All language subtitles for How.Did.They.Build.That.2021.S02E01.Riverparks.and.Artworks.1080p.WEB.h264-CAFFEiNE_track3_[eng]

[Narrator] How do you create a
brand-new park

without any land to build it on?

When you first look at it,
you're like,

this looks pretty scary.

[Narrator] What happens when
mountains inspire a cutting-edge

design for an extraordinary
art gallery?

When I first saw the watercolor
my first thought is,

that's not a building.
That's just a sketch.

[Narrator] And how do you
turn an artist's sculpture

into a working office building?

It's like it could
topple over at any time.

[Narrator] And keep it standing?

This is the age
of the extraordinary.

[Hayley] It's like one of those
insect eating plants,

only enormous and white.

[Narrator] Where ingenious
engineers have unleashed

unchecked creativity.

Now their secrets are revealed.

As we discover the amazing
stories of their construction.

This is an incredible feat
of planning and engineering.

[Narrator]
To try and understand,

"How Did They Build That?"

Hey, yeah. I'd like to place an
insane architecture order.

All right, can I get a 100,000
square foot public park

with landscaped hills
and I don't know,

maybe 350 species of trees,
shrubs and flowers?

Oh, oh, and can you make the
whole thing, like,

float above a river?

Yeah, cool.
Thanks.

Now I'm not sure the genius
who dreamed up this idea

was thinking too much
about the builders

who'd actually have to
make their dream reality,

but boy, did they deliver!

[Narrator] Parks and green
spaces are always at a premium

in the world's cities.

And that's especially true
on Manhattan Island.

With 1.6 million people packed
into 22 square miles,

more was desperately desired.

[Corina]
Uptown has Central Park.

Midtown Manhattan,
it's a little short

on green space.
Where would you squeeze it in?

[Narrator] That's exactly the
challenge that the city faced.

So it decided the answer was
to create something...

out of nothing.

The pier doesn't really look
like prime real estate.

It's basically just a patch
of freezing cold water

with some rotten wooden posts

where the pier once was.

[Narrator]
The plan was extraordinary.

To take the site of two derelict
piers on the Hudson River

and create a fantasy island
to float above them,

growing out of 132 giant plant
pots held up on 280 stilts

driven into the river bed below.

It would be like nothing
engineers had ever seen.

You look at it and you're like,
is that going to work?

[Narrator] And would push the
team to its very limits

We were sort of clawing our way
up these slopes.

[Narrator]
This is Little Island,

a huge idea that took 17
specialized teams of engineers,

fabricators and gardeners
10 years to complete.

So how did they build it?

Manhattan's concrete jungle,

deep urban canyons created by
ever more dense development.

In a city where one block
of real estate can be worth up

to a billion dollars.

Opportunities for new green
space are not only rare,

they come with
high expectations.

If you want to create
an outstanding attraction

in Manhattan these days,

it's going to have
to be pretty special.

[Narrator] Up until now that has
usually meant converting

something that's no
longer used...

like this stretch
of railroad viaduct.

Built on a mile and a half
of old tracks and bridges,

the High Line linear park
has been a huge hit.

Eight million visitors
wander High Line's

elevated walkways each year.

While on the nearby
Hudson River,

some of Manhattan's oldest piers
are getting similar treatment,

having been abandoned
after a glorious past.

During the first half
of the 20th century,

the western stretch
of Manhattan shoreline

was the gateway to the
international superhighway.

Huge ocean liners steamed in
from abroad

or prepared for great voyages.

Their excited passengers would
come and go from huge jetties.

Among them was Pier 54.

Before the jet age, this pier
and its neighbors

bustled with activity.

But by 2000, Pier 54 and many
others have become disused

or damaged beyond repair.

A few years later,
the Hudson River Park Trust

starts turning some of them
into simple public spaces.

Putting grass and trees on
an existing pier makes sense.

It's budget friendly.

[Narrator]
But if the pier barely exists,

where do you start?

In 2010, the trust decides the
site of Pier 54,

and its neighboring piers
are next on the list.

And bring in British architects,
Heatherwick Studios.

Among their recent projects
are 1,000 trees in Shanghai,

a shopping center styled
as a mountain covered

with 250,000 plants.

And The Hive,

a hyper-efficient,
educational building

for the University of Singapore.

In 2012,
they first visit the site.

[Matt]
Looking at all these piers,

the ones that had
fallen into disrepair

created these pile fields
sticking up out of the water,

which were very serene
and beautiful.

