Original subtitles

[music]

[Jay] How do you construct

a 1,400-foot office building

that towers over one of Manhattan's

busiest train stations?

This massive excavation was two feet from millions of commuters.

[Jay] How do you realize an architect's vision

for a wine museum that's all dizzying curves?

[Corina] It looks like a giant decanter of delicious wine

just waiting to be tasted.

[music]

[Jay] And what happens when you set out to build

a parking garage that's a work of architectural beauty?

This is where we thought, "Oh, my God, architects,

I think they're gonna kill us."

[music]

[Jay] This is the age of the extraordinary.

[Dr. Agbedor] It's totally different

from anything around it.

It's like a visitor from another planet.

[Jay] Where ingenious engineers have unleashed

unchecked creativity.

Now, their secrets are revealed

as we discover the amazing stories

of their construction.

[Mat] You look at this building

and your brain just screams at you,

"This building does not make sense!"

[Jay] To try and understand...

...how did they build that.

When you think of the world's greatest skyscrapers,

chances are many of your favorite, most iconic examples

can be found in New York City. And that isn't about to change,

because with space on Manhattan Island

in increasingly short supply,

it seems that now more than ever,

when it comes to building big in the Big Apple,

the only way is up, and up, and up, and up.

[music]

[Jay] The Manhattan skyline

is one of the most instantly recognizable on the planet.

And Midtown is home to some of its best-loved buildings.

It's the heart of the world.

From a structural engineer's perspective, this is the place.

[Jay] The thought of making it better

is difficult to imagine.

But in 2015, work began on a tower

that aimed to do just that.

[music]

[Dr. Mabry] It is breathtaking.

It tapers into the sky like it's reaching for the stars.

[Jay] Building the 1,400-foot-tall tower

would mean surgically excavating 60 feet down,

right next to Grand Central.

Demolishing an entire city block in New York City,

Midtown Manhattan, is not an easy task.

[Jay] At $3.3 billion, it would be the most expensive

office building in America's history.

This wasn't just a significant investment.

This was an all-in bet by this company.

And there was no margin for error.

[Jay] Five years and 26,000 tons of steel later,

this is One Vanderbilt.

So, how did they build it?

Completed in 1930, and at 1,046 feet tall,

the Chrysler Building became the world's tallest building.

That is, until a year later, when it lost its crown

to the 1,250-foot-tall Empire State Building.

Almost a century later, Midtown Manhattan has one of

the highest concentrations of skyscrapers in the world

and is home to some of the biggest names

in global business.

But some of its office buildings are showing their age.

Quite frankly, Midtown was becoming a bit tired, a bit old.

You know, the average building age in Midtown

was over 75 years old.

[Jay] Companies are beginning to look

for modern offices elsewhere.

[Marc] We had to fight back.

We had to swing that pendulum back in favor of Midtown,

because that is where Grand Central is.

That's where you have the subway lines,

the commuter transit hubs, the busses.

[Jay] Marc Holliday's vision is for

a cutting-edge tower right next to Grand Central,

which will replace an entire block's worth of buildings.

Securing the site takes 10 years of negotiations with the city

and some 200 tenants,

and a commitment of $220 million worth

of public improvements in and around the station,

Now they need a design that will do justice

to the iconic neighborhood.

I wanted One Vanderbilt to essentially be a modern

interpretation of those great historic buildings.

[Jay] He brings in architects Kohn Pedersen Fox.

[James] You know, what we arrived at was a tapered form.

And then we broke that singular form into two,

and then three and then four.

There's almost the implication of some appearance of infinity

because of that tapering to nothing.

[Jay] It's a striking, beautiful design.

Building it, though, will be far from easy.

First, the team will need to excavate down 60 feet

beside the station

in one of the most commuter-dense corners

in the world.

To create a foundation strong enough

to support the tower, all 1,401 feet of it,

they'll need to execute

the biggest continuous concrete pour in New York City's history.

On a building of this scale, time is money,

so the construction crew will need to find a way

of getting the 26,000-ton steel frame up

as quickly as possible.

While the engineers will have to make sure that the structure

can handle a dramatic cutout at street level

designed to open up views to Grand Central.

If they pull it off, they will have created

1.7 million square feet of 21st century office space.

And a new landmark for the city.

This, at the time, was the most expensive commercial project

ever built in the United States.

And when you're dealing in billions of dollars

in one single investment, you gotta make sure you deliver

on time, on schedule.

