Original subtitles

Narrator: In new york city...

[ whistles ]

Let's go, let's go!

This elite team of engineers

Is embarking on an epic endeavor.

Man: Get the job done, that's what we do.

Narrator: They're attempting to build the world's

Tallest residential skyscraper.

Man: The magnitude of this building,

It's an incredible marvel.

Narrator: Soaring 1,550 feet above manhattan

And constructed from thousands of tons

Of steel, glass, and concrete...

Pretty tight squeeze.

The team is pushing to complete

This record-breaking build in only 60 months.

Man: How are you getting the debris box

Up on that bridge and up my tower crane?

Out of your mind!

You don't have it. You don't have it.

Narrator: To construct this colossus,

The team must battle relentless traffic.

[ car horns honking ]

See, now he's coming in the right angle.

...High altitudes...

We're up so high than when you look down

It doesn't even look real.

Narrator: And brutal winter cold.

Man: Everybody has to do their part

In order for the whole thing to work, you know?

We're all parts of the whole.

Man: Heads up, guys. Heads up.

Narrator: This skyscraper ranks in a league

Of ambitious new engineering wonders

That are bigger, faster, taller,

And more advanced than anything ever constructed before.

This is the inside story of the extraordinary challenge

Of building these giants.

♪

-- Captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by discovery communications

♪

Narrator: New york --

The biggest city in north america...

Home to some of the tallest skyscrapers in the world.

The skyline is as busy

As the streets and sidewalks below.

For more than a century, new yorkers have been

Finding space by building upwards.

We don't have the space.

The only space that you have is the sky.

Kids, don't do this at home!

[ men laughing ]

Narrator: Today, in the heart of the city,

A team of engineers is attempting to build

An extraordinary new sky-piercing mega-structure.

Man: I love it! I love it!

Narrator: A supertall tower,

Right in the center of manhattan,

Overlooking central park,

Where residents will live in ultimate luxury

Above the city.

New york has one of the best skylines

Of any city in the world.

Narrator: World-renowned experts in supertall buildings,

Adrian smith and gordon gill

Are designing the new skyscraper,

Called central park tower.

The chance to change that skyline forever

Is very historic.

Narrator: This cutting-edge skyscraper

Will soar more than a quarter of a mile into the air

And become the tallest residential tower in the world.

When you start going above 50, 60, 70 stories,

You're in rarefied air,

And that's where it begins to be very special.

♪

Narrator: This is the concept

For their spectacular new skyscraper.

At its base sits a 320,000-square-foot,

Seven-story flagship department store.

Above, an elegant, slender tower soars skyward

Resting on a gravity-defying overhang.

More than 12,000 custom-designed glass panels

Will cover the 620,000 square foot exterior.

Inside, 179 of the most luxurious apartments in new york

Will have show-stopping views of central park

And the city's skyline.

Some will even have swimming pools in the sky.

This remarkable mega structure

Will punch through the clouds at 1,550 feet,

The highest roof in america.

But building this tall isn't easy.

We have never done a building like that before.

In fact, nobody has.

Narrator: The elegant design will create

One of the most slender skyscrapers in the country,

Which poses some serious challenges.

It is challenging from a structural standpoint.

The thinner they are and the taller they are

The more robust the structure has to be.

Narrator: At the top, wind speeds can hit

More than 75 miles per hour.

This super-tall slender structure will push the limits

Of skyscraper design.

There's a science and an art

To designing these very tall, thin structures.

Narrator: This is the plan.

First, they will excavate more than

75,000 cubic yards of rock.

To create the foundation, they will pour

A slab of concrete more than eight feet thick.

On top of this solid base,

They'll build a strong concrete core.

Every floor of the tower will hang from this monolith.

Every 20 stories, solid walls extend out from the core

And connect to special belt walls.

These thick concrete walls help to take

The immense load of the structure above,

As well as store the plumbing, heating,

And air conditioning units.

On the outside, the team will hang

More than 10 million pounds of aluminum and glass

On the sides of the building,

Weather-proofing the structure against harsh winter winds.

Finally, they cap the building

With a super-thick concrete slab

That ties the entire structure together.

♪

Construction begins in 2013.

Workers clear the site and start the foundations.

The team excavates an enormous cavern

That extends all the way down to the bedrock.

