All language subtitles for How.Did.They.Build.That.S01E03.Biomes.and.Rebuilds.1080p.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-squalor_track3_[eng]

Narrator: How do
you build a glass dome

big enough to house a mountain?

Woman: They really feel
like a wonder of the world.

There's nothing else like them.

Narrator: What happens
when a major station

is completely taken apart and
rebuilt during the rush hour?

Man: This is like
open-heart surgery.

The only problem is,
the patient is still jogging.

Narrator: And how
did engineers create

the most outrageous
building in all of Las Vegas?

Man: You have to build
something that gets attention.

Your building is your billboard.

Narrator: This is the
age of the extraordinary...

Man:É\ where else can you swim

from one skyscraper to
the other, 300 feet in the air?

Narrator: Where
ingenious engineers

have unleashed
unchecked creativity...

Woman: Everything
in this building

pushes at the boundaries
of what's possible.

Narrator: Building structures
so outrageous, they defy logic.

Woman: The forces on this thing

look like it should
be torn apart.

Narrator: Now their
secret's revealed.

Discover the incredible
stories of their construction...

Woman: These are
extraordinary feats of engineering.

Narrator: To try and understand

how did they build that?

In the last 30 years,

the southeast Asian economic
powerhouse of Singapore

has seen its population double,

from three million
to nearly six million.

Finding the space to build here
normally means building high.

Hayley loren oakes:
The problem is,

Singapore is a small island
city, half the size of London,

so space is at a premium.

Narrator: When the government
decided they wanted to give

this booming population

green space among
the high-rises,

engineers had to push the
boundaries of what's possible.

The end result was a solution
packed with world firsts.

Built on over ten million
square feet of land

reclaimed from the sea
are two huge biomes,

one, the largest on earth,

engineered to keep
visitors and residents cool

in the searing tropical heat.

Outside, a forest of giant
super trees would be connected

by a stunning skywalk, creating
an Avenue into the future.

Hayley: Engineering doesn't
get much more remarkable

than gardens by the bay.

Narrator: For the
team that took it on,

transforming a
soggy patch of sand

into an extraordinary
state-of-the-art garden park

would be the
challenge of a lifetime.

So, how did they build it?

♪

In 2007, work started
on a huge new park

for Singapore's residents.

With over 80 percent
of the population

living in high-rise towers,
it was desperately needed.

Debbie sterling: Cities
need green spaces.

@greenery absorbs carbon
dioxide, it makes oxygen,

and it just makes a city

a more pleasurable
place to live.

Narrator: Working
out where to build

on this tiny tropical island

was the first challenge
that faced engineers.

Corina kwami: You might
well wonder how they found

an extra 100 hectares in
such a densely populated city.

Well, they actually
made it from scratch.

Narrator: Today, Singapore is
an island of 277 square miles,

but a huge amount
of the island's coast...

The marinas, the airport,
the industrial shipping ports...

Are actually built on land

that has been created
by the government.

For the last 200 years,

Singapore has grown by
reclaiming land from the sea.

But over the last 50 years,
this process has accelerated,

with Singapore now 24 percent
bigger than nature intended.

It was a 250-acre parcel
of this reclaimed land

that meant the city could
create a new green space.

The plot was
created in the 1980s

by taking vast quantities
of sand and rocks

from building sites and seabeds

and piling it up until it
was above water level.

The plot was
created in the 1980s

by taking vast quantities
of sand and rocks

from building sites and seabeds.

Neil Thomas: The
issue of reclaimed land

is that you are

effectively bringing in

non-compacted gravel,

non-compacted earth,

and you can't
really build onto that,

so what they did was actually
pile, put piles, long shafts,

beneath each of the foundations

for the building
structures they built,

and they would
extend down to the rock,

to the base below
the compacted earth.

Narrator: These concrete
and steel columns

firmly anchored to the bedrock

would be the key to supporting
the two glasshouse structures.

Now the architects and
engineers could finalize

the designs for
building the park.

