Original subtitles

[Narrator] Construction, heavy machinery,

tight schedules, millions at stake.

What could go wrong?

Everything.

Whether it's faulty equipment, poor design,

human error, or just bad luck,

these are Construction Fails.

In this episode...

There's trouble under the overpass.

[Onlooker 1] Oh, [bleep], oh, [bleep]!

[Onlooker 2] Oh, my god!

[Narrator] Add fuel to a fire and things go up in smoke fast.

Sometimes things go from good to bad in a snap.

This is one astronomical fail.

Ever feel like you're on cloud nine?

That's the appeal of a soaring skyscraper.

But life in the clouds isn't always

what it's cracked up to be.

Building materials-- use the wrong ones,

and no huff, no puff,

the house just comes down.

Ever get that sinking feeling?

The airport in Osaka sure does.

So how on Earth are they fixing it?

Architecture is subjective.

Is this a masterpiece?

Or a master miss?

It's not crystal clear.

Highways.

We love them.

We hate them.

We love to hate them.

They connect our towns, cities, states, even countries,

and get us where we need to go...

eventually.

Most days, we take them for granted.

But when something goes wrong, really wrong, we take notice.

On June 11, 2023,

Philadelphia commuters on Interstate 95

really took notice...

[Commuter 1] Oh, [bleep], be careful!

[Narrator] ...when an overpass bridge of the highway

set ablaze.

[Commuter 2] Oh, [bleep], oh, [bleep]!

[Commuter 3] Oh, my god!

[Narrator] Interstate 95 is one

of the United States' major highways.

Weaving a 1,900-mile path of road

with multiple overpass bridges

from Florida

all the way up to Maine,

connecting 15 states.

The I-95 is a vital artery of the Eastern Seaboard.

Sometimes, arteries get clogged up.

That's what happened when this overpass caught fire.

Detours redirected thousands of daily commuters,

some up to 45 minutes out of their way.

Flooding, construction mistakes,

and overload are some of the leading reasons

why bridges collapse.

But not this one.

It's the load carried under the overpass

that caused this calamity.

A tanker truck, like this one,

carrying 8,500 gallons of gasoline caught fire

beneath the overpass bridge.

The result?

A partial bridge collapse onto the road below.

The I-95 overpass bridge isn't the first to catch fire.

Overpasses catch fire for multiple reasons.

In 2017, an overpass in Atlanta caught fire

after construction materials ignited below it.

Another tanker fire happened in Montreal, Canada,

and on Ohio's State Route 8 in the United States.

But it didn't end with a major bridge collapse like this one.

So what went wrong?

Aren't bridges fireproof?

The short answer: not really.

Most bridges are designed with little to no consideration

for fireproofing.

The United States' design bridge criteria

provides little guidance

on engineering bridges for fire resistance.

America's National Fire Protection Association

does have some guidelines,

but they only apply to bridges over 1,000 feet long.

There are more than half a million bridges

currently in use across the U.S.

And the majority of collapsed overpasses

fall short of 1,000 feet.

The I-95 overpass bridge was built to code,

with little to no consideration of fireproofing,

just like most bridges.

What do we know?

The overpass bridge was built from concrete

supported by steel girders.

Steel typically remains unchanged

until reaching about 600 degrees Fahrenheit.

At 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, it loses 50% of its strength.

At 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit, it melts.

Fires range in heat.

A candle flame burns at about 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit,

a propane torch at 3,400 degrees Fahrenheit

and can rise all the way up

to a scorching 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

So what made this fire hot enough to take down a bridge?

We know there was fuel literally added to the fire.

But how much of it?

Tanker trucks can carry

more than 11,000 gallons of gasoline.

The tanker on the I-95 was loaded with 8,500 gallons;

well within its capacity.

Things took a turn for the worse

when the driver turned off the I-95.

A tanker truck, like this one, can be tough to handle

on an off-ramp, where the road curves

and the speed goes down to 25 miles per hour.

There are even truck rollover warning signs.