And that's what inspired us.

Why are we trying to invent
something different

that goes on there?

Take what's already there
and beautiful, the piles

and extend them to create the
platforms to hold the landscape.

It was a really exciting moment
because they thought, brilliant.

We don't have to just create
a pavilion on top

of a normal pier.

We can create a new
type of pier.

[Narrator]
Over the next few weeks,

the new design idea is refined.

Then in October 2012,
the Heatherwick team

flies into New York
to meet its clients.

Just as the city is hit
by Hurricane Sandy.

[Matt] One of our final concept
presentations was

when Hurricane Sandy hit.

So the team were actually
in Manhattan during that moment,

which kind of made it all
incredibly real.

[Narrator] The largest Atlantic
storm ever to hit New York,

Sandy arrives at high tide
causing the subway

and road tunnels to flood.

It shows Matt and the team
what the new park

will have to be
able to deal with.

So how do we design something
to last for the next 100 years?

[Narrator]
Their solution is a design

that redefines how a park looks,
is used, and is built.

280 pillars will rise up out
of the Hudson

to support the
futuristic new park.

132 of them topped with a series
of unique and highly engineered

interlinking pots.

By altering the height
and shape of each one,

they will create a landscape
that rises and falls.

114 large trees
and over 200,000 other plants

will be planted in the pots.

Weaving amongst them will be a
third of a mile of walkways

and a 687-seat amphitheater
for live performance.

It will be unlike any
waterside park on the planet.

This is a classic
Heatherwick Studios design.

It's original, it's elegant, and
it's not obviously buildable.

[Narrator] But it was
Celine Armstrong's job

to do just that.

[Celine] I looked at the design
and said, uh-uh.

Go one more pass at simplifying
it and then let's do this.

But people had already fallen
in love with it, and it was,

let's figure it out.

[Narrator] In 2014,
the project is green lit.

The first challenge for the
engineers is figuring out how

to make the 2.5 acres
of man-made park,

weighing tens of
thousand of tons,

float above the Hudson River.

[Nehemiah] If you don't want
your building to collapse,

you need to make sure the
foundations are solid.

And the best way to do that
is to anchor the building

to bedrock.

[Narrator] That though,
is going to be far from easy.

[Celine]
So building in federal waters,

the United States in an old
shipping area is a nightmare.

You don't know what's beneath
the sub-surface layer.

When people didn't want
something,

they just threw it
over the edge.

[Narrator] Once the engineers
have surveyed the riverbed

and cleared obstructions,

the enormous job of creating
a solid base

for the new park begins.

First, a marine crane brings a
concrete pile into position.

Each is three feet in diameter,
up to 200 feet long,

and tipped with a steel spike.

The piledriver then hammers it
down into the riverbed

until it pierces
the bedrock below.

The success of the complex build
to come depends on the accuracy

of this pile-driving process.

When you're driving piles next
to each other with pots

that sit on them,
if they deflect,

they're gonna be too far apart
or they're going to be too close

to each other.

And so making sure those piles
are driven as vertically

as possible is really important.

[Celine] We had the best
equipment where you drive

the pile using GPS,
double-leader system.

We know it's spot on.

The engineer operating that
equipment is like,

these are fantastic.
Move on. Do more.

[Narrator] Then as the forest
of columns is growing,

they discover a major problem.

There are a lot of checks and
balances throughout the entire

process of this project.

And one of them was
double surveying,

and we found, wait a minute,
this survey doesn't match

your survey.
What is going on?

[Narrator] Next.

What's causing the columns
to move?

[Narrator] On the construction
site of a new park

floating over New York's
Hudson River,

engineers discover the concrete
island's huge supporting pillars

have moved from where they were
originally installed.

[Hayley] With a project this
exact and expensive,

you can't afford surprises.

But the columns were
deviating from the plan

and no one knew why.

[David] We eventually realized
that it's like sticking

sticks in in a bowl of Jell-O.

And as you stick more sticks
in that bowl of Jell-O,

it pushes the Jell-O.

And the Jell-O is pushing
the piles that were already

installed, you know,
further east.

[Celine] Luckily, we built the
project east to west,

and so they all kind
of just danced.

So our project was maybe
just six inches further east

than anticipated.
And it worked out.

[Narrator]
With piledriving underway,

the next step is to create the
tulip-shaped pots

that will sit on
top of the pillars.