It takes more than 46 months to build the first 12 floors,

But this is where the real challenges begin --

At just 300 feet high, the building begins

To take on a whole new character and shape.

There's never been any tower

With this level of complexity in this town,

And probably around the world.

Narrator: It's structural engineer yoram eilon's job

To put the extraordinary design plan into action.

One of the biggest challenges we have on this tower

Is nearly a 30-foot cantilever

This tower is projecting out over a neighboring property.

Narrator: Throughout new york,

Buildings overhang their neighbors.

This clever design feature creates additional living space

For apartments on higher floors.

Eilon: What we did in this tower is design

As much free space as possible for end users.

Narrator: This overhang is called a cantilever.

Central park tower will take the idea

Of the cantilever to the extreme --

And it causes major structural challenges.

♪

Most buildings support the weight of their floors

And roof through their walls,

But at central park tower

2,700 square feet of each floor reach out

And overhang the neighboring building.

It's the biggest cantilevered structure of its type

In the world.

With nothing to support it from below,

Engineers install huge supporting shear walls

Throughout the width of the whole structure.

The walls channel below to the overhanging section

Towards the central core.

To counteract the extra weight on one side,

The core is connected to a lattice

Of enormous steel beams and vertical super columns

That extend deep into the foundations,

Anchored into the bedrock.

This will hold the tower up straight.

With the cantilever holding up,

The building rises higher and higher.

As the seasons pass into winter,

The extra load hanging off the side

Puts enormous pressure on the core.

Every time you go another floor higher

It seems like you can see something else, you know?

Narrator: The core is the most vital part

Of the whole structure.

It rests on the shoulders of justin meyer

To make sure the core can take the strain.

Meyer: The core of the building carries the elevators,

It supports the floor, and it's a central part

Of the building.

Yeah, baby!

Narrator: To keep on schedule,

They need to construct an entire new story

Of the core every 11 days.

But as the wintry conditions bare down on them,

The team struggles to keep up the pace.

Meyer: The crane can't work over a certain wind speed,

And if the crane can't work, then we can't get material.

♪

♪

Narrator: In new york city,

An elite construction team is attempting to build

The world's tallest residential tower.

The unusual design of this skyscraper

Relies on a super-strong central concrete core.

Man: Go, go, go.

You got it, you got it.

Narrator: Any kinks in its construction

Could set the project back weeks.

Man: One five and a half, right? Same for the four-footer.

Narrator: Justin meyer oversees the construction of the core.

Right now we're taller than the empire state building.

And we're helping to shape the skyline, you know?

How good is that?

Narrator: To build the super-strong core,

Workers position special interlocking metal panels

Called formwork to create a mold.

The formwork surrounds reinforced steel cages.

Once complete, workers fill this mold

With high strength concrete.

This creates a tough, rigid box

With walls up to five feet thick.

To make a strong join to the section above,

Workers leave steel bars protruding

From the top of the form work.

They repeat this process again and again

Until they reach the very top of the building.

The whole core is a rigid piece of steel-reinforced concrete

Tied together from top to bottom --

A monolithic structure nearly 1,500 feet tall.

♪

For the first 83 floors of the building,

The team use an automatic system

That lifts up the formwork, steelwork, and walls,

Level by level, quickly and effortlessly.

But now the real challenge begins.

Man: Go! Let's go! Let's go!

Narrator: The crew are installing the final 16 floors

By hand.

The highest levels of the tower will have

The tallest ceilings and best residential views.

But this means the walls here are much taller

Than anywhere else in the tower.

We just came out of our typical floors

And we're going into atypical floors.

So our typical floor was 12 feet tall,

Now it's gonna be 16 feet.

This is the first time we're using this system.

It's all manpower.

Narrator: Justin has to coordinate the carpentry team

Placing the core formwork above.

Man: So the 0.6 I think is the cross brace.

It's a shorter.

And another team far below

Piecing together the steel cages

That sit inside the formwork.

Jamie!

You're up there!

Thank you.

But the one thing justin can't coordinate

Is the weather.

Some days are worse than others.

Some days it can be pretty bad.

You know, we're at 1,200 feet in the air

So even on the street to up here

Is a big difference.

Narrator: The team works fast to complete

The formwork mold by hand.

They only have a couple of days left

To finish the level and stay on schedule.

