two halves,

an east side and a west side
that leaned inward,

relying completely
on each other.

They’re locked together.

If one side moves or slips,
the whole thing collapses.

The two halves connect
at the 23rd floor.

Until they reach this point,
the whole structure is at risk.

This is the magic trick.

How do you keep up a house of
cards with only one card, right?

Part of the answer is they build
these big temporary struts

that hold the weight
of the leaning tower

while they’re constructing it.

The team also wants to
super strengthen the concrete

by putting tension on it
after it’s poured.

They run steel cables
from the top of each tower,

threading through the entire
structure and anchoring it

securely into the concrete
foundation at the base.

These high tension cables,

they counteract the tower’s
extreme lean.

In July 2009, the leaning
towers are supported

and post-tensioned, and the team
can move on to the next stage.

Until that time, we are
stepping on very thin ice.

The three towers soon
rocket up towards the sky.

But they won’t be the end
of the engineering challenges,

because Safdie’s vision
for what goes

on top of them will be
even more daring.

The program talked about
gardens, swimming pools,

park-like spaces,

and by the time we’ve laid out
all the spaces needed

and the tower and so on,
the only option possibly

would have been creating
many garden spaces,

outdoor spaces within the
buildings at different levels.

Instead, Safdie has
an audacious idea.

Since we’re working with models
in the model shop

and we have
the three towers,

there was this big large
piece of balsa wood,

and at some point, I don’t know,

it just was a moment
of intuition.

I said, "Well,
why don’t we take and do that?"

And I put that on top
of the... and, you know,

all of a sudden it was
total transformation.

Everybody was in shock,
including myself.

We sprinkled some lichen
on to represent trees

and put a piece
of blue paper on it

to represent the pool,
and we said, "That’s it."

That’s it was
an easy thing to say.

Able to hold nearly
4,000 guests at a time,

Safdie’s Sky Park
will be 1,120 feet long

and 125 feet wide.

But that’s only the beginning.

There was another moment
where that park was sitting

symmetrically
on the three towers.

And then we met with
the feng shui consultant,

and he said,
"Symmetry is not good."

And I think about it, says,
"If symmetry is not good,

let’s go all the way."

And I pushed it cantilever
to one side

and everything
got transformed again

because it became very dynamic.

Instead of static,
it became dynamic.

And when he says dynamic,

he actually means 218 feet
of garden

will be sticking out 627 feet
up in the air.

To keep it up there,

the enormous overhang will need
to be supported just at one end.

Engineers
call this a cantilever.

They’re not uncommon,

but this one is truly
extraordinary.

If the cantilever structure is
too flimsy like a diving board,

it won’t perform as is needed.

To make sure it does,

the engineers devise
an extraordinary frame,

incorporating over
7,700 tons of steel,

which is forged into trusses,

beams and incredibly
strong box girders.

Along with the rest
of the sky garden,

it needs to be lifted 650 feet
into the air.

By the time they start,
it’s October,

which brings with it rains
and high winds.

The box girders in
particular were lifted

side by side,

and they were within only
a couple meters of the facade.

So what they needed
to do was make sure

that that deadlift
was very vertical

and would not sway
and maybe even hit the tower.

In Singapore,

the construction team behind
the Marina Bay Sands Hotel

must lift the Sky Park,

including the 7700-ton
overhang 650 feet into the air,

making sure it doesn’t hit
the tower on the way up.

When you’re lifting
big pieces, as we did--

I mean, unprecedented,
big pieces of the sky park--

you better be careful
about the wind.

And they monitor the wind
carefully.

Especially now, when
the monsoon surge brings in

heavy winds and rain.

Thankfully, though,
it all goes to plan,

and with the worst
out of the way,

they can get the job done.

In early 2010,
the sky park is finished.

When the final steel structure
was all in place,

that was a wonderful
thing to see.

You could finally see
the silhouette of the tower

on the skyline.

And on June 23rd,

the Marina Bay Sands Hotel
opens its doors.

Having weathered a financial
crisis and monsoon season,

it’s a little behind schedule.

But the soaring towers
make the wait worthwhile.

I still feel a sense of pride
in terms of what we have,

you know, and I think
for Singapore, we are truly

blessed to have such
an iconic landmark here.

While hanging over
650 feet in the air

atop the three towers
is the incredible Sky Park.

Here was an opportunity for me
as an architect

to really show
what public realm can be like.

And it’s kind of become both

a regional
and a national symbol.

I feel very lucky to have had
the good fortune to design it.

The resort now welcomes
45 million visitors a year

and has become an iconic fixture
on the city’s skyline.

It’s still the landmark
of Singapore,

and it will be for a long time.