It would be a project
packed with innovation.

Dominating the site would be the
two huge biomes, or glasshouses,

one with the largest unsupported
glass roof in the world.

Both would use self-supporting
latticework design

with arcing beams to create
the huge spans of glass

covering the 215,000 square
feet of climate-controlled gardens.

Outside, there would be a
forest of man-made trees,

which would range from
80 to 160 feet in height.

18 super trees of
concrete, steel, and plant life

would be linked
by an aerial skywalk

towering over the groves below.

♪

The outdoor park would be
planted with tropical species,

which would thrive in
the hot local climate,

but the ambition
for the two biomes

was to house species
from cooler faraway lands.

In Singapore,

with its typical daily high of
almost 90 degrees fahrenheit,

that was a huge challenge.

Glasshouses in cool climates
work by using the glass

to trap solar energy to heat up.

This way, plants from much
warmer climates can grow.

Singapore's two biomes had to
do something much more difficult.

They had to somehow
let in lots of light

but also stay very cool.

Both needed to be around
77 degrees fahrenheit,

but the huge flower dome,

with its plants from
dry mediterranean

spring climate of
2,500 miles north,

also needed to be very bright.

With Singapore's
humid, cloudy weather,

the need for maximum
light was the first problem

the biome designers
had to solve.

Neil: During the day, there's
quite often a lot of cloud.

The sunlight, it's not
constant throughout the day,

and it's not as much as the
plants need to be able to grow,

so we had to get every single
ounce of sunlight we could

into the conservatories
themselves.

Narrator: With daylight
so crucial to the plants,

the designers had to
overcome the problem

of how to support the huge roof
spans without creating shade.

Ellie cosgrave: Most buildings
need columns to stand up,

it's how the load
gets to the ground,

but there is another way.

Narrator: The solution
to maximizing the light

was to create a delicate
curved framework

to hold the 3,332 glass panels.

Incredibly, this grid
shell is self-supporting.

It achieves this by mimicking
an engineering design

perfected by birds and reptiles.

Neil: A technique
in engineering,

an idea of using form and shape

to provide the strength to
the way a structure works,

and you see it in
nature all the time.

An egg, for instance,

is a perfect example
of shape stiffness.

The shell of the
egg is that, a shell,

and it's a
three-dimensional surface,

and it's very, very thin,
but yet very, very strong.

And that strength is created

because of the form
of it, the shape of it,

and so we translate
that idea into buildings.

Narrator: By replicating
the thin, strong,

arcing structure of an eggshell,

gravitational loads are evenly
distributed down to the ground,

where it's fixed.

The idea was that a thin
structure with no columns

would allow in maximum
light and self-support.

But the huge size and the
lack of supporting columns

became disadvantages when
it came to actually building it.

Paul baker: Because we're
creating this very large volume,

there's a complexity in
how the hell do you support it

when you're gradually
building it in stages,

and obviously it all
needs to be supported

until it is the complete entity.

A grid shell doesn't
work until it's complete.

Narrator: Engineers needed to
work at heights of over 160 feet

to assemble the roof structure,

but a traditional
scaffolding platform

would have been
complex and expensive,

so instead, they came up

with a simple but
ingenious solution.

Paul: So they built a
series of working platforms

at substantial heights,
so the lower, flatter,

the mediterranean biomes
around about 35 meters to the top,

so building something
as a working deck

which was 25 meters,

and then doing a
regular scaffold on top,

allowed a massive saving.

Narrator: As the
structure was completed,

the grid shell should
have been strong enough

to support the glass by itself,

but there was a
potential problem.

Debbie: Structures by the sea
need to be especially strong.

I mean, think about it, with
all of the rain that can come in,

and wind and storms, they
need to withstand all of that.

Narrator: Winds of
over 60 miles per hour

have been known
to hit Singapore,

so extra strength was needed

to protect the fragile
grid shell domes

of the gardens by the bay.

The answer was to crane
in 28 radiating steel arches,

which would stretch
over the roofs.