♪

But justin is concerned.

A blizzard is blowing in

That could stop them in their tracks.

Meyer: Obviously there's a storm coming in.

The crane can't work over a certain wind speed.

And if the crane can't work,

Then we can't get material up,

And you can't really build the next floor.

Narrator: Workers need to place hundreds of formwork panels

With millimeter precision.

We got more planks? Bring me some planks, too.

Let's put some planks. Right here.

We'll go right out of here. Yeah, we'll do this whole.

Narrator: After only a few hours' work,

The mold for the core has taken shape.

Justin is ready to insert the sections of steel,

Called rebar, into the core,

But mother nature has other plans.

The blizzard blows in earlier than expected,

And the snow starts to fall.

Yeah, well, it is a little bit cold.

The temperature has dropped.

As long as you have the right gear on

And you keep moving, the heat's in the tools.

Narrator: It's not just the temperature

Justin is worried about -- it's the safety of his crew.

You have to be a little more careful, obviously.

We have laborers that shovel the snow,

Shovel the paths out of the way.

Narrator: The freezing conditions

Force them to abandon putting up the formwork by hand.

Meyer: We're gonna wrap it up now

'cause it's starting to come down heavy.

It's getting to a point now

Where it's starting to get dangerous.

♪

♪

Narrator: In new york, an elite construction crew

Is assembling the tallest residential building

In the world.

But a brutal blizzard has shut down the site.

Meyer: Enough is enough.

Mother nature does what she does.

Narrator: The following morning, the weather clears up.

The snow is melting, and the team begin

To make up for lost time.

As you can see, we put up all of these extra wall forms

From yesterday.

Narrator: They're ready to install the steelwork

Into the core.

Space on the construction floor is crammed,

So justin is relying on another crew

Working 75 levels below

To assemble the steelwork and get it to the top floors.

All right, matty watch those 32-footers!

Perfect!

This is the steelyard --

On the roof of the eighth floor.

Man: This is where it happens.

We're creating here segments of the reinforcement,

And we hoist them up using the crane.

It helps the faster construction process overall.

Upstairs they're waiting for us to make sure

This steel's ready.

It has to go in on time.

Watch your hands, watch your hands,

Coming in, coming in.

Narrator: Scott manganelli heads up a crew

That assembles thousands of panels

Of prefabricated steel.

Hundreds of steel bars in all different shapes and sizes

Arrive on site everyday.

The team has to bend, shape, and cut the steel

To form cages that slot between the formwork

For the core.

They tie each bar together by hand

Using metal wire.

So right now we are putting the finishing touches on this.

This is the core beam.

This goes right by the elevator shaft.

Narrator: Precision is key.

Each cage has to fit perfectly inside the formwork panels

That shape the core being constructed above.

Manganelli: Measurements are crucial.

The pocket size is exact.

Concrete is exact.

There's no two inches out or two inches in.

Everything has to be perfect.

Narrator: This is intricate work that requires nimble fingers

And a lot of cooperation.

Cool. Just one single wire at a time.

We're just holding it up.

It's like a hammock tie!

Hammock tie's a good tie, yes.

Narrator: Embedding steel cages

Inside the solid concrete core

Gives it even greater strength.

But such an enormous building requires a lot of steel

With no obvious place to store it.

Manganelli: We are getting limited with space

But right now we are standing on top of a pool.

For right now I'm glad it's here

Because we have literally tons and tons of steel here.

Narrator: Every single level needs hundreds of steel cages,

So just keeping track of them all is a huge challenge.

Eight number 11s, l2800.

Give me the angles on the west side, please.

It's a puzzle -- every single day:

Piece by piece, you could start in the left corner,

Northeast corner, south corner.

Sometimes you have to start in the middle

And work your way out.

Every day is an adventure.

When you think you know everything,

A new problem arises, but you just have to

Roll the punches and get it done.

Narrator: Workers lift the finished steel cages

To the crews working high above

With a 14 ton capacity crane mounted on top of the building.

Manganelli: The crane is the most important tool on the job.

From picking rebar to wood, to just getting things

Off the truck, it's very important.

If it's a windy day and the crane's not running,

That could stop the whole project.

Narrator: The cages can weigh several tons,

Far too heavy to manipulate by hand,

So the crew on the ground has to ensure

That the crane lifts them at the perfect angle.