Although the driver's taken this exact route

at least 30 times that year alone,

on June 11th of 2023, he lost control,

despite being equipped with special features

to prevent tipping, like advanced roll stability sensors

and speed reduction sensors,

the truck tipped

and was engulfed in flames almost immediately.

Once a tanker truck rolls over, all bets are off.

Its aluminum tank can rupture, releasing gas fumes

that can ignite fast and spread even faster.

The truck's diesel tank can meet a similar fate.

Improperly secured seals and hatches

are similarly dangerous.

All of these can lead to gasoline spilling...

lots of it.

Once this highly flammable load offloads and makes its way

to a source of ignition like a hot engine,

it's over.

Investigators discovered that the manhole cover

on the forward tank compartment wasn't fastened properly.

It wasn't fastened at all.

This security image taken at the tanker truck's

final loading station shows the manhole cover was open

when the trailer left the facility.

The fire fueled by gallons of gasoline

pouring out of an open hatch served as an accelerant,

creating a fire hot enough

not only to melt the steel supports of the bridge,

but to fail them altogether, resulting in collapse,

and taking the life of the driver.

The impact of the I-95 incident doesn't go away

with a case closed or a highway cleanup.

When a bridge like this shuts down a section of highway,

it also impacts jobs.

Commercial shipping, retail shopping, deliveries.

It impacts the economy.

When a similar incident in 2003

shut down a portion of the MacArthur Maze

in Oakland, California, the estimated cost

of having the maze out of commission

was in the millions per day.

Mindful of the costs,

the I-95 overpass was back up and running

a mere 12 days later, thanks to fast-acting engineers

who put in a temporary section of bridge

while the permanent bridge continued to be built.

Philly residents eagerly watched the progress live.

It was an engineering feat.

Six lanes of traffic were operational

until permanent work on the bridge was finally completed

in May of 2024.

To answer the biggest questions about our universe,

we have to think big.

Real big.

Radio telescopes are behemoth pieces of technology

that can cover the area of 26 football fields.

Powerful enough to pick up some of the weakest signals

from space, allowing us to study stars, galaxies,

even planets beyond our solar system.

The larger the surface area of the dish,

the more data it collects.

So size is king.

The Arecibo dish was 20 acres.

To get an accurate reading, radio receiver equipment

must be suspended on a giant platform,

hovering over the dish.

Building and maintaining a structure

that can weigh more than 20 tractor trailers in midair

is an astronomical feat itself.

Workers can snap under heavy stress,

and so can cables.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

This is what happened in Arecibo, Puerto Rico,

on December 1st of 2020.

The Arecibo Observatory was built in 1963

in a natural concave sinkhole,

nuzzled in the mountains of Puerto Rico.

The secluded location minimized electromagnetic interference

from TV, radio or radar.

And its proximity to the equator offered

an exceptional view of asteroids, comets, and planets.

It was initially commissioned

by America's Department of Defense

to track long-range weapons from the Soviets

during the Cold War.

A few short years later,

the observatory began a more peaceful role

of listening to the stars.

Arecibo's radio telescope became the biggest

and the most powerful radio transmitter on Earth.

It uncovered the first planets outside our solar system

and beamed our first intentional message

to the stars.

It contributed to numerous scientific breakthroughs,

until 900 tons of research equipment came hurtling down.

[Narrator] The Arecibo's unique concave dish

used electromagnetic radiation

to explore space with unparalleled precision.

Suspended above was a platform

housing all radar-receiving equipment.

Three support towers held it all in place using cable.

Lots and lots of cable.

A network of cables ran from each tower

to the suspended platform, to secure it in place.

Additional cables ran from the towers to the ground

anchoring the entire structure.

More than four miles of steel cable was used.

That's more than twice the length

of the Golden Gate Bridge,

which happens to use a similar steel cable system.

With six lanes of traffic and two sidewalks,

rush hour is a stressful time for its drivers and its cables.

But this suspension bridge can handle a hefty load

of more than 200,000 tons.

The cables of the Arecibo were designed

to support the 900-ton load.

But they didn't.

They snapped.

Obliterating the dish and damaging

surrounding observatory buildings.

