All language subtitles for How.Did.They.Build.That.S04E04.High.Waters.and.Harsh.Winds.1080p.FUBO.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-FFG_track3_[eng]

How do you construct
an apartment building

in the middle of a lake

that looks as though
it’s suspended in midair?

There was this moment where
the two sides would kiss.

That was a moment
I will never forget.

How do you stop
a 101-story skyscraper

from swaying in the Windy City,

where gusts reach
80 miles an hour?

It truly is
a super tall structure,

and it pushed us in places

that we weren’t used
to being pushed.

And how do two upstart
architects create

an international icon
that changes the world?

When we saw
this competition, we said,

let’s make a bit of drama.

Welcome to a world
where anything is possible.

The space where innovation
and creativity collide.

This isn’t just impressive,
it’s revolutionary.

Where the only limit
is human imagination.

This wasn’t just
ambitious, it was audacious.

No one had ever attempted
anything like it.

Unpacking the miracles
and mysteries

of construction.

Sometimes buildings
can change the world.

And this is one of them.

To ask...

How Did They Build That?

With a third of
the country below sea level,

and the rest just typically
36 feet above it,

good building land in
the Netherlands is scarce.

Luckily, though, they are rich
in gifted humans

capable of architectural
miracles.

Architects so clever
that while they might not be

able to walk on water,

what they can do is build
incredible houses on it.

It’s the late 20th
century,

and Amsterdam is booming.

The population has just
hit one million people,

and the city needs more homes.

But there’s a problem.

Believe it or not,

almost the entire
city of Amsterdam

was literally pulled out of
the water.

Those iconic canals
and those charming streets

were built from scratch
over hundreds of years

with brilliant engineering.

But now,
the city’s run out of room.

So what do they do?

They decide to create a suburb

by building six new islands

and 20,000 homes on Lake Ijmee.

The water has always been
an important ingredient

of the city of Amsterdam.

We don’t fight against
the water,

but we have learned to work
with water.

By 2011, the islands
and houses are underway.

But it’s lacking a certain
something special.

They were really looking
at making it possible

to have a new landmark at

that side of the city
of Amsterdam.

Not only did they want an icon,

they wanted an apartment block

that fostered incredible
community spirit.

Local firm Barcode

and Danish company
The Bjarke Ingels Group

team up to nail the brief.

If you see the building
from above,

it really looks like

a completely classic square
block.

But when you see it
from the sides,

you realize that it’s lifted up
to the north,

allowing boats and paddle boards
and kayaks to sail all the way

into the courtyard.

And the courtyard effectively
becomes a marina.

It’s an extraordinary idea

and a million miles from
the norm.

If you take kind of
the traditional courtyard bloc,

there you have kind of
the public outside

and the private inside.

And here we kind of completely
turned that thing around.

And that, in combination with
the water,

allowed for a super public
experience inside out.

Known as Sluishuis,
this 442 unit apartment building

will rise from the water.

While its terraces seem to
tumble down

to the public marina below.

Building it will mean overcoming
some daunting hurdles.

First, they’ll have to anchor
the structure to the lake bed.

Then they’ll need to hold back
the water

so they can actually build it.

Next, they’ll have to create
an extraordinary shape

without the whole building
tipping forward.

And finally, release the water

to surround the building
without flooding it.

When it’s completed,
Amsterdam will have

a new apartment building
and a stunning new landmark.

Now we really have
to come through

and see if
it’s actually possible,

what we imagined.

When work begins
in December 2018,

they have to build the
foundation

while contending with water.

Lots of water.

First of all, to carry
the building,

you need to drive piles deep
into the mud and the sand.

For a building like this,
you want really good bedrock,

good sand layers to drive
your piles in.

And those were unfortunately
really deep.

And when he says
really deep, he is not kidding.

200 feet deep.

That’s actually deeper than

the foundations of
a typical skyscraper.

And the kicker is, this was

for a building
that was only 11 stories tall.

To hold up a building
of this size,

they needed to drive 923
of these concrete piles

from above the water down into
the lake bed.

Building on the water

is obviously, like,
a major challenge.

We made piles from floating
pontoons in the water.