Obviously the heavier load, the heavier the sling,

The longer the load, we have to spread out

Different picking point areas.

Narrator: It will take more than three minutes

To reach the top.

Every single time a load goes up I have to look up.

You can't determine how the wind's gonna push the load.

Narrator: Halfway up, the load starts to spin

In the high winds.

Manganelli: God forbid, I don't want it to hit the window,

I don't want it to hurt anybody.

That would be a catastrophe.

We don't want that, especially at this height.

Narrator: But the steel cages successfully reach

The top of the building.

-Heads up, guys. Heads up. -Heads up! Heads up!

Narrator: And justin prepares to drop them into the core.

After a while you get used to seeing them up in the air.

You know, you have faith in the guys

That are doing their jobs.

Narrator: The team repositions the cage

So that it hangs vertically

And slowly maneuvers it down into place.

The cage fits precisely inside the formwork,

And the core of central park tower grows

Another 16 feet taller.

As workers begin putting timber down

To create the floor above, the work site begins

To look more like a living space.

So now we've erected our formwork,

And as you can see, it creates openings and walls

In certain columns.

So now you can kind of see the floor

Start to take shape.

We're ready for concrete.

Narrator: The team mixes super-strong concrete

And pours it into the mold.

They leave it overnight to cure and become rock solid.

♪

Removing the formwork reveals the brand new walls of the core.

Justin gives the new section a final check.

It's always nice when you remove the formwork

And the walls are straight and they're correct

And they're in the right spot.

So, makes it easier moving forward, you know?

Narrator: Over the next few weeks,

The team builds higher and higher.

They've made good progress through the winter

And with the arrival of spring,

They've reached the final few floors of the tower.

To add extra strength to the top of the tower

On floor 94, the team has to cap it off

With a huge concrete slab more than four feet thick.

This concrete floor has to be thicker.

Our intent is to add mass to the top of the building.

Narrator: Structural engineer yoram

Has designed one of the biggest concrete pours

Of the whole build,

At the very top.

But getting this much concrete this high in the sky

Is a huge challenge.

The roof of central park tower

Is the tallest roof in new york city.

Narrator: This will push the concrete team

To their limit in the busy streets of new york city.

Man: This is one of the busiest times in new york.

So it's really important to have concrete here

At all times; you never want to stop.

♪

♪

Narrator: In new york city, an elite construction team

Is building the world's tallest residential tower.

See section one? Right.

Section one is six-footers.

Narrator: As the skyscraper stretches higher and higher,

The team gear up to take on their biggest challenge yet.

They must lay a huge concrete slab,

More than four feet thick,

At the very top of the tower.

Delivering concrete to a work site this high in the sky

Is a formidable feat,

Especially in the center of new york city.

It's really important to have concrete here

At all times.

You never wanna stop.

Narrator: To keep things moving,

The team uses an enormous 630 horse power pump

Which pushes 30 cubic yards of concrete

Through a six inch pipe every hour.

But even that isn't enough to keep up the pace.

On the other side of the building,

The crane lifts a 2,000-pound bucket full of concrete

From the street, more than 1,600 feet into the air

Above the tower.

Any delay in fresh concrete being delivered

Risks the slab curing unevenly,

Creating weak points in a crucial part of the tower.

Workers must keep the concrete coming.

♪

[ horns honking ]

Well, you're holding up traffic in midtown manhattan.

Yeah, you get a couple looks.

A few beeps, couple screams.

You know.

[ whistles ]

Narrator: Daniel bacheller oversees

The concrete operation

And manages road traffic around the base of the tower.

It'll be nice when you'll see a picture

On a postcard or maybe in a movie,

And you see your building.

Narrator: Trucks have to deliver

40 cubic yard of concrete to the site every hour,

Fighting the dense manhattan traffic.

This is memorial day weekend,

One of the busiest times in new york.

The amount of people that pass this job,

The pedestrian traffic, the car traffic,

It's incredible.

Narrator: The trucks empty the concrete

Into the high-pressure pump.

Narrator: The building is so tall,

It takes 20 minutes for the pump

To push concrete to the top.

The team must double up with the crane

On the far side.

Man: So you get four buckets per truck.