Miraculously, no one was hurt.

The radio telescope's last transmission

was nothing but a loud crash,

echoing through the Arecibo Valley.

So what went wrong?

The steel cables were strong enough to support

double the weight of the platform.

But what supports the supporting cables?

This type of cable is made up

of over 100 steel wires woven together.

The end of the cable is anchored into a socket.

These wires are fanned out, and molten zinc is poured over top.

Once solidified, those wires are locked in a solid block

within the socket.

They're not going anywhere.

The cable and socket system is widely used in construction

to suspend some of our heaviest structures.

The cable sockets aren't known to fail.

But the cable is known to slip.

A process called zinc creep

is when the zinc inside the socket gets deformed.

This can happen under stress,

and contribute to cables slipping out of their sockets.

During assembly, a certain amount of zinc creep

is accepted, even expected.

But no one expected this.

The domed reflector was a late addition to the Arecibo.

It was installed in 1997

to boost the telescope's capabilities,

weighing in at 110 tons, as much as a blue whale.

That would certainly put a strain on the cables.

But engineers had the foresight to add more cable

to support the extra weight.

In 2017, Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, Dominica,

and caused serious damage to several islands

in the Caribbean, taking 4,600 lives in Puerto Rico alone.

Nearly 900 tons of instrumentation

dangling 450 feet in the air seems like an easy target.

For a while, Hurricane Maria seemed like a likely trigger

behind the catastrophic crash at the Arecibo Observatory.

Until 2024, when a committee of experts

finally came to a consensus on the shocking reason

behind the catastrophic collapse.

They think the telescope itself may be to blame

for the zinc creep.

The constant electrical currents

running through the cables and sockets

during the telescope's transmissions

caused the zinc metal that binds the wires to the socket

to loosen.

Once individual wires begin to slip out of the socket,

the outer wires start popping out, one by one.

The weight is no longer equally distributed, and snap.

The electromagnetic radiation that made

the Aricebo radio telescope the most powerful transmitter

in the world also caused its demise.

The catastrophic collapse at the Arecibo Observatory

left a black hole in the astronomical community.

China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope,

better known by its acronym, FAST,

was quick to fill that void.

It holds the current world record

as the largest single-dish radio telescope.

Hopefully it doesn't meet the same fate.

[Narrator] Everything is bigger in the Big Apple,

especially the buildings.

New York City is a mecca for some of the world's tallest

and most iconic skyscrapers.

Sticking their skinny necks into Manhattan's

ever-evolving skyline are skyscrapers

that are a new type of tall: super tall,

defined by a minimum height of 984 feet.

Providing breathtaking bird's-eye views

of Central Park, these are the runway models

of New York's real estate market.

Super tall and super thin.

Not to mention, super pricy.

This stretch of Manhattan skyscrapers

is dubbed Billionaire's Row.

And for good reason.

With price tags as high as the buildings,

a condo similar to this one

can go for a steep 23 million U.S. dollars.

For penthouses that look like this,

you're looking at upwards of 100 million.

432 Park Avenue joined Billionaire's Row in 2015.

The 96-story building is a record-breaking

1,396 feet tall.

It quickly became the "it" building.

432 Park Avenue was the tallest residential tower ever built;

not just in New York City, but the Western Hemisphere.

The penthouse was listed for a jaw-dropping

$169 million.

That price tag includes 30,000 square feet

of state-of-the-art amenities

and panoramic views of the city,

thanks to 10-by-10-foot windows that surface the building.

A dream home... on paper.

But as many sky-high condo residents around the world

can attest, when your home is in the clouds,

you gotta expect some turbulence.

Tall towers encounter high winds.

In this case, you better hope what goes up doesn't come down.

Up high in the sky, even the smallest design flaw

can drain your bank account

and roast you on your investment return.

The residents of 432 Park Ave are discovering

that their top-dollar dream home in the clouds

is a little bit of a nightmare.

The condo board is suing the developers

for $125 million in damages,

listing a whopping 1,500

construction and design defects.

So what went wrong?