They need to make 132 of them
and no two are the same.

[Matt] Because of the complexity
and the need for kind

of accuracy that meant that we
could actually create a geometry

in the computer and test it,
make sure it worked.

Then we could actually give it
to a CNC machine at Fort Miller,

which was the fabricators,

and it would literally cut out
exactly what's in the computer.

And then you then cast
the concrete against it.

[David] Each of these pots are
made up of six different pieces,

and they were all prefabricated
up at upstate New York.

Six different pieces are then
brought together in Albany,

where they go from being kind of
petals and column heads,

and they get assembled into
a whole pot.

[Narrator] The next challenge
to overcome is getting

the huge pots 130 miles from
the factory to the pier site.

By road they'd need
to be moved one at a time,

causing chaos in the city.

So the team turns to an age,
old mode of transportation

[Matt] We were interested in
using the river

to deliver materials to the site

because from a sustainability
perspective,

it stops trucks going
to the middle of Manhattan.

[Narrator] The Hudson River
takes the load,

just as it once did for the
building of the original piers

during the 19th century.

Each barge effortlessly
transporting up to four pots

or 280 tons of concrete
to the site.

In fact the barges prove crucial
for the whole construction.

[David] They bring materials
in via barge.

They work from the barge.
They have a crane on the barge.

You know, so it really is
full marine construction.

[Narrator] Even as the pots
are craned into position,

the job of driving the pillars
into the bedrock

continues to throw up problems.

[Celine] Okay.
There is a boulder here.

We're just going to move the
pile over, which also means

we need to redesign this pot.

So if your engineers
could expedite that,

so by the time we're actually
piledriving

and ready to install that pot,
it's ready.

[Narrator] With the 132 pots
in place on the pillars,

the team focuses on turning the
concrete island

into a mature riverside oasis.

[Matt] This thing is a park
for New Yorkers.

That's what it's for.

In order to that,
we wanted to put trees.

Not just like little trees,
proper trees, proper landscape.

[Narrator]
To oversee the design,

they bring in landscape
architect, Signe Nielson

who has no idea what she's
letting herself into.

I was a bit naive, I would say.

And so I wasn't aware of all the
challenges that arose,

but I was quickly aware
that the topography,

the slopes that we had
to accommodate in order

to create this undulation
were going to be challenging.

[Narrator]
By using 3D-computer modeling,

Signe could design a plan
that would be nearly impossible

to fully visualize in her head.

One of the things that
I would have my staff do is

literally walk me up every path
and every curve,

so I could see what the
slope was next to me,

the slope going down
away from me,

where I wanted views directed.

It was a brilliant way to work.

[Hayley] While a 3D model is
great for the designers

to visualize where they're going
to put trees and plants,

crucially, it means the
engineers could calculate

all of the loads to ensure that
the columns could take it.

[Narrator] One cubic yard of dry
soil weighs around 2,000 pounds,

3,000 when wet.

Add in several tons of trees
and plants and it adds up fast.

[David]
In our load calculations,

we figured that we could get
about 300 and 350 tons per pile.

And we knew about how much each
of these pots was gonna weigh,

and how much soil was necessary
to carry the plants

and the trees that were needed.

[Narrator] With the engineers
happy that the structure

will support the landscaping,

the race is on
to get everything planted

before New York's
bitter winter arrives.

[Singe] The 15th of December
is generally our

climatological cutoff.
And could we make it?

[Celine] A lot of the materials
on the top side of our park

are temperature sensitive.

It got a bit tense
over who was more important

given the clouds
that we see rolling in.

We really need these guys
to get done,

so clear out,
so they can finish their work.

[Narrator] Another massive crane
is brought in

to plant the huge trees in their
individually-engineered pots.

[Signe] We modelled the root
balls exactly to their size.

But the most challenging area
of the park

was what we call the southwest.

It was the last area
that we had access to.

Winter was breathing
down our neck

and we had to get the plants
in quickly.

And it is the steepest slopes.

[Narrator]
Along with 35 species of tree,

the design involves planting 260
different varieties of plants,

and 66,000 bulbs.

[Signe] When it came to planting
the perennials and the grasses,

this was done by hand.

We were sort of clawing
our way up these slopes.

[Narrator] In 2021,

nine years after a new pier park
was first discussed,

Little Island is ready
for its debut.

And it's a huge hit
with visitors.

The architecture is pretty nice.