Right now at this height it takes us about eight minutes

For the bucket to get up onto the deck,

Dumped, and then down to the street again.

Narrator: With heavy loads

Flying high above the city streets,

Dan has to stop even more traffic

And close down a second street.

Our flagman has to stop the traffic.

You're 1,432 up in the air,

It takes a good six, seven minutes for that pick

To clear the street level.

Narrator: As the traffic around the site gets worse,

Fresh concrete trucks struggle to get through.

[ indistinct ]

Narrator: It's a race against time,

And dan has to keep the concrete flowing.

At the top, another team is trying to spread

The concrete out across the floor.

Man: This is a lot of concrete.

This is like 280 yards,

So it's gonna take us a while.

Narrator: At four feet thick,

This is one of the thickest slabs of the whole tower.

Narrator: Rafael ramirez oversees

This monster concrete pour.

Narrator: Rafael's main task

Is to ensure the team doesn't pour wet concrete

Onto concrete that is already dry.

This risks creating a weak spot in the slab

Called a cold joint.

Narrator: To keep the concrete strong,

The pump team must constantly move around the floor

To cover the whole site evenly.

Carlos! Perfecto!

Messy work is an understatement.

It's hard work.

Narrator: The bucket team

Keeps the concrete topped off with fresh loads.

With so many moving parts, things can go wrong quickly.

♪

♪

Narrator: At the top of

The world's tallest residential skyscraper,

A team of specialists is racing to pour

A massive four-foot thick slab of concrete.

Narrator: Workers are often up to their knees

In wet concrete,

Striving to cover every inch of the site

As quickly as they can.

The pump spits out the final few yards of concrete.

The team has managed to cover the entire site

Without risking any cold joints

Or weak points in the structure.

Now, a highly skilled team of masons

Moves in to smooth the surface of the concrete

To create the finished floor.

Very quickly, it's hard enough to walk on.

Narrator: The successful completion

Of this super-thick floor at the top of the tower

Is a huge milestone for the team.

♪

Central park tower is an enormous undertaking.

There can be hundreds of workers onsite

At any one time.

One of the major problems with such a workforce

Is how to feed them.

If you don't eat good,

You're not gonna be able to work good.

You're not gonna be able to think good.

Narrator: It's jennifer patafio's job

To provide food for everyone onsite.

Here you go, hon. You got your fork?

In a makeshift cafe on the tower's 43rd floor.

What sandwich?

Mustard or mayo?

The difference between this and a restaurant

Is, a restaurant, people come in gradually.

We get hit and we get hit hard,

And they all get off at the same time

So we could get slammed with 100 guys.

Narrator: Running a cafe so high in the sky

Creates unusual problems for the staff.

Patafio: My first few days coming up and down the hoist,

I was -- how can I put this nicely?

Scared to death.

I was in therapy, I swear to god, for one month.

Now I don't care about anything.

I wanna look at the view.

♪

Narrator: With the supersized slab complete,

The concrete team has nearly reached

The top of the building, but there's another crew

That has a lot more work ahead of them.

One, two, three!

21 floors below, this team races

To install the tower's 12,000 window panels

Into the outer walls.

All right, coming down! Coming down!

Gale force winds buffet the walls

And windows of this supertall tower.

This isn't just a challenge for the team

Manhandling the windows inches from a 1,000-foot drop;

It's a challenge for the building itself.

Man: Joe, what's the hold up?

Narrator: To make safety the priority,

Engineers must test the tower's shape and design

Under every wind condition before construction,

To make sure that its design is robust enough.

To do this, they work with aerodynamic experts

Here at one of the world's most advanced wind tunnels

Just outside toronto, canada.

Wind is very unpredictable because

In the natural environment, it will blow over

A variety of different terrains and then it mixes

With the city centers in which we build our buildings.

So it's very complex.

Narrator: The wind tunnel is still the best way to

Simulate what wind does to the skyscraper

In the real world.

The wind tunnel really is the only way

To capture these effects.

Computationally, we just aren't there yet

In terms of the computing power.

Narrator: Derek tests different designs for central park tower

To determine the optimum shape for it to beat the winds.

The original design of the building was quite

Bluff and flat, so it was basically a square

And that's really bad, aerodynamically.

It can actually get the tower moving and rocking

Back and forth.