Skyscrapers are often defined as having more than 40 floors

or a minimum height of 427 feet.

432 Park Avenue is more than three times taller.

In New York City, space goes for a premium; even air space.

And developers found a loophole

to literally make money out of thin air.

Development companies buy up unused air space nearby

and add it on top of their maxed-out lot

to erect wildly tall buildings

with oddly tiny footprints.

432 Park Avenue has

a height-to-width ratio

of 15 to 1.

To put things in perspective, the original World Trade Center

was the tallest building in the world when completed in 1971.

The ratio of its height to base was less than 7 to 1.

New York City's super tall, super slender trend

caught on worldwide.

All of these tall buildings face the same problem: wind.

It's simple: the taller you build,

the more wind you encounter.

The slimmer you build, the more sway you get.

On a typical day, a 1,000-foot-tall tower

might sway a couple of inches.

In 50-mile-per-hour winds,

it can sway as much as half a foot.

In the rare event of 100-mile-per-hour winds,

a building of this height would sway up to two feet.

This information isn't likely part of the sales pitch.

To help combat high winds, dampers are typically installed

at the tops of these ultra tall towers.

432 Park Avenue has two.

A damper is a massive shock absorber

strapped to the walls of the building

with cables and hydraulics.

Its weight is used to counteract the wind

and pull the building back towards the center.

In a building of such tall height

and such small footprint,

movement can't be avoided completely.

Although the dampers keep residents in the sky

from feeling like mariners at sea,

some are still complaining

about the building's unusual sway.

But that's just one of the many problems listed in the lawsuit.

Early wind tunnel testing showed that 432 Park Avenue

was suffering from significant vibrations,

even in low wind conditions.

When wind moves past a building,

it leaves a low-pressure area in its tracks,

causing vibration known as vortex shedding.

Extreme vortex shedding can cause,

well, extreme structural shedding.

[bleep]

[Onlookers] Oh, [bleep].

Ohhh!

[Narrator] The solution?

Leaving some floors of the building

completely empty and windowless.

Like making holes in the sail of a boat,

this allows wind to pass through the building,

essentially making it more aerodynamic.

This design solution effectively decreased

some vortex shedding, but created wind tunnels

that caused a flurry of other issues.

The lawsuit lists "horrible and obtrusive noise and vibrations"

as major problems.

Some residents compare the noise from the trash chute

to that of detonating a bomb.

Others have been trapped in malfunctioning elevators

due to the building's vibrations.

So 432 Park Avenue's wind-resistant design

isn't exactly a slam dunk.

Now-deceased Rafael Vinoly, the architect behind 432 Park Ave,

admitted that the building had a couple of screw-ups.

This isn't the first time Vinoly took heat

for one of his designs.

The curvy glass facade of his Walkie-Talkie tower in London

bounced sunlight into one concentrated area below

so harshly it literally fried bike seats at street level.

Rather than sun, this structure is plagued by wind.

Perhaps 432 Park Avenue lives up to the design

that inspired Vinoly in the first place:

an elegant wastebasket.

[Narrator] Buildings collapse for all kinds of reasons.

Some are planned.

[explosion]

Others, not so much.

Mother Nature certainly plays a role,

but a lot of the time,

shortcuts in design, execution and materials

play a bigger one.

Lagos, in the African nation of Nigeria

is no stranger to construction fails.

In the city of Lagos,

buildings are collapsing at an alarming rate.

Every two weeks, another one bites the dust.

[shouting]

According to Nigeria's Council for Regulating Engineering,

350 lives have been lost over 12 years.

But these collapses are not prompted by natural disasters.

These buildings are just falling down.

As Lagos continues to grow outward and upward,

so does its death toll.

In 2021, the city saw one of its most notorious collapses

when a 21-story luxury high-rise plummeted

claiming at least 42 lives.

The high-rise was under construction in Ikoyi,

a prominent neighborhood that's become

a beacon of status and wealth,

known for its luxury real estate.

An apartment here easily goes for 1.5 million U.S. dollars.