This was something we’d never
done before.

It takes six months,

but finally,
the last pile goes in.

Now, they need to create
dry land

so they can build on top
of the piles.

You build a cofferdam,

which basically means you put
down a perimeter.

So we create a sheet piling
around the building pit.

And we make it watertight

by welding all the slots of
the sheet piling.

And then you drain all
the seawater

and you expose the seabed.

With the cofferdam built
and the water emptied,

the team brings in
28 tons of steel and concrete

to create the basement
and parking garages,

which will be below water level.

Then, in March 2020,
as they’re about

to start building up,
Mother Nature strikes...

...bringing with her
unprecedented high water level.

I got the call
from our construction company.

The whole parking garage
was flooded.

I was like, oh gosh, how are we
going to resolve this?

It wasn’t a good day.

We need to call the fire
department to help us out.

And it was a couple
of days of pumping all of

the water back out in the lake

to make our spot dry again.

In June 2020,
the team prepares

to start work on
the main apartment building,

which will extend 164 feet out
over the water.

Hopefully.

The shape of the building
basically wants to tip over.

It’s down to the team to
stop it from doing exactly that.

They have load-bearing walls

and they
have load-bearing corridors.

It’s almost just that you step
one step out every time.

Now, they just have to
build them,

making sure the two sides meet
perfectly in the middle.

You build it
almost like a bridge.

So you have to make sure that

you actually meet into
the single point.

So that was quite
nerve-wracking, let’s say.

To make things even trickier,

the soil on one side
is composed of softer sand.

So when the building settles,
that side will drop more.

So we try to build it a bit
more upwards.

So once it settles, they would
end at the same level.

We did a lot of survey, a lot
of double-checking the survey.

It’s essential they get
their calculations right.

The buildings have
to settle to within

three-quarters of an inch
of one another.

We were actually quite nervous
about how the building

would behave during
construction,

if they would actually meet
together at the same spot.

If we made it uneven,

then that would set us back
months, even years.

After two years of
construction, the team prepares

to put in the 11th
and final floor.

There was this moment where
the two sides would kiss.

In March 2021,
the moment arrives.

We expected 20
millimeters differences,

but then in practice,

it actually went better
than we expected.

So there was only a difference
of 10 millimeters.

It was total relief for all of
the project team.

With less than half
of an inch difference

between the two sides,

the team turns to finishing
the building,

which includes fitting
42 high-performance windows

that are wind and watertight
and strong enough to walk on,

allowing you to look out onto
the water below.

And wrapping the exterior

in 170 tons
of marine-grade aluminum tiles.

With that complete,
the team has one final hurdle--

letting the water back in.

That’s the moment when you see
if your building is watertight.

In the Netherlands,
the construction team is ready

to open the dam that has been
holding back

the waters of Lake Ijmeer

from around the
Sluishuis apartment building.

We start letting water in
on a Friday afternoon.

Although they had
applied a thick liquid membrane

to waterproof the building,

you don’t know if it’s worked
until you test it.

We were a bit nervous on the
water tightness of the building.

Any problems will set back
the schedule by months.

When we came back on
Monday, all the land was gone

and right back on the water.

And we didn’t flood
the basement,

so that was also a good sign.

That was
a moment I will never forget.

It was the way it turned out,

the way the water came into
the building.

It was perfect.

On June 28, 2022,

after four years
of construction,

the dramatic Sluishuis rises
from the water.

I’m really sure there’s no view
like it in the whole Amsterdam

and the whole of
the Netherlands.

When you look around,
you can see Amsterdam,

or on the other side,
you can see the water.

It’s magnificent.

And also from
every corner, you see it

in totally different shape,

and every light is giving
a different look.

It’s really amazing,
and I’m so lucky to live here.

The private terraces
for residents

and the steps that the public
can use

cascade down to the stunning
courtyard and marina,

elegantly bringing
the community together.

I would love to have
an apartment.

It’s a really special place
there.

You would really be able
to look down into the waters.

It’s a very special project,

and I had a lot of fun working
on it,

so really good to look back on.

Whether you’re a
resident or just visiting,

you come to enjoy the views,
go boating, or go swimming.