These arches were
then bolted together,

connected at their bases
to a concrete ring beam,

which itself was
anchored to the deep piles

driven down through
the reclaimed land.

Then, they were bolted
to the latticework frame.

The domes could now
absorb any high wind pressures

and avoid a catastrophic
structural failure.

Now it was ready for the glass.

Neil: In the conservatories,
we have the arched ribs

which provide the resistance
to forces which are sideways,

which shells are not
particularly good at resisting,

so there we've got two things
combined, the shell stiffness,

the shape, and the arch ribs,

which are very
stiff horizontally.

Narrator: The success of
the two grid shells is clear,

with over 100,000 healthy
plants thriving inside.

As well as plenty of light,

they need a maximum daytime
air temperature of 77 degrees,

going down to 62 at night.

But with the Singaporean
sun burning down at midday,

these glasshouses
would naturally heat up

to well over 100 degrees.

How have the engineers
prevented this from happening?

Paul: Greenhouses
like to get hot.

I mean, that's the bottom line,

you know, glass is a
great holder of heat,

and the solar gain is trapped,

and it's a really great
thing in a cool climate,

but in a hot climate when you're
trying to make something cool

is obviously a big challenge.

Narrator: The
first line of defence

was installing spectrally
selective solar glass.

This deflects 35
percent of the sun's heat,

but on its own, it
wouldn't be enough.

Additional shade comes
from bespoke blinds

that roll out when
the sun is shining,

again engineered to minimize
impact when not in use.

Paul: The shading is
tucked within the ribs

and furls right back
in, like a roller reef sail,

folds right back into the
ribs so it can disappear.

Again, for the very
strong principle

that on a semi-cloudy day,

you need as much
light as possible.

Narrator: Despite
greatly reducing

the solar heat coming in,

the biomes would still get
hot enough to kill the plants

in a matter of days.

The solution was building in

an underfloor network
of cooling pipes.

Andy kwek: This is
something that we have learned

from the northern hemisphere,

so in the northern hemisphere,

@they actually
do ground heating.

We just reverse the entire
process and cool the slabs.

Narrator: To ensure
the cooling system

is as energy-efficient
as possible,

biomass boilers burn
organic waste from here

and from gardens and
parks across Singapore.

This helps generate the
electricity to chill the water.

Corina: It's extraordinary that
the whole gardens by the bay

only uses as much energy as
a Singaporean office building.

Narrator: With the
structure completed,

the next engineering challenge

was building a
ten-story mountain inside

and working out how to build

the 115-foot structure
out of concrete,

all while making sure

its sensitive plants
survive and thrive.

Andy: So, for the
mountain in the cloud forest,

it is actually made out of,

it's a typical concrete
wall structure,

so, first of all, we
have the concrete,

and then we have a
material called hypertufa.

Hypertufa is basically a
mixture of cement and soil

to give it kind of like
an organic material

that will help.

Narrator: Clever engineering
helped these biomes

imitate the natural world of
hundreds of miles from here.

But outside, the
designers took inspiration

from the jungles that once
grew here in Singapore.

They created an
extraordinary alien forest.

Ellie: Super trees.

They're exactly as advertised.

Basically like
trees, on steroids.

Man-made, 16 stories high.

Neil: We were never
trying to replicate a tree.

We were trying to create a kind
of modern 21st-century version,

an idealization
of what a tree is,

in terms of using structures
of steel and cables,

but working in the way
that nature does so,

by being flexible and changing

and, you know, the
way it supports nature.

Joshua macabuag:
These super trees aren't

just steel and concrete.

They've got plants growing
on them, living on them.

Somehow, the designers
have managed to incorporate

a web of exotic plants into
this man-made structure.

All of these plants
are incredibly heavy,

so it's a fantastic
piece of engineering.

Narrator: Rising between
80 and 160 feet into the sky,

nothing like these
huge super trees

had ever been built before.

With huge trunks
and complex canopies,

the engineers had to work out
how to build them from scratch.