To put things in perspective,

the average monthly salary in Lagos is 200 bucks.

The wreckage of these luxury flats revealed

a structural failure in the columns on the ground floor.

So what went wrong?

A report revealed that the engineers employed

to design and build the columns lacked the know-how to do it.

They did not have the necessary expertise to build a high-rise.

High-rises mean high stakes.

If the building's load-bearing system isn't designed

and executed properly from the ground up...

boom!

A tall building needs a deep foundation

to withstand forces from

lateral loads, like high winds,

and vertical loads, like the

weight of the structure itself.

Columns can play an essential

role of bearing the load.

When they aren't strong enough,

the building collapses.

And it's not just high-rises.

The buildings in Lagos don't seem to stand a chance.

Instances of building without obtaining a proper permit,

inadequate execution of design,

and violation of building code

are just a few of the reasons listed

for these tragic collapses.

Two-story buildings are among the most common types

of structures in Lagos.

These low-rise buildings often benefit

from straightforward construction methods.

Though they're not immune to collapse.

To build a low-rise, a simple load-bearing wall structure

is set up where the walls support the building's weight

without needing a lot of extra steel or concrete for support.

Sturdy and straightforward,

if you're using the right materials.

Concrete is one of the most vital building materials

in Nigeria, heavily used across most construction projects.

Concrete is designed to hold up for about 100 years.

But some buildings are failing much faster in Lagos.

As much as 25% of Nigeria's building collapses occur

due to poor quality building materials.

The issue?

A super popular building material

called sandcrete blocks.

Sandcrete is a form of concrete

that uses a mixture of sand and water, bound by cement.

The materials are mixed together

and compacted into a mold.

Substandard sandcrete blocks are a growing concern.

When experts ran compliance tests,

their findings were shocking.

They uncovered numerous building standards

that weren't met.

Listing a lack of quality control,

poor selection of materials,

and inadequate curing time by manufacturers.

It's no wonder even straightforward

construction projects are failing,

with 95% of Nigeria's building walling materials

made of sandcrete blocks,

from luxury high-rises to public buildings

and low-rise residences.

This building material plays a key role

in the catastrophic rate of building collapse in Nigeria.

The landscape of construction in Nigeria

certainly won't change overnight.

Big strides will need to be taken.

Recently, the Lagos State Building Control Agency

took its first steps.

They embarked on a vigorous campaign to find and rectify

structural deficiencies in the city's architecture.

[shouting]

Only time will tell how the new regulations will be enforced.

For hundreds of years, humans have harnessed water

to process their food, build their homes,

and light their cities.

It's easy to think water has been our faithful servant.

But if you think we hold the power, you're all wet.

It's perfect weather for working outside.

[Worker] Go on!

[Narrator] Warm and sunny with a 10% chance of showers.

Make that 100%.

[laughter]

I'll have that dripping faucet fixed in a jiffy.

There you go.

As you can see, it's no longer dripping.

Ever get the feeling you've got a rain cloud

following you around?

[Woman] Look at the--!

Y'all, I cannot.

[Narrator] When we rented the place, nobody mentioned

that the tenants upstairs had a water park in their apartment.

[Woman] I can't believe this [bleep]! I can't. Y'all!

[Narrator] They even put in a slide.

They should totally lose their security deposit.

[Man] I don't think that's good.

[Narrator] On this episode of D-I-Why Me?,

the shocking finale.

Planting his boot on its gaping maw,

the great hunter subdues the writhing beast,

as the serpent thrashes and spits.

Another warrior tries to snare the coiled monster,

but it rears up and breaks free.

Now the hunters became the hunted,

dodging the deadly spray.

The great hunter approaches stealthily,

and in a daring strike, seizes the serpent from behind

and tames the massive creature.

Ew. Please tell me that's water.

Dude, it's not water.

This job totally stinks.

For only a few dollars more per night,

hotel guests can soak away their stress

in our deluxe spa suite.

And every parking voucher comes with a complimentary car wash.

Didn't you say you had to take a leak?

[laughter]

No worries, it's just a little H2... oh, my god!