[Jay] The $3.3 billion budget

calls for the project to be finished by October 2020.

In early 2015, the clock starts ticking.

It takes 19 months to clear a block's worth of buildings.

Then, in the summer of 2016,

the team prepares to start excavating the foundations.

[music]

It's a massive challenge and risks damaging

surrounding buildings, including Grand Central.

[music]

How are we going to core 60 feet down into the ground

to pour new foundation on top of active railways

when a party wall, which was only a few feet thick,

separated this site from millions of commuters?

Any failure, we would be

sort of looking right into the morning rush hour.

The pressure to not destroy one of New York's

most iconic landmarks is huge.

[Jay] The team has to brace the surrounding structures

with specially built piers and beams,

then remove ton upon ton of rock.

It would be great if they would let us blast,

but they don't let you blast.

We would have to break apart the rocks with hammers.

We had a large excavator up at street level

that would reach down and bucket the material out

and load it into trucks.

[Jay] It takes 10 months.

But by early 2017, the job is done

without damaging the surrounding buildings

or disrupting a single train.

[Marc] They did an amazing, immaculate, surgical job.

There were people commuting who had no idea that two feet away,

uh, these excavating machines were drilling and removing rock.

[Jay] With the deadline in just three years' time,

the team moves on to the challenge

of constructing the foundations.

[Edward] You can imagine a 1,400-foot-tall building

with this many million square feet,

how much it weighs

and how big the foundation has to be.

[Jay] The plan is to drill rock anchors

connected to one another with a huge slab

100 feet wide and long, 9 and a half feet deep.

It will be made from 4,200 cubic yards of concrete,

and reinforced with

a million pounds of recycled steel.

To maintain its strength, 400 truckloads of concrete

will have to be poured nonstop.

Midtown is one of the busiest business and tourist districts

in the entire world. Space is extremely limited.

So the coordination of every single construction vehicle

had to be planned with the utmost precision.

[Jay] On Friday, February 3, 2017,

selected traffic lanes around the site are closed.

They wait for the rush hour to pass.

The starting gun is fired.

Then 40 trucks begin feeding pumps

stationed around the hole.

Each one of those concrete trucks had to be unloaded

within two hours of leaving the plant.

[Jay] To make things more complicated,

the concrete is arriving from four separate locations

in the city.

[Brian] After two hours,

it can start to set within the drum.

[Jay] They can only hope that traffic's in their favor.

[music]

[Jay] In Midtown Manhattan...

...the concrete foundations needed to support

a huge new skyscraper must be poured without stopping.

If you stop, you create a joint,

a real joint that you don't want to have in the slab.

[Jay] To avoid this, the crews are working round the clock.

We had 40 trucks, over 400 loads of concrete.

[Jay] Twenty-seven hours and a Herculean effort later,

the biggest continuous concrete pour

in New York City history is complete.

[music]

It's now summer 2017, and with three years left

to finish the job work begins on the tower.

[Ellie] When building high-rise buildings,

construction engineers will often start

with a central core.

This is the spine of the building and gives it rigidity.

[Jay] The problem is, building the concrete core

requires a huge tower crane that will block the other cranes

on site until the core is high enough.

And that means work on the steel frame

will have to be put on hold.

[Marc] Every month of delay would cost this project

$20 million per month.

If that's not enough incentive to make sure that you get done

not just on time, but ahead of schedule,

then I don't know what is.

[Jay] To speed things up,

they decide to flip the process on its head.

First, the engineers design an extra-strong steel frame

that can support itself for 12 stories

without the concrete core.

To build it, they used two ingenious self-climbing cranes

that essentially raise themselves up

on the steel structure as each floor is created.

You have to spend more money on steel to have the stability

to have the tower cranes climb up within the core themselves.

[Jay] The extra cost is more than recovered

by the steel-first approach,

which shaves four months off the schedule.

The team quickly follows behind,

creating the central supporting

concrete core and pouring the concrete floors.

Once we have concrete on metal deck,

we can start getting ready

to enclose the building to get us watertight.

[Jay] Meanwhile, the engineers embrace

their next challenge.

At the fifth floor, the architects want

to cut away a section of the building

to open up the view from the street

to its historic neighbor.

One of the goals of the design of the building is to honor,

and respect, and celebrate Grand Central Terminal.

It's a well-loved building.

It's one of the greats of our city.

[Jay] The problem is that the design leaves a corner

of the vast building hanging in mid-air.