Neil: So, what we tried to do

was find a construction
method which was repeatable.

We build the cores, casting
each of the pieces up,

one on top of the other,

effectively using
the same shuttering

as you do in standard
construction techniques,

and once we've built
the concrete core,

we then build the
canopy on the ground.

Narrator: To design
the steel tree canopies,

Neil drew on his experience

building lightweight
but strong staging

for the world's
biggest music acts,

such as U2 and beyonceé.

Neil: What's interesting
about the world of rock and roll

and staging is they are willing
to develop ideas, look at ideas,

which the other part of the
building industry would not.

Narrator: That fresh
rock-and-roll approach

helped the team create a
canopy that was light, flexible,

and easy to install.

Neil: We built a
scaffolding system,

built the surface up
around it, and then we lift

the whole of the surface of
the super tree canopy skin

up to the top of the
concrete core in one piece.

Narrator: These incredible
trees aren't just for looks.

Some contain photovoltaic
cells to generate power.

Others act as chimneys for the
biomass boiler exhaust fumes.

And they all help
solve another problem

caused by Singapore's
land shortage.

Andy: One of the main
functions of the super trees

is actually to allow us to
showcase our vertical greenery.

So, a lot of people know
Singapore is land scarce,

so the only way for us to
continue greening the country

is actually to go vertically.

Narrator: The trees,
holding 150,000 plants,

and the whole incredible forest

is completed by
the 420-foot skywalk,

threading its way
through the canopy,

high above the ground.

Hayley: The whole thing is built
on land that was once the sea,

it's got one-of-a-kind
structures on it,

and it's all powered
by offcuts of trees.

Pretty impressive, really.

Narrator: It took five years
for engineers to transform

what was once under the sea

into perhaps the world's most
stunning man-made wonderland,

the ultimate in human nature.

♪

It's always tough building
in the centre of a busy city,

but imagine modernizing

a crumbling old mainline railway
station in the middle of London

while a million people
a week continue using it.

That's exactly the
engineering challenge

that faced the team
tasked with reinventing

one of the oldest railway
stations in the world...

London bridge,

which, by the start
of the 21st century,

was also one of the worst.

And hopelessly unable to cope

with the demands
of a modern city,

something had to be done.

Corina: This wasn't just
aúgentle reworking of the station.

This was a complete rebuild.

Narrator: The solution
was a bold scheme

to sweep away history

and demolish hundreds
of victorian arches,

creating a stunning
modern concourse

that connects everything
like never before.

Up above, the tracks
would be moved and raised

with 15 new platforms
built, all on polystyrene.

Man: This is like
open-heart surgery.

The only problem is,
the patient is still jogging.

Narrator: 50 million
people a year,

over 800 trains a day,

and one ambitious
transformational plan.

So, how did they build it?

Ever since London
bridge station opened

with its two platforms in 1836,

it struggled to keep
up with demand.

As London grew,
so did the station,

but there was never
a coherent plan.

Adrian tooth:
London bridge station

is 180 years old in places.

It was built in ten
stages over a long period,

which means that
every little piece of that,

every little stage
is slightly different.

Narrator: By 2008, London bridge
was very much the poor relation

to London's other
major stations.

@hayley: It used to be
impossible to find your way around.

So easy to get
lost in a real mess.

Man: Very muddled,
very old kind of hotchpotch

of different styles.

It really wasn't
something like St. pancras.

It wasn't built with
one grand vision,

so it was a very kind
of down-at-heel station.

Narrator: With plans for
britain's tallest building

given the go-ahead,
London bridge station

was about to find
itself next to the shard.

With another four million
square feet of office space,

adding to the
explosion of skyscrapers

going up nearby in
London's financial district,

the station had to be able
to cope with more trains

and a lot more people.

The problem was, the
site couldn't get any bigger.

Mark middleton: Well, the
ambition, first and foremost,

was to get more capacity,
úmore trains through the station

through the existing
viaduct width,

because, of course,
London's been built up

since the station was made,
so we had no more width.