As part of its Highway Beautification Program,

this city is constructing a rest stop with an outdoor pool.

Please proceed to Gate 10 with your boarding pass and towel.

If you're not skilled or careful, or just plain unlucky,

pretty much any situation can become

an instant recipe for disaster.

Just add water.

[Narrator] When a growing city needs to build a new airport

or expand an existing one,

sometimes the best option is the least expected.

Being out on the water isn't just for boats anymore.

Osaka, Japan.

The city was in desperate need of an aviation upgrade.

The Osaka Itami International Airport was busy.

Too busy.

And too loud.

Residents complained about the noise from the jet engines.

There simply wasn't enough room on land to expand.

So, they looked to the sea.

Osaka Bay, to be exact.

The Kansai International Airport

would be built on an island.

The catch: the island didn't exist yet.

A new airport would bring expanded economic benefits,

help with overcrowding at the mainland airport,

and best of all, it would be far away

from the ears of light sleepers.

But how do you build an airport on water?

Simple, just initiate one of the world's most incredible

engineering feats of the 20th century.

Construction began in 1987.

Before reclaimed land can support the required weight,

it needs to be built into a concentrated foundation.

To build the island on the surface of the water,

the construction crew needed soil,

and lots of it.

They dredged Osaka Bay

and shipped in soil on giant barges.

[horn blows]

The amount of reclamation fill material used to create

the islands amounted to over 560 million cubic yards.

That's the equivalent volume of 430 Empire State Buildings.

Next came more than 2 million vertical pipes.

These pipes were pummeled into the clay and packed with sand,

which absorbed moisture pockets from the layers below.

So far, so good. Right?

Well, wait.

After seven years of construction,

the airport consisted of one runway, a seven-mile seawall,

two terminals, and a cargo facility.

It was connected to the mainland

by a 2.3-mile-long, two-story bridge.

When the airport opened in 1994,

10,000 people visited a day for the first month,

just to see the bridge.

And it truly was an incredible feat of ingenuity, creativity,

and construction success!

But the accolades didn't last.

Turns out the airport is sinking into Osaka Bay.

That's right, sinking!

No surprise to the engineers who predicted

the island airport would sink.

But they predicted it would be incrementally over decades.

Estimates suggested it would take 45 years

for the airport to sink 26 feet.

That benchmark was reached in just five years.

So what went wrong?

It started with the construction

of that reclaimed land.

Below the surface of Osaka Bay,

layers of clay and sand have been built up over time.

The alternating layers pose a unique challenge.

Engineers took great pains solidifying the upper layer.

But it's the lower layer that is causing all the problems.

Clay is anywhere from 40% to 70% water.

The more weight put on the layers,

the more the water squeezes out of the clay.

This is a phenomenon called consolidation.

With less water, the clay gets harder.

And the weight on top,

in this case, about a 3 million-ton airport,

sinks.

So, the Kansai Airport engineers were correct

that the airport would sink;

their calculations were just off.

Below the airport, the depths of the settlement varies,

causing the sinking to happen unequally.

Engineers made adjustments to the building

to combat the uneven sinking.

Sensors alert workers when one of the 900 support columns

has lowered.

Columns can be adjusted using hydraulic jacks

and metal plates are placed under the columns

to keep the upper floors level.

The design allows for walls to be jacked up

and stairs to be added as needed,

because the airport continues to sink.

Outside, the runway is made with flexible asphalt

for movement if the ground shifts or sinks.

The airport may be sinking,

but all planes need to land is a level runway.

And as long as the engineers keep it sinking

at an even pace,

the airport shouldn't have any further bumps in the road

or the runway.

[Narrator] Art can be subjective.

And in this case, so can the museum it's housed in.

In 2007, the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada,

the ROM for short, unveiled its new face lift.

Some might say not a very good one.

The Michael Lee-Chin Crystal,

a 175,000-square-foot

aluminum and glass-covered structure,

was the centerpiece of a massive museum renovation,

converting its entrance from this...

to this.

The renovation project was a year and a half late

and 50 million Canadian dollars over budget.