New York City did something

downright impressive
by its own lofty standards

when it transformed
a dilapidated,

elevated railroad track

into one of the city’s most
beloved public parks:

the High Line.

But as the park flourished,
new construction

all around threw
a little too much shade,

threatening its survival--
that is, until the Solar Carve

let the light shine on how to be

a good neighbor
to the High Line.

Solar Carve is not
your everyday building.

It’s sculpted
by sunlight itself.

Think of it as a skyscraper
designed by the sun,

a tower that protects
the city below.

160,000 square feet
of office space.

butting up against
the High Line,

a stunning mile and a half
long elevated park running

through Manhattan,
Solar Carve could have been

a disaster.

The High Line spurred a massive

amount of development
all around it.

From the Hudson Yards down
to the Meatpacking District,

you had developers
buying every square inch.

The new buildings going
up were getting

taller and taller.

They threatened to plunge

the High Line
into permanent shadow,

killing the park’s
precious plant life.

But the developers of the site,

on the corner of 10th Avenue

and 14th Street, are determined
to do something different.

Sunlight is obviously
of the utmost importance.

If we were to build a building
here that would cast shadows

on the vegetation of the
High Line, it would have been

detrimental to their vibrancy
and their vitality.

So the challenge is on.

How do you build
an incredible new tower

without blocking out
all of the light?

By looking to the past.

For millennia, we’ve
created increasingly

complicated structures based
around the movement of the sun,

ancient stones that mark
the changing of the seasons.

The Egyptian pyramids were built
to catch the solstice light.

Then the Mayans
aligned buildings

with astrological events.

But building
a modern working skyscraper

sculpted by the path of the sun?

That would be a whole
different story.

So right back
in the concept stage,

we were working
with the architect to look at

all the different sun angles

throughout the whole year,
and adding up how much

light hits different parts
of the High Line.

Predicting exactly how shadows

would fall was
insanely complicated.

It took cutting-edge software
to get it just right.

A lighting team actually
did all these models

with all the sun paths passing
over it throughout the year.

And you can actually figure out
how much light we’re actually

letting through onto different
areas of the High Line.

Now the architects
of Studio Gang need

to transform this concept
into a design

for the new tower.

We have dozens of models where

we tried different geometries
and tested those,

and ultimately

landed on this kind
of angular geometry.

One engineer described it

as taking a bite
out of an apple,

but this bite meant the
High Line got three times more

sunlight than a typical
building would allow.

A big bite
in the Big Apple is a bold idea

and has an even bolder design.

They’ll need to start

at the bottom by driving
in super deep concrete piles,

without damaging
the High Lines’ wooden piles

that are a hundred years old.

The tower will then have
pieces of building

carved out to allow
the sun to reach the High Line.

But while they’ve calculated
where to carve,

they now have to work out how
to do it without

weakening the entire building.

Finally, they’ll
need to cover it

in glass in a way that’s safe
for birds and keeps people

below from getting
fried like ants

under a magnifying glass.

Oh, and the developers need

to buy in to what’s
a pretty out there design.

Studio Gang’s design stood
out when it came to creating

something really
special in this neighborhood.

The complication,
though, was the cost

and complexity
of building this building.

They decide helping
the High Line underneath

makes it worthwhile,
but it’s not going to be easy.

If we were building
this building

in an open field
in the middle of nowhere,

would we be able to hammer piles
into the ground?

Yes, because the vibrations

associated with that activity
would impact nothing.

However, given the proximity
of the High Line,

you have some pretty
serious issues.

Because although the High
Line was opened to the public

as a beautiful park in 2009,
it didn’t start out that way.

In the early 1900s,

New York City streets were
a death trap.

New York’s booming growth

flooded the streets
with people, cars,

trucks, you name it,

all fighting for space
beneath towering new buildings.

People were walking across
the street and just getting hit

by trains, you know, that were
carrying pretty hefty materials

right through
pedestrian traffic.

10th and 11th avenues were

so dangerous, they were
known as Death Avenue.

In 1929, the city

and the railroad company
came together

and knew that they needed to do
something differently.

I bring you today
the final elimination,

of what has for years been
known as the Death Avenue site.

The solution was
to elevate the tracks,

move them from the street,

and build an elevated
freight train structure.

Freight transportation
booms

and the streets below
are finally safe again.

Fast forward 50 years,

and there’s no more need
for freight trains in the city.

In 1980, the High Line carries
its last cargo.

Then in 1999, just before
leaving office,

Mayor Rudy Giuliani
orders its demolition,

but locals have seen it
become something special.

What took root was
this beautiful landscape

made up of wildflowers
and different grasses.

Friends of the High Line,
a nonprofit organization

determined to save the High
Line, raises 50 million USD,

and the city commits another
100 million.