We had to get
more trains through.

Narrator: All of
London bridge station

is elevated above street level.

Its 15 sets of tracks
and platforms fan out

on top of a massive
brick viaduct,

50 feet high and
around 650 feet wide.

Back in 2009, hidden
beneath this viaduct

was a massive Warren
of victorian arches

which supported
the tracks above.

Most were little used
and would make way

for a huge new concourse.

This was construction phase one

and would provide the
much-needed easy access

to all the station's
platforms above.

Janey bell: If you
think of the concourse,

we had a full section
of victorian arches,

and essentially what
we did was just cut a slice

out of the middle of that,
and we did that bit by bit.

Narrator: Extraordinarily,
the demolition all happened

right underneath
the working station.

The network of arches

underneath the nine
platforms and 15 railway lines

were all interlinked and
relied on each other for support.

A 250-foot-wide swath of
these needed to be demolished

to make way for
the new concourse.

But first, to stop the
arches on either side

of the demolition
area from collapsing,

two huge concrete
retaining walls would be built.

With this in place, they
would be able to bulldoze

a 600-foot-long corridor
through the arches

and create a new space
twice the size of a football field.

This would become the
all-new street-level concourse.

Then huge new concrete
columns would be built to support

new platforms and
tracks that would sit on top.

These columns
would need to support

tens of thousands of tons of
platforms, trains, and people,

so they needed to be
very strong and built to last.

The construction team was
managed by Adrian tooth.

Adrian: To support
the amount of weight

that comes down those columns,

we have to drill what's
called piles into the ground.

Narrator: Inserting piles
into the strong bedrock below

for added strength wouldn't
normally be a problem,

but here, running
right under the site,

is the London underground.

Janey: Some of
our piles that we had,

our 50-, 60-meter piles
right down into the ground

to build our concrete columns,

were really, really
close to the jubilee line,

so what we had to do
is, while we were piling,

we had monitors on the
tracks at the jubilee line

so if the tracks started moving,

we really knew
we were in trouble.

Narrator: With the new build

of the London bridge
concourse well under way,

the engineers now
needed to figure out

how to re-lay the train
tracks that ran over it

while 200,000 people a day
continued to use the station.

On top of that, with a predicted
rise in passenger numbers

driven by London's
booming economy,

the rail networks wanted
more trains to run through,

across London, and fewer
trains to terminate here.

The existing track layout
needed a complete rethink.

Adrian: When we
inherited the station,

there were 15 platforms,

so with nine terminating
and six through.

But to realize thameslink,
we had to change that

to six terminating
and nine through,

and that meant that
every track in the station

had to change position.

Narrator: In order to
achieve this switch around,

the tracks all needed
to be the same height,

but they weren't.

The terminating lines
were eight feet lower

than the lines with trains
that continued on through,

so they needed to be raised,

but a big chunk of the
track would still be held up

by the 180-year-old
victorian brick arches,

and these wouldn't
take the weight

of the concrete needed
to raise the tracks.

Adrian: So, when we assessed
the capacity of the existing arches,

they could only take
a relatively low load,

so if we then
needed to increase it

by, say, two and a half meters,

if we had done that in
something like concrete,

you're adding a
massive amount of weight

to the top of those arches,

so they weren't
capable of taking that,

so we had to find a
new way of doing it.

Narrator: They would also
need to carry the weight

of the new platforms.

Joshua: They needed
some kind of structural filler,

something lightweight that
could take the compressive load.

Narrator: The
substance they turned to

was surprisingly simple
and very common.

Ellie: They used this.

Not a coffee cup,

but the material it's
made out of, polystyrene.

The surprising thing
about polystyrene is,

although it's incredibly light,

it's also incredibly effective
when it's pushed down.

Janey: We built a foundation,
and then we put polystyrene

wrapped in a plastic wrapping
that has 120-year design life,

and then we built
concrete around it

that gave us a structure
for us to get the tracks up

to the level they needed to be,

but it also was light enough

so that it could sit
on the arches below.