The team need to find a way to transfer the forces generated

by the huge tower safely into the ground.

They use something called transfer trusses.

These are essentially

zig-zagging pieces of steel joined together

that transfer the weight from one column on the outside

of the building to another further back.

[Jay] On a building of this scale,

they have to be strong and stiff enough

not to flex under the enormous weight.

The deeper you make it, the stronger it is

and the stiffer it is. And they're floor-to-floor deep.

[Jay] To make them, huge pieces of steel

weighing as much as 22 tons and up to 30 feet long

and 3 feet wide are specially prefabricated

before being put together on site.

Now the rest of the tower can begin to rise to the sky.

Taking inspiration from Grand Central's

Oyster Bar ceiling,

its clad in glass and terracotta panels

are as energy efficient as they are beautiful.

Thanks to the steel-first construction method,

by September 2019,

they're ready for the building's crowning glory.

A 128-foot-tall spire,

which has to be hoisted 1,314 feet into the air.

[James] It's actually a very big piece of building.

It weighs more than, you know, 30 houses put together.

[Jay] On September 18, 2019,

a crew wait on the top floor to install it.

The signalman gives the all clear.

Slowly the load is brought all the way up

to the top of the building.

The crane operator swings the load over into the position.

They start putting some bolts in.

They detach it from the crane.

The spire's complete.

It was just the moment to me that signified we were there.

We were all the way at the top.

It was kind of a piece of urban theater.

You'll never forget it.

[music]

[Jay] In September 2020,

what's then the most expensive office building in New York City

stands complete.

Incredibly, despite the challenges of building

through the COVID-19 pandemic,

the team finishes one month early.

It's the greatest achievement this company has ever

been party to, and we're proud of it every single day.

[Jay] Four years later, it's flying in the face

of a challenging market,

with 99% of the offices occupied.

And for the price of a ticket,

anyone can enjoy the view from the 91st floor.

I think that One Vanderbilt is this generation's

Empire State Building.

[music]

[Jay] Thanks to its use of recycled materials,

energy-efficient lighting, and high-performance glazing,

the building is at the forefront of sustainability.

Even while its delicate terracotta cladding

and dramatic spire honor the past.

[music]

The Vanderbilt project is the kind of experience

I'll never have again, and one that connects me to

New York City.

One Vanderbilt is one of the stars in my crown,

I guess you could say. How is that?

[music]

[music]

It goes without saying that the best wine in the world

does not come in a box.

So when the French city of Bordeaux

wanted to build the best wine museum in the world,

they weren't going to put that in a box either.

Oh, no, I'm getting iridescent aluminum.

I'm getting printed glass.

I'm getting a sparkling building that's seriously

worth celebrating.

Cheers.

[music]

[Jay] If you love wine, likelihood is

you've heard of Bordeaux in southwest France.

But these days, it's also famous for an intoxicating museum.

[music]

[Corina] It looks like a giant decanter of delicious wine

just waiting to be tasted.

[Jay] A swirling, curving, 150,000-square-foot building.

[speaking French]

[Jay] Creating the curves tested its engineers.

[music]

[speaking French]

[Jay] And forced its builders to climb

to new heights.

Literally.

Imagine dangling from a harness at 165 feet trying to put these

delicate glass panels onto the building.

[Jay] This is Cité du Vin-- the City of Wine.

It took three years and $47 million to create.

So how did they build it?

[music]

[Jay] It's 2008, and the city of Bordeaux

in southwest France has a big problem.

Despite the world famous wines

produced in the surrounding countryside,

with no central attraction to pull in wine lovers,

the city itself is not attracting as many tourists

as it wants.

[speaking French]

[Jay] The city decides it needs a new museum

dedicated to wine.

Its ambition goes beyond celebrating the local industry

to tell the story of wine's role over the last 8,000 years.

[Jay] Such a grand ambition requires a building to match.

Architect Anouk Legendre takes a research trip to Bordeaux,

where she tastes a wine so good, it helps inspire the design.

[Jay] Anouk and the team come up with a building

that swirls and curves like the wine being aerated in the glass

before rising up into a dramatic tower.

But its complex shape gives the engineers

a daunting set of challenges to overcome.

They'll start by building foundations and a concrete core

to support the floors and form the spine of the tower.

It will climb 165 feet.

But then things get really tricky.

To create the unique curving form,

they'll need to design and build a complex superstructure

from 600 individual pieces.