I've never seen anything
like it before.

The structure is amazing.
Just like little like, pea pods

that it's built up on.
It looks so cool.

It's like you are in New York,
but you're floating.

Floating in the river
or the sea.

[Narrator] New York has a
completely unique new park

for its people

created by incredible design
and engineering.

That's something you know,
that I will forever be proud of.

And I'm just so fortunate
to have the trust of the team

to do such crazy things.

[Narrator]
In a city renowned

for its amazing architecture
and engineering,

Little Island is proof that
New York still holds a torch

for radical design.

This latest addition to the
center of the Hudson is truly

raising the bar on what people
can expect from a public space.

Next. A wild rocky mountain of
titanium rips up the rule book

in downtown Denver.

Typically,
when you visit a museum,

you just want to get inside
quick as you can to see all

the amazing treasures
they've got on show in there.

But this next building,
it ain't no typical museum.

Its design is so radical
and so mind-blowing,

I'd gladly pay the price of
admission to just stand outside

and look at it.

[Daniel] The museum directors
told me, Mr. Libeskind,

just don't give us a box.

[Narrator] Instead they got a
design that would stretch

its engineers to their limit.

[Justin] I couldn't believe
that something could be designed

in such a manner.

It looked like a
piece of origami.

[Narrator] It's a building
so unprecedented,

it took pioneering new
technology to build it.

Absolutely mind-blowing.

It's like a spaceship has landed
in the middle of Denver.

[Narrator] This is the
Denver Museum of Art.

146,000 square feet
of galleries.

At its core a structural
skeleton as complex

as it was tough to assemble.

Not a right-angled corner
or symmetrical wall in sight

and all the time gravity
trying to pull it apart.

So how did they build it?

It's the year 2000.

And the city of Denver's
art curators

have got a growing problem.

[Andrea] We were really
driving in crowds.

We were over capacity.

We were building collections
like crazy.

We were really growing.

And we were out of space.

So our board and our city
decided that we should expand.

[Narrator] The existing museum,
in Denver's civic district

sits among a classic urban grid
of rectangles and cubes.

It's here the city agrees to put
a completely new building,

and to design it, chooses one of
the world's foremost architects,

Daniel Liebeskind.

To answer his anything,
but a box brief,

Liebeskind takes his inspiration
from the natural skyscrapers

beyond Denver,

the snowy peaks
of the Rocky Mountains.

[Daniel] I think a museum has to
be as interesting

as walking on those
valleys or slopes.

As you look at Denver,
you see the mountain peaks,

you see the snow,
you see the valley.

My design was inspired
to connect people as the way

they're connected when they
climb those mountains,

to have that sense of space,
to have the sense of light,

that sense of wow.

[Narrator] Libeskind takes
a rather unusual approach

to convince his clients
of his idea.

When I first saw the watercolor
that he did of the sort of

spiky building,
my first thought is,

that's not a building.
That's just a sketch.

That's a piece of art.

[Narrator] Over the next two
and a half years,

the design is worked into a
full-scale, detailed proposal.

Inside Denver's new art museum
will be a series of zigzagging

gallery spaces all flowing
through huge openings

and stairways.

This will be supported by a
series of internal steel beams

that are interconnected
with one another to create

an angular structure
reminiscent of a ship's hull,

And tipped with a huge
100-foot prow

that stretches out over the
neighboring 13th Street.

The building will feature
20 vast inwardly sloping panes,

all different and clad with
9,000 shimmering plates.

This is architecture that
will pioneer a new vision

for a public art gallery.

It will be like nothing
the city has ever seen.

[Corina] Architecturally, Denver
has been pretty rectangular,

but this building doesn't
just break the mold,

it melts it down.

[Daniel] The Denver Art Museum
is an unprecedented building.

That's what it is.

There's never been a building
like this before.

[Narrator]
Unprecedented designs come

with unprecedented challenges.

And this, with its sheer angles
and jutting overhangs,

has the engineers already
wondering

how they're going to build it.

[Carla] The biggest challenge
for the project was

the complexity of the geometry.
There is no doubt.

And it would have been next
to impossible to build

if we were drawing
everything by hand,

[Narrator] It's 2000,
and lead structural engineer,

Atila Zekioglu turns to
technology that is still

in its infancy to help,

the latest
3D computer-aided design.

[Atila] We decided that we were
going to use a revolutionary

step into using 3D,

not only documenting the
structural system in 3D,

but actually conceiving
it in 3D, analyzing it,

designing it in 3D.