So, these are the kind
of innovative solutions

that we had to come up with,

you know, working
on a station like this,

where you have very,
very old infrastructure

next to very, very new.

Adrian: The polystyrene itself

is actually carrying
a concrete slab.

It's then carrying
the platforms,

and it's also carrying
the weight of the trains.

Narrator: Achieving all this

and keeping the
station open and safe

meant taking it
one step at a time.

Janey: The complexity
in undertaking demolition,

building new platforms, canopies

while you've got trains
running in and out is huge.

What we did at the beginning

was we took two
platforms out of use.

We would put the hoarding
up, set up our work site.

We would demolish
those platforms and tracks

and the arches beneath
them and then build up.

Narrator: The new
design and layout

called for 20,000 feet of roof
to snake over the new platforms.

But the constraints of the site

gave rise to yet
another problem.

Ellie: How do you
build a new platform

and a platform roof on-site
when you have no space to do it?

Narrator: The
answer is, you don't.

Janey: Various elements
of the station build

were prefabricated off-site.

For example, some
of the platform units

and also the canopies
were fabricated elsewhere

and then brought into site,
so the advantage that gave us

was that it meant less
on-site construction

where we had limited space.

Narrator: The platform canopies
came in ten-foot-long modules,

and they were put together
like ready-to-assemble furniture.

Adrian: They came with
all of the containment

that carries the
wiring within them.

It came with cameras,
speakers already set within them.

All the lights were
set within them,

so it was just a process of
putting one next to the other,

filling in the gap between,

and then wiring it all
together, so very quick.

Narrator: In just weeks,
each pair of tracks was raised,

the platforms built, and
the canopy completed.

It required the
different teams on-site

to operate like clockwork.

Ellie: You don't just have a
designer making the design

and handing it over
to the contractor

to build it however they want.

They're thinking about
the building process

as part of the design.

This is architecture
meets engineering

meets project management.

Narrator: The teams
also worked to ensure

the historic victorian features
of the London bridge station

were celebrated alongside
all the modern engineering,

like the 150-year-old columns,

each supporting four connecting
arches and the platforms above.

Many of these
survived to become part

of the new London
bridge experience.

Where they couldn't be kept,

they were mirrored
in modern materials,

but clearly defining
the new from the old.

Adrian: From an architectural
provision perspective,

it was important to repeat
the historical importance

of the original arches,

so if you walk
through that area,

you'll see the original
brickwork arches

and then the new interpretation
in board-marked concrete.

Narrator: Thanks to the
skill of designers, engineers,

builders, and the rail company,

the London bridge
station modernization

finished on time in 2017.

Mark: This project was
an amazing endeavour.

Across all of the
different disciplines,

there was about 1,600
people worked on the project.

In terms of numbers, I
think there's 24 kilometres

of platform edge that we put in.

Janey: We now have ten times
as much space as we did originally,

so the journey that this
station has come on is huge,

and it's one that it's
been great to be a part of.

Narrator: From being
unable to keep up

with even yesterday's demands,

London bridge has been
readied for tomorrow,

while retaining the best
of its victorian character.

It took eight years
to reinvent this station

as a shining beacon
of railway efficiency,

the ambition and
achievement recognized

with the prestigious award,
building of the year 2019.

In the beating heart of London,

modern engineering
and ingenious design

have succeeded in
creating a stunning station,

fit to serve the city's
travellers for another 100 years.

♪

Las Vegas, Nevada,

where a gambler
can take a quick tour

of some of the world's
most iconic structures

before deciding
to splash the cash.

Nehemiah mabry: Every building
is more extreme than the last,

and it makes sense

because this is Las Vegas.

I mean, you have to build

something that gets attention.

And your building
is your billboard.

Narrator: Copies
of famous landmarks

might get you noticed
on Vegas' main strip,

but how do you
make a big impression

if your building plot is
on the outskirts of town?