It’s a super smart design

that creates an amazing sense
of community.

We are very proud
to be able to contribute

to Amsterdam with this building,

and I hope the people in
the neighborhood,

but also in the city,
have this kind of same sense

of pride when they look at it.

The magic of the Sluishuis
is that it’s not private,

it’s not public, it’s communal.

Figuring out how to build
a three-towered luxury hotel

over a busy road in Chicago,
that’s easy.

But designing a 101-story,

1,200-foot tall hotel in
the Windy City,

that’s a different kind
of breeze.

To keep the wind
from wreaking havoc,

architects got creative
by giving it the VIP treatment.

Unlike other guests,

they didn’t give it a nice room
or even a suite.

They left an entire floor
completely empty,

just so
the wind can blow through.

In Chicago, extraordinary
architecture has broken the mold

time and time again.

I think the true
passion of this city lies

in our ability to provide
a world-class skyline

and maintain
that world-class skyline.

America’s first skyscraper
was built here in 1885.

And since then,
architectural A-listers

from Frank Lloyd Wright

to Mies van der Rohe

have left their mark on
the city.

Architecture is very important
to the city of Chicago.

It’s really part of
the fabric of the city.

So there’s a lot of interest

any time
a new structure is built,

particularly a super-tall
structure.

So when developer Sean Linnane

decides to build on
a prime waterfront plot,

he wants something extraordinay
to fill it.

We’re right at the corner

inay meets Lake Michigan.

It is such a high-profile site

that it needed
to be something really special.

He brings in an architect
he likes and respects,

someone who knows Chicago well,

world-famous Jeanne Gang.

Well, I’ve always thought
of Chicago as a place

where all the tall buildings

are in a kind of dialogue
with each other.

So I kind of approached it like,

you know,
I’m a new kid on the block

and seeing what I have in common
with the other ones.

The St. Regis Tower

was really
deserving of something special.

And that’s really what
the challenge to Jeanne was.

Jeanne, we need you to create
some cachet for this building,

something that will resonate
with the buyers

and make them inclined to
spend as much money

as they’re going to have to
spend to live in this building.

To do that, she’s gonna
need to throw out the rule book.

Most skyscrapers stick to
the same basic formula.

You have vertical cores,
stacked floors,

and a glass facade because
it works.

But Jeanne wanted to reinvent
the type.

So how do you take those
familiar pieces,

and twist them
into something new?

Not only that,

Jeanne Gang’s facing one of

the most complicated sights in
the city.

Set between Lakeshore East Park
and the Chicago River,

it has a road running right
through the middle of it.

And so that led me to thinking
of breaking the building

into three separate elements,

vertical elements, where we
could raise and lower the base

so people can go from
the park to the river.

Gang’s idea is to take
a solid building

and create the illusion of
three interlocking towers.

But that will bring with it
a unique set of problems.

The first job will be
to make room for the road

that runs through the middle
of the building.

But having lifted
the middle tower up,

they’ve somehow got to make sure

the rest of
the building stays up too.

Then, Gang wants
the towers to ripple and mirror

like the neighboring
Lake Michigan.

All while making sure the almost

1,200-foot-tall structure
doesn’t sway too much

in the Windy City.

So we’ve done a lot
of buildings in our relatively

short history of our company.

St. Regis Tower is by far
the tallest.

It truly is
a super-tall structure.

And it pushed us in places

that we weren’t used
to being pushed.

In September 2016,
work begins

on the massive concrete
foundations.

In Chicago, we like to think
that we pour concrete faster

than anybody in the world.

Time is really money when

it comes to
a construction schedule.

And a project of
this scale involves

a huge concrete pour.

So the building is
very tall and very heavy.

And to support such heavy loads
requires special foundations.

These were like 100-foot-tall
columns,

some of them as big as 10-foot
in diameter.

By March 2017, they’re
ready to get out of the ground

and start building the towers.

But there’s a complication.

So we have three stems,
a 100-story stem,

a 75-story stem,
and a 50-story stem.

Normally, each would have

its own central core to hold
it up.

That 75-story middle mass of
the building,

at the base, this is where
the drive-through underneath

the building passes through.