Narrator: When wind hits a tall structure

With flat bases -- like a skyscraper --

The air must flow around it.

This creates swirling pockets of air

On the far side of the building called vortices.

The vortices can cause the building

To rock from side to side.

These movements can intensify

If the building shakes at just the right speed.

This effect is called resonance

And could cause serious damage.

♪

The final design for the tower

Has an expertly tailored shape to defy the winds.

Any skyscraper design that's been

Wind tunnel tested and is optimized for the wind

Really wants to confuse the winds.

Narrator: This model of the skyscraper

Has notches cut into its corners.

The notches should break up the wind

And prevent any shaking.

These notches really effectively do the same thing.

So when the wind sheds off the corner here,

It's shedding off at a different rate than this side

And it really helps disrupt and confuse the wind.

Narrator: As the tower tapers towards the top,

The designers have cleverly

Changed the shape of each corner.

Instead of a simple right angle,

The corners are notched with an inset.

♪

Whilst small protrusions also jut out into the sky.

♪

These notch shapes disrupt the flow of the wind.

They stop large vortices from forming

And prevent the skyscraper from swaying.

Thanks to its clever design, central park tower

Can stand strong, no matter how powerful the wind.

♪

It took hours of wind tests for derek

To perfect the tower's wind-cheating shape.

Go ahead and start the wind tunnel.

Narrator: Huge fans create a gale

To pummel the central park tower model.

Kelly: So this is the data

That's being collected right now from the tests.

Man: It is, that's correct.

Narrator: Hundreds of sensors on the model

Provide data on how much it's moving in the wind.

Derek compares the data to an older design

To examine how it stands up to storms.

Kelly: You can see the final configuration,

The responses are just a bit lower

Than where the red line was in the previous design.

This one, the same thing.

Through these experiments,

Through these subtle tweaks in the design,

We're able to reduce the overall forces

Acting on the building.

Narrator: The wind tunnels shows

The new design successfully breaks up the wind.

It's remarkable how subtle changes in the geometry

Can have such a pronounced benefit in the aerodynamics.

Narrator: Although barely visible from the ground,

These notches are a crucial part of the tower's design.

Man: Comin' down.

Narrator: On site, the window team has reached the 72nd floor.

Now, they need to start

Working around the specially designed notches.

As they get closer to these corners, they run out of room.

It's definitely a tight squeeze.

It's definitely a little more dangerous, too.

Narrator: Just as they approach the most difficult section,

The clouds roll in.

They're working blind in a whiteout.

Man: All right, slack off, slack off.

♪

Narrator: In midtown, manhattan...

Man: All right, comin' down, comin' down.

Narrator: ...A fearless construction crew

Balances on the edge of a 1,000-foot drop

To install the glass walls of new york's newest tower.

The team has to fit the windows around

A specially designed corner

That will help the building minimize wind resistance.

♪

The notch design at the corner

Leaves them with very little room to maneuver.

Man: It's one big puzzle,

Making sure everything comes together.

Making sure all the layout's done,

All the anchors are set.

Narrator: It's richie falasca's job

To oversee the installation of the glass walls.

This is not a task for the faint-hearted.

Man: All right, player, bump down.

Man: Yeah, there's roughly 100 frames on each floor.

Every single panel on this job has a specific location.

Basically every one has a birth certificate.

So that specific panel is actually

Intended to go in that specific location.

Narrator: The specially designed notches

That run up the edge of the tower

Help to break up the wind,

But the notches create extra corners

And make a tough job even harder.

We're on the northwest corner of the building.

You can see it's one of our outside corners

With a column in front of it which

Obviously makes our job a little more challenging.

Narrator: A huge supporting column

Blocks access to the outer edge of the corner.

Obviously the safety lines getting around the column,

Just any tripping hazards around the column.

Basically setting some of this crib wall on the blinds

With the anchors being at the very far apex of the corner,

It makes it very difficult.

Definitely a tight squeeze.

It's definitely a little more dangerous, too.

Yeah, that definitely went down.

Let me know when you guys are go with the crab.

Narrator: Several stories above,

Workers position a special crane called the crab

To overhang the side of the building.

They will use the crane to lift the glass panels into position.

We always have two guys on the bottom

And two guys on the top.

The guys on the bottom are actually

Where the panels are launched from.