[Narrator] This cutting-edge
software can solve

hugely complex geometric
problems that humans cannot.

The result is a series of
computer-generated models

that reveal the scale of the
challenge the engineers face

in building it.

[Atila] It's like our moment
in the candy store

and we were just looking
at this model,

spinning it around,
dissecting it.

And it became very clear
that the slanted walls

were not symmetrical.

[Narrator]
The lack of symmetry means

balancing the gravitational
forces within the structure

will be impossible using
conventional building methods,

such as concrete form work.

So the engineers come up
with a slimline,

but very strong solution.

Concrete will be used,

but only to create a hugely
strong base pad.

In an idea borrowed
from ship building,

huge girders will be placed
in the concrete floors,

then linked to beams
in the slanted walls

to stop them from pushing out.

It will take more
than 2,700 tons of steel beams

bolted together to create the
precise and unique skeleton

for the entire building.

This will be very complex
to build,

but will solve all of their
major problems at once.

[J.R.] The steel framework,
the beams and the girders

make up one resisting system
for the building.

[Atila] This was something
that had not been done to date

and it is an elegant solution
to achieve the mission.

[Narrator] Or at least it looked
like an elegant solution.

But J.R. Barker who hails from a
proud family of iron workers,

could see there was a problem.

[J.R.] They started to look at
the construction documents

and they got a little nervous.

The problem we had was like
building a house of cards.

At any given moment,
it wants to fall flat on you.

They said, we don't think
we can build this.

[Narrator] Next.
Can the team pull it off?

[Narrator] In Denver
the construction team

has a blueprint for an
extraordinary new art museum,

but no blueprint
for how to build it.

The engineers realize the
computer model gives no

information on which order
to assemble

the 3,100 pieces of steel.

Or how to support it while
they put it together.

[Justin] Your traditional
building methods of just

building from the ground up
did not work for this job.

[Narrator] Justin Mitchell
is one of the engineers

on the ground working out
how to build it.

[Justin]
From an engineering aspect,

we had to figure out,

how do we keep this thing
from falling over

and leaning outward
as we're constructing it?

[Narrator] Their solution is
to bring in specially designed

shoring towers to prop up
each section as it's built.

[Justin]
We had 54 of them out here.

Some of them went through
the middle of the structure.

We had them leaning in or out.

They were the elements that kept
this thing from falling over.

[Carla] They were holding up
these angles until we had

the connecting piece.

So we literally broke the
building down into elements

and built it kind of like
an erector set.

[Narrator] Each bespoke joint
has to be individually made

and has to be exact,
but incredibly,

despite this complexity,

building using the computer
modeling in harness with

human engineering experience,
seems to be working.

[J.R.]
These are rough ironworker guys.

They were planning their day on
the computer screen and saying,

this is what we're going
to build today.

All the partners
working together.

It worked so well that,
that was the biggest surprise,

not on how difficult it was
to build this,

but how smoothly and well the
process actually worked.

[Narrator] Then, as the building
is coming together,

they hit a problem.

One day we got a connection
that didn't fit.

And it really freaked out the
entire construction team.

How in the world
did this happen?

It's been going so well.

[Narrator] It's a serious issue,
but some on-site detective work

soon identifies the cause,
human error.

[J.R.] They actually traced that
right back to an individual

in the fabrication shop
who on a trimmed corner

of a piece of plate,
they had trimmed an inch off

the corner to make it
fit just right.

And so everything
was off one inch.

[Narrator]
Having discovered the error,

the plate is remade and
construction continues.

Barker and his team can't
afford any mistakes

with the next installation,

the steel that will become the
building's signature feature.

[J.R.] One of them would have
been what we call

the prow of the ship,
which the largest piece

of steel in the entire project,
it was that massive center spire

that went from there
out over the street.

[Narrator]
The 85-foot steel gives crucial

strength to the prow and leads
up to the razor sharp tip

as it juts out 167 feet out
and 100 feet high

over a busy 13th Street.

I think the most nerve-wracking
moment might have been

the construction
over the street of that space,

and how it supports itself.

[Narrator] The huge beam
must be cantilevered,

or supported at just one end

to receive the bolts
which will hold it in position.

[Justin] We had shoring towers
leaning out away from the road,

but yet still holding part
of the prow of the ship

or the prow of the
structure here.