So we can’t
have a core going through it.

Stage one is to share two
cores between the three towers.

We have a 50-story core
and a 100-story core stabilizing

the sides of the building.

But on their own,
they’re not going to be enough.

So stage two is what

the engineers hope will be
a brilliant solution.

There’s a spine wall
that connects at the east

and the west core
and actually structurally locks

the two together.

If you looked at just
this wall between the cores,

it’s close to 300 feet tall.

It’s about 100 foot wide.

The success of
this entire project

rests on this wall

holding up
the 1,200-foot-tall tower.

That was a big challenge.

We had not built something
like this before.

In Chicago,
work has started on

the huge concrete wall

which will allow the middle
tower of the St. Regis

to float over the road.

But regular old concrete
isn’t up to the job.

Not only did they require
a strength requirement,

they also required
a stiffness requirement

far beyond what’s
normally required.

Not all concrete
is created equal.

Different ratios of cement,
water, aggregate,

or rocks produce different
strengths and stiffnesses,

all depending on how you mix
them and how long they set for.

So we were creating
a high-performance concrete mix

that was going to be able to
give us the necessary strength

as well as the stiffness.

By October 2017,

the building is beginning
to take shape.

The general concept
was to basically, like,

push the cores up
and then build the floors,

um, connect the floors
to the already constructed core.

So the cores were always
going up ahead,

followed by the, uh,
floor construction.

When it’s finished,
St. Regis will be huge,

almost 1,200 feet high
at the tallest tower.

But for architect Jeanne Gang,

it’s essential not to overpower
the skyline.

For me, tall buildings are
not about how tall they are.

It’s about how good
the architecture is

and what it does for the city.

Inspired by nature,
Gang’s buildings,

like Chicago’s Aqua Tower,

have been softened by the curves
of hills, valleys, and pools.

I’m a lifelong student

of natural forces
and natural things.

For St. Regis,

she turns to
something much, much smaller.

This tower was--

really kind of
came out of a shape

that she found in nature,
which is a frustum.

A frustum is essentially
a pyramid

with the top lopped off.

It’s gemstones.

What I did with this building
is, like,

start with this kind of
smaller module,

and then add it together,
flipping it

and finding ways that
this geometry could interlock.

Curved buildings bring
organic forms to a skyline.

They’re a clever way to bring
movement to a cityscape,

which makes it feel
more inviting and less imposing.

But to pull off
the organic shape

is gonna take
some serious engineering.

Each of the three stems,
at its narrowest, is 85 feet,

at its widest is 95 feet,

and it comes in
and out about every 13 stories.

With the floors regularly
increasing

and then decreasing in size,

the challenge is how to
stack them on top of each other

so the building’s weight
is directed down

into its base.

In typical high-rises,

floors are built the same size,

so that the structural walls

are placed directly above each
other

and transferring
the building’s load vertically

down to the foundations.

But that system
doesn’t work well

when floors are continually

increasing or decreasing in
size.

Picture a weight like
electricity.

Columns are your copper wires.

Slide a column on one floor out
of line with the one below,

and the circuit breaks.

The current backs up,
stress spikes,

and there’s going to be damage.

The engineers come up with
a simple,

but effective solution.

So what we did is
at every floor,

we stepped the columns out about
four to five inches.

We simply oversized the columns
by four inches,

and each one stacks on top
the one below it

with a slight offset.

As the floors go up,
the next challenge

is creating a facade
that emphasizes

the changing shapes of each of
the three towers.

Jeanne’s idea was to use
different gradients of glass,

or six different gradients
of glass,

to kind of
accentuate this movement.

For every 12 floors,
we have a variety

of glass colors that goes
from darker,

you know, greenish blue
to lighter.

But standard tinting won’t
work on a building this big

and with such
a complicated color scheme.

The thing about glass is not
all glass is made the same.

Glass achieves its different

colors and tints through
different assemblies.

You can coat the glass
with a film,

but over time, this can crack.

Or you can add metal oxides as
the glass is made.

Different metals produce
different colors.

But it’s difficult to get

the exact shades needed
consistently.

The problem with that is
it makes the glass look

different in different kinds
of light.