Then they'll have to wrap it in a waterproof membrane

before embarking on the huge challenge

of cladding the bulbous, swirling shape

in sheets of aluminum and glass.

It will be a task like none the team has ever faced.

[music]

[Jay] Work begins in January 2014.

The team lays the foundation, then start to build upwards

using concrete columns and floor slabs.

So far, so straightforward, but now they have to figure out

how to create the building's undulating form

around this concrete core.

The architect's idea

is to create a vast, curved structural frame to sit on top.

[Jay] Simple in principle, but the irregular shape

of the frame means it's made up of 600 individual curved pieces,

no two alike. Making them won't be easy.

Curves are so much harder to build than straight lines.

They take more skill, more time, and more money.

[Jay] Building a frame as complicated as this

from steel would be astronomically expensive.

So the team looks to a material that's even stronger,

but also a fraction of the price.

[Corina] Glue-laminated timber is made up of layers of wood

all glued up on top of one another.

[Jay] The layers make it exceptionally strong,

but also lightweight.

[speaking French]

[Jay] Glulam is sustainable and versatile.

You can create much longer lengths

than with standard timber,

and it can be transformed into almost any shape

thanks to technology

which is quite literally cutting edge.

[music]

[Corina] Computer-controlled mills are a high-tech way

of cutting timber.

You can program the shape that you want,

and the machine does the work.

[Jay] The cutting machine's set to work creating the arches,

each up to 100 feet wide, uses 42,000 cubic feet

of glue-laminated French spruce and Douglas fir,

all of it renewable.

Now, the arches can be transported to the site,

where, like the ribs of an enormous whale,

the structure takes shape.

Finally all 600 pieces are assembled.

[music]

[Jay] The team now has its next big challenge

to grapple with.

To create a shimmering liquid effect,

the architect wants to clad the lower part of the building

in shining aluminum, which morphs

into golden glass panels on the tower.

It's inspired by the colors of the river,

the sky and the surrounding buildings.

[Jay] Installing the facade won't be easy, though.

The awkward, bulbous shape of the building

makes access difficult.

[speaking French]

[Jay] To solve the problem, the team calls in

specialist workers.

[Jay] They first seal the building

with a waterproof membrane.

Now they must add the fixings for the cladding.

These have to be strong enough to cope with high winds

in the exposed riverside setting.

[Jay] But securing the glass without spoiling

the building's sleek look is a tall order.

[music]

[Jay] In Bordeaux, southwest France,

the team behind a new wine museum

must find a way

to fix glass panels to the building

without compromising the architect's vision.

[Jay] The elegant solution is a specially designed system

which holds the glass at either side,

but not at the top or bottom.

It leaves each panel free to move in response to the wind,

without transferring any force to the neighboring panes.

[music]

[Jay] First, the aluminum goes in.

Then comes the most challenging part--

installing 980 pieces of glass.

[music]

Each has been specially screen printed

with an intricate design,

and each fits only in the position

it's being designed for.

[Jay] By December 2015,

after four months of working around the clock,

it's time for the moment of truth.

Now, though, it's not just the complex puzzle

they have to worry about, but the weather, too.

[Jay] All eyes are on the workers

as they lift the final piece into place.

[music]

[music]

[Jay] In June 2016,

the museum finally opens to the public.

The swirling, curving facade glitters in the Bordeaux sun,

reflecting the waters of the River Garonne.

[music]

[Jay] Inside, the exposed timber ribs

of the structural frame,

reminiscent of the inside of a ship

or maybe a wine barrel,

cradle 32,000 square feet of exhibition space.

It attracts over 390,000 visitors a year

from all over the world.

[music]

[Jay] Inside, the glulam frame that made the building possible

is reminiscent of a wine barrel.

It cradles 32,000 square feet of exhibition space.

[music]

Asked to put together a list

of the most stunning buildings in the world,

chances are it won't include a parking garage.

Well, that's about to change, because down in Miami,

there's a seven-story beauty that not only has room

for 300 cars,

it also has its own shops, restaurants,

and a penthouse apartment with views to die for.

Parking has never looked this good.

[music]

[Jay] What do you get when you take a developer

determined to make his mark,

architects with a reputation for building the unusual,

and the worldwide city problem

of too many cars and nowhere to put them?

[music]

A parking garage that's all fine lines,

delicate angles, and dramatic views.

The building is incredible.