Hayley: To get noticed in Vegas,

they had to build
something impossible.

Narrator: But this
was no casino.

Here, a man was inspired

to build a hospital
so extraordinary,

it could also be a
fundraising event space.

Larry ruvo: I said
to my wife, Camille,

"if we're gonna do this,
we gotta make a statement."

Narrator: The result was a
building almost as complex

as the organ that inspired it.

Ellie: There are two
halves of this building,

just like the human brain.

The left side is
ordered and logical,

and the right side
is wild and creative.

Narrator: This is the Lou
ruvo centre for brain health,

designed in California,
engineered in Europe,

fabricated in Asia,

and built on two
acres of Nevada desert.

It's the showstopping outcome

of 65,000 hours of
engineering effort,

$80 million,

and nearly 900 tons of steel.

It doesn't look possible.

So, how did they build it?

The building is the brainchild

of American entrepreneur
Larry ruvo, driven to create it

after experiencing the
moment his father, Lou,

was diagnosed with
Alzheimer's disease.

Larry: I just said, "I
would never want anybody

@to go through this humiliating,
lack-of-dignity experience

that I just went through.

If I could ever do anything,
I would change that."

Narrator: Larry decided
to build a new hospital

for degenerative
brain disorders.

As well as being ideal
for treatment and research,

he also wanted it to be
so visually extraordinary

that people would
want to hire it for events.

To design it, Larry turned

to one of the world's greatest
architects... frank gehry.

Aged 81 at the time,

gehry was very much
at the top of his game,

as one of his projects, the
guggenheim museum in Bilbao,

had recently proved.

Larry: The initial day
he was here on this site,

I told him what I wanted,

he took out a yellow
piece of paper,

and he drew it,
and that's what I got.

Narrator: A sketch
was one thing,

but gehry already
knew this building

would be his most
complex to date,

so complicated, in fact,

that only the world's
most expert engineers

would be able to pull it off.

Larry: Frank said to me,
"so, what would you say

that if I told you
this building,

a building like this has
never been attempted before?"

It will be engineered in
Israel and India and Germany.

And then it's gonna be
sent through the Internet,

the design, to China,

and then we're
gonna ship it over here

in 555 pieces, no two alike.

Narrator: Budgeted to
cost $80 million to build,

the structure appears
bent and twisted,

as though it's
collapsing in on itself.

At one end, the
extraordinary facçade

gives way to reveal

a much more conventional
building underneath.

Dylan wint: Looking
at the building overall,

if you sort of divide
it into two parts,

the part with the
sort of metal cladding,

very chaotic and
disorganized-looking,

that's our events centre.

The side where the medical
care actually takes place

is actually quite orderly.

Narrator: The clinic
building is actually

a conventional four-story
white block structure,

partially hidden behind
the curving steel facçade.

But the south wing had an
altogether different purpose

and so needed a
different approach.

Larry: When we started out
on the design of the building,

I told frank, most
hospitals, most clinics,

when they close at
night, what happens?

The janitors come in.

Instead of janitors, I want
ambassadors to come in.

People will rent this building
for weddings and events,

and, you know, we
live in Las Vegas.

We could rent that out,

use this as a revenue
source to fund our research.

So, somebody can come
in here and rent this space

and feel good that
they're helping a charity,

and it's beautiful.

Narrator: Gehry's vision
for a must-see event space

was a structure that was
as jaw-dropping on the inside

as it was on the outside.

The challenge for the
engineers was to figure out

how to build it with
as few columns

and straight walls as possible.

Oussama beyhoum: As you
see, there's a huge structure

without any
support in the centre,

and the way it's
manufactured in pieces,

each piece, like, it varies

from 2,000 pound to
10,000 pound, each piece,

and are made of steel
fabricated off of huge pieces,

like from the size of a couch

or the size of a,
of a car almost.

Narrator: The huge
sections were heavy

because the steel needed
to be strong enough

to compensate for the lack
of internal supporting columns.