And we didn’t want the glass
to look different.

We just wanted the color
to look different.

The solution lies
4,000 miles away

at a specialist
German glassmaker.

Here,
a pioneering technique produces

colored glass consistently
at scale.

This is the first
project that really did this.

It’s a coating process for
the glass that is very precise.

This glass remains
the same color regardless

of the angle you look at
it from.

So that was really exciting
to innovate on that level.

While the glass is created,

the team building
the three towers faces

its next challenge.

When you get a column
that’s 1,200 feet tall

and you put load on it,

it will shorten by a number
of inches.

Now, that’s not such
a challenge when

the whole building is
the same height.

But when you have
a part that’s 100 stories

that wants to shorten more,

a 75-story piece in between
that shortens a little less,

and a 50-story portion
that shortens even less,

that needs to be programmed into
the design,

and in particular, into the
construction.

It’s essential the towers
settle to the exact same place,

so the floors match up.

So the columns are made
in the order of like,

you know, half inch
or three-quarters of inch,

like, you know, higher than
where they’re supposed to be.

But the floor below them is
also a little bit taller.

And then you end up with

the floors sloping outwards
and upwards.

And then as the load comes down,

they basically gradually creep
down into a level condition.

One by one, the
towers climb to their limit,

with the west tower
reaching its full height

of almost 1,200 feet.

And bringing with it
a new challenge.

The higher you go, the windier
it is up there.

In Chicago,

the construction team behind
the super-tall St. Regis Tower

needs to find
a way to stop its swaying,

especially as gusts
in the Windy City

can exceed 80 miles per hour.

So that the person up at the
highest floors in the building,

as they’re sitting down with
a glass of wine,

they’re not seeing a slosh in
the wine or the chandelier

or the window drapings clicking
against the window.

For the 1,200-foot tower,

they turn to a tried and true
method.

We have a linear horizontal tank

filled with water to a
very specific dimension.

And the wave action,
as it goes back and forth,

back and forth, exactly matches
the sway of the building.

As the building goes to and fro,

the water in the tank goes fro
and to.

Four dampeners are fitted
across the top of the tower.

But on their own,
they’re not enough.

When we look at the building

as the wind from its strongest
direction looks at it,

it’s a very,
very narrow building.

This tells us with
your eye why wind force

is blowing in this direction.

It creates a very large
engineering challenge

for this tower.

Their solution is a first
for the team and the city.

So there are some structural
elements in this building

that we have never done before.

The radical idea is
to create what in the trade

is called a blow-through.

Putting a blow-through here at
the widest part

of the upper stem of the
building,

25 feet tall, it’s effectively
two stories tall,

there’s no glass,
there’s no interior slab,

there’s no interior walls.

The wind
that’s hitting above that

goes down and goes through it.

The wind that’s just coming
straight through goes through.

And the wind that’s coming
across the building

can also go through.

So it just takes away that added
lateral load on the building.

With the tower stabilized,
all that remains is to cover it

in the color-graded glass

that changes from
light to dark blue-green

every 12 floors.

In September 2021, having
cost a billion U.S. dollars,

the St. Regis Chicago
is finally complete.

At 1,191 feet and 101 stories,

it claims its crown as

the city’s third tallest
building.

What do I think
that St. Regis Tower

brings to Chicago?

I think it brings
a world-class building.

It’s world-class architecture,
and it really puts us on a map.

Inside, the 192 hotel
rooms and 393 apartments

take advantage of
its extraordinary location.

Our guests have unmatched
views of the city,

the lake, the river,
and then they also have a ton

of natural light that floods
into the building.

To say that the views are
breathtaking is just,

it’s a complete understatement.

Thanks to the way
the three towers

are staggered in height,

they come with
an added advantage.

We can use the rooftops of those

stepping-down elements for
the pool,

for the garden, for
the outdoor space.

Above all,
the building’s unique

nature-inspired shape creates
an organic, flowing facade,

enhanced by the changes
in the colored glass,

which reflect the blues of
the surrounding lake and sky.

A true visual masterpiece
in a city of skyscrapers.