[Narrator] After a whole year
spent assembling the steel frame

using over 50,000 bolts,

the construction supports
are taken away.

It's a huge moment for the team,

when they see whether the
computer-generated design

built by humans will
stand up on its own.

[J.R.]
When we removed those shores,

there were no corrective
actions required.

It fell right into place.
It was just elation.

[Narrator]
The framework is in place,

but now it needs a skin to cover
the 200,000 square feet.

They consider concrete,
and stone laminate,

but they're dismissed
as either too heavy

or too dull to look at.

Finally, the engineers turn
to a cutting-edge material

that can be found
glinting off satellites,

integrated into warships,

and their attack aircraft,

titanium alloy.

Titanium is used on the
underside of spacecrafts

because it's significantly
lighter than steel,

but at the same time,
just as strong.

And it doesn't
corrode as easily.

[Narrator] This extraordinary
material can also cope with

Denver's high-desert weather.

[Carla] Denver's climate
is incredibly varied.

You can have snow one morning,

and by the afternoon
it's 70 degrees and sunny.

[Ellie] Unlike steel, titanium
doesn't expand or contract

when it gets hot or cold,
so it's absolutely,

ideally suited to Denver's
extreme temperatures.

[Narrator]
It's also significantly

more expensive
than most alternatives.

And hadn't been budgeted for.

Quite honestly,
I didn't choose it.

We didn't have enough money
to choose that material,

but we had a great donor
who donated the titanium.

And that was such a fantastic
thing to have in those shapes

that I built.
Brings that light to the city.

And remarkably fits the new city
that it's built in.

[Narrator]
It also hides the crucial,

but not so pretty
insulation underneath,

essential for protecting
the building from Denver's

huge variations in humidity
and temperature.

Each layer behind the titanium
has a special job to do.

On the outside,
we have the titanium panel,

two layers of insulation,
and we have a mesh that

separates it from the insulation
on the building,

so that air is allowed
to flow behind the panels.

This allows the panels to
breathe with the summer heating

of the building
or the cooling in the winter.

And then behind that,
you have a foam.

And then that's covered
with a fire resistant,

spray-on concrete,
which provides the final layer.

[Narrator] The cladding is
installed ahead of time,

and thanks to the computer-aided
design and build process,

the project is finished
three months ahead of schedule.

In 2006, three years
after construction began,

the ground-breaking new
Denver Art Museum

opens to the public.

[Carla] It was certainly
exciting on the opening days

of the project when people came
in and looked up.

And you could see their
imagination run wild.

When it was first built,
people weren't sure.

Some people didn't love it.

And now it's just a part
of the fabric of who we are

and how we identify ourselves.

That's when you know that
it's been embraced

[Daniel] When I built it,
they said maximum 200,000 people

will come to the building.

Now we have figures of
over a million.

[Narrator] While the Denver
public enjoys the experience

of the new museum,
the experience of creating the

building itself remains powerful
in the team who built it.

[J.R.]
My father was an ironworker,

but he died when I was
in high school.

He never got to see what I do.

He never got to see that I was
the epitome of what he himself

longed to be in his life.

And I was able to bring my
mother to the site

and show her what
I'd been able to do.

It was a remarkable moment.
I'm sorry.

[Justin] We were at the
forefront of what was possible

with 3D modelling.

Also on the forefront of what's
possible with architecture.

We proved that we could
construct it and build it.

Regular viewers of this show
know that architects just love

to break the rules.

In this next
ahead-of-its-time building,

they're going to have thousands
of book borrowers

breaking the rules too.

Because no matter how
much you shush folks,

this is one library building,

everyone will want
to shout about.

- [Man] Shh.
- Sorry.

[Narrator] It's the 1990s.

And in the city of Nice
in the south of France,

something strange is
about to happen.

They needed a new office
for the staff

who worked at the city library.

And they want something
that was, well,

out of the ordinary.

And it would be fair to say
that is what they got.

[Nehemiah] It's such an unusual
shape for building.

It's like it can topple
over at any time.

[Narrator]
This is La Tete Carree.

Or as it's also known,
Thinking Inside the Box,

the product of an
artist's fevered imagination

that was a real pain
in the neck to build.

[Corina] It's not easy for a
building to also be a sculpture.

[Narrator] It needed to be
strong enough to hold up

four floors of office space,

and still appear to be an
elegant sculpture

that looked solid while still
letting in the light.

So how did they build it?