They bring in design studio
Diller, Scofidio, and Renfro,

landscape architects,
field operations,

and garden designer Piet Oudolf
to create the stunning park.

It was breathtaking.

An urban oasis pulling
in millions

of visitors every single year.

But it’s still a century-old
structure constructed using

lots of wood, which frankly,
doesn’t age very well.

Building next to it
could cause it to collapse.

They needed a smarter solution.

In the Meatpacking
District of New York City,

work is underway to construct
the foundation of a new tower

right next to the High Line
public park.

They couldn’t drive piles
the usual way,

because vibrations might damage
the High Line’s

fragile timber foundations.

They needed a smarter solution.

It kind of looks
like a massive corkscrew...

that is constantly moving soil
from the bottom up over the top.

Used on soft soils where
the land has been reclaimed,

these drills create the minimum
amount of ground disturbance.

You drill the ground out and you
actually extract the cuttings,

as we call it, from inside
the pile, to create a hole

all the way down
to the rock that you

then fill with reinforcement
and pouring concrete.

With painstaking care,
Solar Carve’s foundation

goes in without
bringing the High Line down.

The next challenge is
building the carves.

Cutting chunks out of a building
is extremely risky,

like pulling a leg
out from under a table.

How do you stop it
from tipping over?

On a normal building,

floors are supported by columns

which transfer the loads
directly into the foundation.

But the carve would leave them
hanging in mid-air.

The solution was to slope
the columns,

which came
with its own challenges.

Wherever they change direction,

they create a horizontal force,

and that tries to pull
the column out of the slab.

To keep everything rock solid,

engineers had to tie
everything back to the one part

of the building strong
enough to resist it: the core.

This structural spine
usually sits in the middle.

But having cut out the carves,
the developer wants

to keep as much premium
floor space as possible.

So they put it on the far side,

but that’s much further
away from the sloping columns.

So where
these horizontal forces

need to go into the core,

there’s more reinforcing steel,

which is what holds
that force back, particularly

if it’s sloping away at the edge
of the building.

We have to pull that force back.

We have to pull
all this extra steel in there.

In fact, it takes tons
of concrete and steel.

But in April 2018, the structure
of the Solar Carve is solid,

and the team turns its attention

to creating the curving
glass facade.

So with a big glass facade,

particularly with these curved
sections to it,

there was a concern about the
effect of focusing the light.

In 2013, the curved glass
on the brand new

Walkie Talkie
building in London had melted

the cars parked below.

It is the hottest I have ever
felt in London.

It’s all because
of that building beside me.

It’s just fried an egg.
That’s how hot it is.

It falls to Marcus and the team

to make sure that
doesn’t happen to the High Line.

The carve created
very complicated geometry.

How do I sculpt the surface

into individual pieces
that can be prefabricated?

So this gemstone-like pattern
came together where the diamond

and the triangles
create the sculpted surface.

There’s lots of facets,

and that actually
tends to disperse the light

and reflect it
in different places.

So there’s not
one big sort of focusing effect.

We all felt
we had come up with

something that was
quite extraordinary.

The other major challenge
the facade

needs to overcome
is flying birds.

There are a billion birds killed
every year flying into glass

because they just don’t
see the building.

If there’s too
much reflectivity,

then they perceive it
as a reflection of the sky.

In some instances, they may not
perceive the surface at all.

The team is determined to
ensure the Solar Carve

- isn’t an avian death trap.
- You can do a number of things.

Our glass is very dark,

and the angled surface
and the framing

provides a visual
noise that the birds see

and it protects them.

It takes 36 months to design

and fit the glass exterior,

But finally, in July 2019,

Solar Carve takes its place

as the High Line’s
good neighbor,

a shining example of how
modern architecture can work

to improve the lives
of the people

and the nature around it.

I think the first time that
I stepped onto the 10th floor,

which is the top floor

of this building,
looking to my left,

you could see
straight through the glass.

That was the first time where
I said to myself,

"Wow, we did
something spectacular here."

The architects who built
this building actually

kept in mind the people
who live here.

It’s nice to have some life
in New York.

This ingenious design
not only protects the High Line,

but also inspires others
to preserve

this stunning parkland
and its surrounding environment

for generations to come.

I can see if it had gone
all the way out to the pavement,

this space would have
been one big shadow.

Studio Gang’s good neighbor,

the daring Solar Carve has
earned its place

besides the extraordinary
reimagination of the High Line.

Creating something here that was
special was vitally important,

But also vitally important to us
is the neighborhood as a whole.

And if we were to build
a building here

that casted shadows
all over the High Line,

that would have been a real sin.

♪ MTV ♪