When you add that iconic
building to an already

immaculate and perfect skyscape,

it’s just, it makes it all
that much better.

It makes me proud to be
able to be part of this city

with such an important
architectural history.

Some building designs are
so ahead of the curve,

they transcend the reason they
were built in the first place,

becoming works
of art themselves.

One such treasure is found
in Paris, France,

an architectural
statement so bold,

so controversial and innovative,

it deserves to hang
on a museum wall itself.

Except, come on,
that’d be impossible.

It’s an enormous building.

It would be like trying to frame
the Eiffel Tower.

When architects compete,
history gets made.

Architectural competitions
have inspired some of history’s

greatest buildings,

from the iconic dome
of Florence’s Cathedral

to the Sydney Opera House
in Australia.

In Paris, France,

both the Palais Garnier and
the Eiffel Tower

are competition winners that
help make the city stand out.

But in the late 60s,
it’s looking for something new.

It’s lost its place
at the center

of the cultural
universe to New York.

They decide the solution is
a building so extraordinary,

it will bring the
world’s attention back home.

So the city launches
a bold international competition

to design an art center.

For the first time ever,
it will be open to architects

from outside France.

Up-and-coming English
and Italian architects

Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano
can’t resist the challenge.

It was a big, big competition.

We are young bad boys.

So when we saw this competition,

we said, let’s make a bit
of drama.

Out of 681 entries,
their submission is number 493.

t’s a futuristic vision to make
Paris a new cultural powerhouse.

Its radical experimental design
sprawls over 10 stories

and 1.1 million square feet

to create a space that
is utterly flexible.

It must be free of

supporting columns and walls
used in traditional buildings,

despite having floors as big
as two American football fields.

So they have to work out how
to stop it from falling down.

Then they’ve got
to find somewhere

to put all the surfaces
that would be hidden

in the internal walls
and columns

of a traditional building.

When their design wins,

no one is more shocked
than Rogers and Piano.

When we won the
competition,

we got a press conference.

Nobody can speak French.

I’ve got my school French--
as language, I mean.

Very bad.

And I went on for 15 minutes.

Everybody was absolutely mad
about that.

Architect Alan Stanton
becomes part of the team.

A lot of us were in our
20s or early 30s,

so we had limited experience.

But what we did have
was massive energy

and kind of commitment
and enthusiasm,

and I think creative skills.

Having won,
they now have to turn

their extraordinary idea
into a reality.

Nothing like this
had ever been attempted.

But the architects were young,
confident, and fearless.

Nothing seemed impossible.

In early 1972,
work starts on

the five-acre site in
the heart of the city.

The amount
of excavation was huge.

They dug this huge hole,

and we’ve got to fill it up
with something.

Amazingly,

they break ground
without finalizing the details

of how to build it.

I do remember looking down
this hole,

and thinking, God, we haven’t
sorted the structure out.

I do remember
sort of feeling it,

just a slight
twangs of panic with that.

Not really surprising

given the challenges
inherent in the design.

The philosophy was make
something

that is not intimidating.

It’s a place for art and culture
for everybody.

it was a feeling that

this is a building for
everybody.

And we’d like people
to go there,

and there’d always be something
different going on.

There’d always be some sort
of event,

something changing.

So we needed to have a building
that had the possibility

of putting almost any sort
of exhibition or event in there.

The revolutionary idea

is to create a huge
open-plan space

without a single interior column.

At the time, asking this is like
asking for the impossible.

That was
the whole challenge.

You couldn’t have a better
challenge as an engineer

because the engineering
was going to make the building.

In Paris, France,

the designers of the new
Pompidou Center

must figure out how to create

an entirely open-plan art space.

The first problem was
how to span almost 60 meters

without any intermediate
vertical elements.

They turn to an
engineering technique

not normally seen in buildings.

Bridges often use
Warren trusses.

These types of structures have
two beams,

a top cord and a bottom cord,

with triangular shapes in
the middle.

Triangles are nature’s
most stable shape,

so they keep the structure
rigid,

with no wobble or sag,
even across huge spans.

The problem, though,
is that

where you attach your truss,
it creates a huge force

trying to pull the support
inwards.