It's possibly the most extravagant parking garage

I've ever seen.

[Jay] It's so beautiful,

the developer decides to build himself a penthouse apartment

on top of it.

But making this fragile house of cards stand up

was a feat of engineering.

I would say this is the most challenging project

that I've done.

[Jay] It took three years of planning

and $65 million to create.

So how do they build it?

[music]

In the early 20th century, the island of Miami Beach

was a largely undeveloped mangrove swamp.

Then in the 1920s, auto parts mogul Carl Fisher

spotted its potential as a resort for the rich and famous,

kickstarting its transformation into a glamorous destination

known for its striking Art Deco architecture.

[music]

[Jay] Greater Miami and Miami Beach

now attract about 24 million tourists each year,

swelling the local population,

and having a big impact on the streets.

[music]

Somebody is upset. That's a parking issue.

Frustrated people trying to park.

You can't get around Miami without a car,

so everyone has a car, and then you add tourism

to the mix and you've got a situation where

parking becomes nearly impossible.

[Jay] So when developer Robert Wennett

snaps up a plot of land on Miami Beach,

he sees it as the perfect place for a parking garage.

But to do it justice, he decides to create something unexpected.

Parking is like a warehouse for cars.

How do I make parking super interesting?

And that was really the architectural brief

that I started out with.

[Jay] Then, as Wennett gets to know the site,

his vision becomes even bolder.

[Robert] When I went to the project, I thought,

"Wow, this is the most spectacular view

I've ever seen in the city."

So I thought, "Well, this would be an incredible project

to put my house on top of the-- on top of the garage."

[music]

[Jay] To help realize his vision,

Wennett looks 4,800 miles away to Switzerland,

home to Herzog and de Meuron,

the architects responsible for the Beijing Olympic Stadium

and the Jenga Tower in New York.

They relish the challenge.

It's parking. It's about movement.

You have technical requirements for spaces,

but not that much else,

so we were allowed to really be experimental.

[music]

[Jay] That might be something of an understatement,

because while it will have space for 300 cars,

the design's similarities with your average parking garage

stop there.

First, they need to create foundations

to support the garage on what is a former swamp.

Next, the seven super thin concrete floors

will need to be strong enough to carry the cars,

tough enough to survive Miami's corrosive climate,

and beautiful enough to fulfill the architect's vision.

Somehow, the slender, sloping columns

will have to hold up the floors above.

On top, they'll add almost 6,500 square feet

of incredible penthouse,

complete with a garden and a pool.

Creating this beautiful, precarious-looking

house of cards will be a serious test for the team.

When we first saw the design, we see these thin slabs,

long cantilevers, columns which were going

in different directions.

And our original thought was,

"Okay, this is going to be a tough one."

[Jay] It's now 2008, and before they even break ground,

the whole project gets even tougher.

[phones ringing] [people shouting]

[Jay] When the world is gripped by a financial crisis.

Miami is one of the cities that was most impacted

by the financial crash, and there were foreclosures

all over the place.

You know, it was this place, this feeling of-of uncertainty

about what the future held for the city.

[Jay] Developer Robert Wennett

has already committed millions to the project.

Now the stakes are even higher.

[Robert] There's no construction whatsoever going on.

And nobody was leasing anything.

And it was one of the most risky times.

[Dr. Mabry] It must have been terrifying.

At that moment in time,

construction was almost at a standstill.

Basically, you know, I had all of my net worth at risk.

And if the project failed,

then I probably would have been bankrupt.

[music]

[Jay] Despite the enormous risk,

construction begins on the foundations.

They need to be strong enough not just to hold the weight

of the building, but also 300 cars.

On a site that used to be a swamp,

that's a problem.

The soil had, you know, quite a bit of sand.

It also had lime rock, but that lime rock formation

was not really strong enough.

[Jay] Shallow foundations are out of the question.

They drill down 40 feet until they hit anything strong enough

to support the foundation piles.

But even these deep piles won't be enough on their own.

[Corina] The architects have designed the parking garage

with a minimal number of columns.

And each column channeling weight far more

than a single pile could hold.

[Jay] The engineers decide the solution

is to create a pile cap.

[Tanya] One pile is not enough, so you have to have four,

five, or six piles for each column.

That load needs to go into these five piles.

How do you do that?

You transfer it by putting that cap over that group of piles.

And that's what we call a pile cap.

[Jay] The pile cap may have overcome the problem

of the foundations,

but now the real challenge begins.