Yet, it wasn't crystal clear

whether the project was a success.

Critics seemed divided.

They either loved it or loathed it.

One thing was for sure: people loved talking about it.

All press is good press, right?

The Washington Post called it "both ugly and useless."

The Globe and Mail described the Crystal as a "tin pinata"

to be smashed down.

Hmm, maybe not.

There were also defenders of the ROM's new facade.

Like architect Alexander Josephson

who called the ROM's Crystal

"an important addition to Toronto."

He famously said,

"Beauty emerges when design misbehaves."

And boy, did this design misbehave.

Improper lighting, slanted walls,

a disorienting entryway.

The space didn't seem to match its function:

to display artifacts.

So what went wrong?

The Royal Ontario Museum first opened its doors in 1914

becoming Canada's largest museum.

Today, it houses a world-class collection

of 18 million artworks, cultural objects

and natural history specimens.

At the turn of the century,

the ROM team decided it was important that the building

not be as antiquated as some of its treasured collections.

Museums often turn to architecture

to stay current and garner global attention.

Architecture plays a starring role

in the identity of the museum.

Would Paris' Louvre remain relevant

without I.M. Pei's pyramid,

bringing the former medieval fortress into this century?

What would the Guggenheim in New York City

be without its spiraling corridors?

It seems every museum has its thing.

And in 2001 the Royal Ontario Museum decided

this was going to be its thing.

Inspired by the museum's gem and mineral collection,

architect Daniel Libeskind sketched the Crystal design

on a napkin.

Typically, napkins go in the waste bin, but not this one.

The design on this one was selected as the centerpiece

of the ROM's renovation.

Each of the five distinct crystals

would meet in the middle

to create the three-dimensional design.

The aim was to create openness and accessibility

by using transparent and translucent glass

supported by steel beams.

3,800 tons of steel and 38 tons of bolts were used

to create the skeleton.

There were more than 2,000 pieces of steel

with as many as 12 connections each.

Construction workers had to use laptops to view a 3D mockup

to put together the gargantuan steel jigsaw puzzle.

The Crystal addition quickly became one of the most

challenging construction jobs in North America.

The steel skeleton was supposed to be covered in glass.

There was only one problem:

it gets pretty cold in this city.

Toronto winters average around 22 degrees Fahrenheit

with cold spells that can dip down to -13 degrees Fahrenheit.

The high cost of building a glass structure

that can withstand the harsh Canadian climate

shattered any plans of an all-glass design.

Instead, an opaque aluminum cladding was used

over 75% of the structure,

with 25% glass incorporated throughout.

Short of being what some called an eyesore on the exterior,

the building materials combined with the structure's

unique geometry caused numerous problems on the interior.

The renovation opened the museum's galleries

to more daylight, which risked bleaching priceless artifacts.

The museum had to put up special blinds

that filter out 96% of ultraviolet light

and blackout curtains to block out daylight.

But lighting wasn't the only issue.

Ever try displaying an object on a slanted wall?

Hard to do.

Inside the Crystal galleries,

slanted walls are often the case.

There are no right angles to create vertical walls

suitable for displaying artifacts.

Best of luck to the curators.

The solution was to make some galleries home

to unconventional pieces that don't require walls

to be displayed, like the dinosaur exhibit.

When doors finally opened to the public,

they were somewhat hard to find

and deemed too small for a building of this stature.

Once inside, many visitors found the new lobby

and galleries hard to navigate.

Some complained of feeling disoriented in the space.

The shortcomings of the interior kept on coming.

But so did the public.

Almost a million visitors came through the ROM

the year of the Crystal's unveiling.

The renovation put the ROM on a global map.

Maybe for the wrong reasons.

17 years later, a new renovation is underway,

looking to right a few of those wrongs.

Step one: a partial demolition of that controversial Crystal.

The 130 million-Canadian dollar project will improve flow

between galleries, open up the entrance and lobby,

and expand gallery space on the first floor.

In 2027, when it's complete, we'll see if the public

can finally get clarity on how they feel about the Crystal.