On a bridge,

long spans are often stabilized

by tying them directly
into the ground diagonally

with huge weights.

But at Pompidou, you can’t do
that in the usual way

because you can’t afford
to eat into the public space.

So they designed
custom-fabricated,

cast-steel rocker beams
known as gerberets.

The heavy truss sits on one end
and pushes the seesaw down,

and naturally, the other end
tries to fly upward,

but it can’t because it’s held
in place by a vertical tie rod

that runs straight down into
the ground.

It’s an experiment,
and one that goes wrong.

Initial tests on these gerberets
were a disaster.

Several of them broke under
the load,

so they had to rethink
and modify the casting process

in order to make the steel
more ductile.

After that,
all the beams took the load

and therefore could be
signed off

as being ready to be put
into place.

Finally, the bespoke
megatrusses

are ready to be transported

to the site in Paris.

Not something to be done
in rush hour.

It was a logistical
nightmare.

The pieces were so big,

they only managed
to bring them in

one at a time
in the dead of night.

During the day,
the huge pieces

of cast steel are craned
into position.

The whole thing was put together
by about eight men,

and it was like a giant
constructor kit.

Even a child can look at
the building

and understand how it works,

how it comes together piece
by piece.

Finally,
the massive floors are in.

But on April 2nd, 1974,
President Pompidou dies.

The entire project
is under threat.

Pompidou was replaced
by Valery Giscard d’Estaing.

He hated the design for
the Pompidou Center.

Thousands of hours of design,

two years of grueling on-site
work,

is all at serious risk.

There was a moment where
we were all terribly worried

that it was not gonna get built.

What saved us was that

all the building contracts
had been let,

and it was impossible
to reverse that.

So the building had to go ahead.

The team moves on to bring
the architects’ vision to life.

It was this I dream,

of making building line machine,

beautiful machine,
useful machine, urban machine.

It’s like a motor bicycle.

It’s like something that
you can understand how it works.

But there’s
a terrible realization.

Without internal walls,
flames could rapidly spread,

heating the exposed steel beams
to dangerous temperatures,

weakening their structural
integrity.

They figure out that in a
fire,

the metal columns would lose
their structural integrity,

and the building collapse.

Normally, you have two
hours to evacuate people,

so that was the requirement.

They could case the
columns

in an inflammable material,

but the architects want

the building’s structure
to be exposed.

So they need another solution.

The concept there was
to fill them with water,

so the water would cool them.

But if you had enough heat
on it,

the danger was that any air in
them

would expand and blow
the water out.

So there was a pump at the top.

If there was a fire, it started
circulating the water.

From our point of view,
the steel would be sufficient

with the water system
to resist the potential fire

that could happen in
the building.

But the Pompidou still
wasn’t done breaking rules.

Rogers and Piano decided all
the essential services,

electricity, plumbing, heating,

would sit exposed on
the building’s exterior,

freeing interior space
completely.

Normally,
services are hidden.

Here, it is one of the key
aesthetics of the building,

and therefore they had
to be absolutely perfect.

To do that, they make
them part of the design,

including color-coding
the pipes.

Blue for ventilation,
green for plumbing,

and red for the walkway
and escalators.

The idea was to animate
the architecture.

The escalator system was part of

what we refer to as streets
in the sky, if you like.

After five and a half
years of construction,

in January 1977,

Piano and Rogers’
Pompidou Center opens its doors.

It’s not love at first sight.

It’s taken some
getting used to,

but now it’s world famous.

Looking back at it today,

you can only say the result is
extraordinary

and something
I’m extremely proud of.

It’s not just an icon.
It’s a building that works

the way its creators hoped
it would.

Pompidou was conceived
as a place for people.

That is really the spirit of
the building.

And people come from all over.

It’s very fascinating
to see this kind of building,

because it’s really unique.

I simply adore it.

So every year I come here and
I go up as a personal ritual.

The Pompidou still
welcomes millions each year.

It has kept its promise
to be open, unexpected, alive.

And more than anything,
it’s for all to enjoy.

You’re making cities
better places.

And people better people.

Because it’s about staying
together.

It’s about enjoying

and sharing the same values,
the same emotion.

So that was very important.