In 2009, they're ready to start work on the garage itself.

The architects have chosen exposed concrete for the finish,

but getting that right is fraught with problems.

In Miami, you have high temperatures,

which can cause the concrete to rapidly dry,

and that will make it crack.

But you're also right next to the Atlantic Ocean,

so you have a lot of salt in the air,

which would cause it to crumble and deteriorate.

[Jay] Overcoming both of these problems means crafting

a special concrete mix for the build.

[Dr. Mabry] There's an art to concrete

that most people don't realize.

First, they need to reduce the water-to-cement ratio,

which means less evaporation and shrinkage.

And if they add fly ash,

it reacts with the calcium hydroxide and stops damp,

salty air from penetrating the structure.

[Jay] But even once they've perfected the mix,

having the finished building and exposed concrete

means there's nowhere to hide.

Once they pour concrete, there's nothing we can do.

Any mistake, nobody will forgive it,

because you will always see all the fixing

and attempts to rectify it,

it just was not-- it was out of question.

[Jay] With so much riding on the perfect concrete finish,

the architects leave nothing to chance,

often visiting the site to inspect the finish.

I still feel nervous.

I mean, everything was important, the color,

how are we gonna do that edge of slab,

how is that pipe going in there.

I thought what we think is good may not be good enough for them.

[music]

Looking at what it looks like, there were tiny little

air pockets,

and this is where we thought,

"Oh my God, I think architects,

I think they're going to kill us."

[music]

[Jay] In Miami,

work is underway on a parking garage

designed to look like a beautiful house of cards.

The team is anxiously waiting for the architects' verdict

on the concrete, which contains tiny air bubbles.

They came and said, "We like it. It looks more real."

And I thought, "Wow, I thought they're gonna say this is bad."

[music]

[Jay] With the ground floor in,

and the concrete signed off, the team prepares

for the complicated job of pouring the floor above.

[Jay] The design calls for the floors

to be delicately thin.

That has to be done right, and a lot of thought

has to be put into the thickness of the slab.

You know, post tensioning was really the only solution.

[music]

[Corina] Post tensioning is a really clever way

of making super thin floors.

First, the steel cables are laid and anchored at each end.

Then you pour the concrete on top.

Once the concrete dries, the steel cables are stretched

and tightened, which applies a really strong amount of force

to the concrete slab, making it stronger.

[Jay] The next challenge is creating the columns.

The architects' design

demands they're different shapes and sizes.

[Tanya] Each column was designed individually.

They're non-typical, right? So every column was designed

based on the load which it was supporting.

[Jay] The amount of reinforcement

and exactly where to place it

has to be meticulously calculated for each column.

Getting it wrong could prove disastrous.

[Dr. Mabry] If any of the steel reinforcements ends up exposed,

it won't only ruin the finished look of the building,

but it will also be corroded by the salty air,

weakening the structure and leading to collapse.

[Jay] With everything riding on the project,

developer Robert Wennett is on site

to ensure that doesn't happen.

Robert was quite meticulous. I would say that.

I was there 24/7 from basically, the time we started construction

until we delivered the project.

The project represented everything about my career

in this one moment of time.

And so, you know, I just couldn't let it fail.

[Jay] As each floor is safely completed,

Wennett can start to relax.

Once the garage started taking shape, you know,

you could really see that this is something super unique.

[Jay] Against all the odds,

the risk of bankruptcy,

the sleek design challenging the engineers,

in spring 2010,

the extraordinary garage is finished.

[music]

This project is very special for me, personally.

In the end, we can all be proud of what we worked on.

[music]

Out of all the parking garages I've been in,

this is by far the coolest in the world.

[Jay] The elegant building changes the perception

of what parking garages can be.

Costing $30 a day to park,

it delivers a truly unique experience.

[music]

The most special thing is being able to go up

to the seventh floor. And there is, from all angles,

you can see pretty much the entire South Beach.

The fact that we really weren't building a normal parking garage

was, I think, both the challenge and the extraordinary success

of this project.

[Jay] The garage is crowned by the most incredible

seven-bedroom penthouse.

Complete with landscaped garden and a pool.

The architects were involved in every detail of the design.

The great thing about that penthouse is that in this very

raw concrete expression, there's this kind of jewel box

that sits above the parking garage.

[Jay] A home as unexpected and beautiful

as the structure it sits upon.

[music]

[music]

♪ MTV ♪