Hayley: The amazing thing

is that the curved
panels on the building

actually provide a lot
of the structural support.

Narrator: To achieve this,

the panels needed to be
very tightly bolted together,

so engineers perfected a new
way of connecting the frames.

Oussama: It was
design of friction.

The plates have to be
tight against each other

without air gaps,
and that's what,

that's the reason why to have
so many bolts in each pieces.

Narrator: But the
construction team's problems

were far from over.

The people required to create

these unique
components were so rare,

they were dotted
around the globe.

Dimensions were being
calculated in Israel and India,

then the parts
being made in China.

The builders on-site
needed to be sure

they were bolting it
together in the right way.

Joshua: Just try and think
about the level of precision

that a project like
this would need.

If anything was wrong,
they'd have to dismantle

the whole facçade and
put it back together again,

so the sequencing,
the fabrication,

and the construction were
really key to making this work.

Narrator: The answer was to
bar code each piece of steel.

Once the steel was on-site
and was offered for assembly,

the individual bar codes would
be scanned and transmitted

to the main engineering
team in Germany,

who would cross-check

to make sure the right
pieces were being joined.

Ellie: This system meant that
every piece could be checked

before it was
slotted into place.

Oussama: 1/16 of an inch
or 1/4 off the other side,

it would be disaster.

It had to be perfect.

Narrator: Having worked out

how to build the
complicated steel frame,

the engineers turned their
attention to the facçade.

Once again, architect
frank gehry had a vision.

Larry: Frank said to me,
"since you're in the desert,

I want the immediate impact.
I'm gonna use stainless steel."

Narrator: But 1,800
curved stainless steel tiles

on a building in a desert

where the sun burns hot
for 3,800 hours every year

wasn't without issues.

Hayley: Stainless
steel is super reflective.

There's a risk that
you'll get blinding light

firing out in all directions,
which is not what you want

when your building's sitting
on a major road junction.

Narrator: The solution was
a special angel-hair finish

applied to steel,

micro scratches
brushed into the metal

with a stainless
steel wire brush

to help diffuse the light.

Oussama: That's what
makes the, absorbed the sun

instead of
reflecting it as much,

so it doesn't really
shine in people's eyes.

Narrator: With
passers-by protected,

the team turned its
attention to making sure

the light on the inside
was also just right.

Dr. Wint is in charge of
patient care at the hospital.

Dylan: The natural lighting,
I think, is really important.

It gives less of
an industrial feel,

and often that's important
for some of our patients

who don't realize they're ill.

Narrator: Engineers
installed 199 windows,

allowing a lot of natural light

into the hospital
and event space,

but you can have too
much of a good thing.

Nehemiah: Las Vegas is
in the middle of the desert,

so you're talking about
some pretty high temperatures

that can go as high
as 40 degrees celsius,

or 104 degrees fahrenheit.

Narrator: To protect occupants
from too much heat and light,

every window has
blinds installed,

each tailored and controlled
by a central management system

that's linked to monitors in
the thermally reflective glass.

It's this adaptability to
harsh conditions outside

and its sensitivity
to those inside

that helps make this
building so outstanding.

It is truly the best place
for those most in need

of a superbly
engineered health centre.

Deeann: It is very
unique and different,

and beautiful building,

@and somehow, in a
different way, very peaceful.

Narrator: The Lou ruvo centre
took three years to complete

and was the most complicated
of frank gehry's designs yet.

Larry: This building was
exactly what I wanted it to be.

It gave us the credibility.

People knew we were serious.

You want to build a frank
gehry building for a disease,

they know you're serious.

Dylan: We built a building
that you just cannot miss.

You have to talk about this
building when you pass by it,

and hopefully
people will also talk

about what's going on inside,

so I think, for sure,
that part of the idea

behind this building
and its very unusual looks

was to say, "we are here.

This disease is here.
We're fighting it."

Nehemiah: I love the fact
that something that is housing

work that's so important

is also housed in a building

that looks amazing, as well.

♪