They do actually all the rigging.

Narrator: The crab picks up the panel

And pulls it out beyond the outer edge of the structure.

The team must line the panels up perfectly

With the sections below for them to click into position.

Man: Hold that.

Narrator: They use brute strength

To wrestle it into place...

Man: Okay.

Narrator: While balancing on the edge.

Falasca: Without units being below it

Or adjacent units being installed,

They basically can't interlock like they are supposed to do.

Narrator: The crew tiptoe around the supporting column

To slide the window into the correct position.

Man: Hold up, hold up.

It's too tight. All right.

Narrator: The panel needs to click into the corner

At a 45 degree angle.

Man: Nice, very nice.

Narrator: The workers have to squeeze outside the column

To fit it into place.

Man: All right, let me get the --

Narrator: This requires nerves of steel.

♪

Nice.

Narrator: The tricky corner is finally in.

With the corner turned, the team picks up the pace

For installing the rest of the windows.

We turned the corner as of this morning.

Getting around the corner is obviously something

Challenging for us with the giant column here

And making sure all the anchors are buttoned up.

Narrator: The nearly 13 foot tall panels

Now cover every inch of the apartment

In floor to ceiling windows,

Creating the ultimate view.

With the apartment now watertight,

There are only 27 more stories to finish

Before central park tower will be ready for residents.

The apartments that overlook central park

In manhattan will be home to billionaires,

So the interior design has to be the ultimate in luxury.

As engineers race to complete construction,

World-renowned designer lauren rottet

Plans the interiors of each apartment.

The views are stunning and you'll have them

Absolutely nowhere else in the world.

But these particular interiors

You probably won't have anywhere else in the world either.

So really we designed them complementary.

Narrator: Lauren and her team meticulously design every

Touch and fixture, from the taps to the light switches.

Rottet: What is the true meaning of luxury?

It's not just pretty,

It's all the way down to the tiny details:

Is it the best?

Narrator: Lauren must ensure that everything

Is engineered to perfection for the residents.

Even the wood grain pattern on the cabinets

Runs seamlessly across doors and drawers.

Truthfully if someone were to move in,

Put down a few rugs and a couple of nice pieces

Of art and some candles and flowers, they'd be okay.

It'd be beautiful.

♪

Narrator: Inside the skyscraper,

A team of carpenters and stone workers

Are racing to turn lauren's intricate designs into reality.

Larry giacobbe is in charge of installing

The eye-wateringly expensive marble countertops.

We do god's work, with marble.

Narrator: Larry's team uses diamond-tipped tools

To cut the heavy marble to the right size and shape.

All right, ready? One, two, three.

Narrator: Lifting each slab into position by hand

Requires a delicate touch.

Well, this piece was about 150 pounds.

The next one's probably 200 pounds

'cause it's bigger, it's longer.

Narrator: Each marble slab can cost hundreds of dollars.

If larry's not careful, they could crack in half.

A lot of the time if you don't pick this up right,

It could crack on the vein, you know?

So that's why you gotta be careful.

Narrator: Larry must ensure that workers install thousands of

Marble slabs in the right place.

It's a giant jigsaw.

We haven't had one yet that hasn't matched.

They know what they're doing up in the quarries.

They've only been doing it for what, 2,000 years?

Beautiful, look at the vein.

See how the vein matches perfectly?

Narrator: It takes larry's team

Three weeks to install the marble on a single floor.

The team is now in a frantic race

To complete the lavish interiors.

With only a few weeks until central park tower

Will welcome its first residents, the team

Has to pull out all of the stops to get the job done.

Giacobbe: Everything is done right,

The floor, the cabinets, the slab.

♪

Narrator: The completed central park tower

Will be the tallest residential building in the world.

With the highest roof in the western hemisphere,

This record-breaking tower

Changes the new york skyline forever.

Smith: I've been working all my career to be able to

Participate in the design of a building in new york city.

So it's been very special.

Narrator: Residents can enjoy the extraordinary views

In the most luxurious apartments in new york city.

This job, what we've done on this job,

I've never done before, nobody's ever done before.

Man: A skyscraper of this height and this magnitude

In new york city, I don't know if it'll be done again.

So it's very special to be here.

I think people will look at it in awe.

I hope they appreciate what went into building it.

♪