All language subtitles for How.Did.They.Build.That.S03E06.Tricks.and.Trains.1080p.HULU.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H264-WhiteHat_track3_[eng]

[awe-inspiring music]

[Jay] How do you create
a trailblazing museum,

accessible to all,
that evokes the Olympic spirit?

It's a place to house
not only just the history,

but the dreams.

[Jay] How do you stop
a mind-bending skyscraper

from falling down?

[Daniel] Well, there are many
sleepless nights.

You know, how will this really
work?

Can it really work?

[Jay] And how do you soundproof
a new university building

from the roaring railroad above?

[Greg] The train measures at
100 decibels,

the equivalent to a jet engine
at 300 meters.

[Jay] This is the age of
the extraordinary.

[Dr. Agbedor] It's totally
different

from anything around it.

It's like a visitor from
another planet.

[dramatic music]

[Jay] Where ingenious engineers

have unleashed
unchecked creativity.

Now their secrets are revealed

as we discover
the amazing stories

of their construction.

[Dr. Mabry] It is simply
mind-blowing.

I mean, how do you come up
with an idea like that?

[dramatic choral music]

[Jay] To try and understand...

[dramatic music]

[Jay] ...how did
they build that?

If you're gonna build a museum
to celebrate

America's greatest-ever
athletes,

the only way to do it
would be with

some truly
world-class architecture.

Now, this building may look
silver on the outside,

but trust me, as a design,

this state-of-the-art
Colorado Springs complex

wins gold medals all the way.

Every four years,

the Olympic spirit captures
the world's imagination.

We watch, mesmerized,

as our fellow countrymen
and women reach for glory.

But what would it look like

to honor their excellence
with a building?

How could a steel and concrete
structure

represent their grace and power?

Well, maybe like this.

It's a building that takes
your breath away.

[dramatic music]

[Jay] A sleek, glistening jewel
covered in 9,000 unique panels

that twists in an incredible
athletic pose,

creating a one-of-a-kind museum.

[Holly] We were doing something
that had never been done before.

So, it was really critical to
think, "How is this done?"

[Jay] Building it involved

conquering extraordinary
engineering challenges.

[Jeffrey] When I first saw
this design,

I wondered, "How are we going to
build this?"

[Jay] It took three years

and a cost of
91 million dollars.

[dramatic music]

[Jay] This is the US Olympic
and Paralympic Museum.

So... how did they build it?

[music fading out]

[Jay] Colorado Springs.

[calm music]

[Jay] Set to the east of
the majestic Rocky Mountains

some six thousand feet above
sea level,

is known as Olympic City.

It's home to the US Olympic
and Paralympic Committee

and their world-class
training center.

In 2012, former Ohio governor
Dick Celeste,

along with local
community leaders,

decide to celebrate this by
raising funds

to build America's first museum
dedicated to

Olympians and Paralympians.

The building has to celebrate
elite national sporting heroes.

Whatever you build,
it had better be the best.

[Jay] To do that, they bring on
Diller Scofidio + Renfro,

the architects responsible for
High Line Park

and the shapeshifting shed
in New York City.

[Elizabeth] Each project is
an opportunity

to think about something in
a new way,

to put something different on
the surface of the earth.

[Benjamin] We needed to create
galleries

that were suited to telling
a series of stories, uh,

about Olympic athletes

that hadn't really been told in
the same way before.

We genuinely felt like this is
really something we could do

something different with,

that's gonna push us to
a new place architecturally.

[calm music]

[Jay] At the heart of the idea
is accessibility for all.

The intent was to really make
sure it was thought through

from the ground up.

[John] A lot of times,
we don't do that.

For compliancy, we look at,

"Oh my gosh, we forgot to do
this ramp.

Oh my gosh, we forgot to do
this."

Why, because we forgot to invite
the people

that were going to use it
into the conversation early.

[Tyler] This is a museum for
everyone, but especially,

this is home for our
US Olympians and Paralympians.

Making sure that every athlete,

but also any individual that
comes in through these doors,

can have an equal experience

was always a part of
the design process.

[Jay] More expensive and
more complicated,

accessibility is too often
an afterthought.

So, creating one of the world's
most accessible museums

will be challenging,

especially as the team also
wants it to embody

the vitality of the athletes
it honors.

[Holly] It was really
this idea of

trying to capture some of
this energy of the athletes.

And we used the image of
a discus thrower,

that, you know,
spirals the shape out.

[Jay] By spring 2015,

the idea has solidified into
a full design.

We had a central atrium

and a set of galleries, um,
that, uh, uh,

circumnavigated this, uh,
but always in perpetual motion.

So, there was nothing static.
There were no regular floors.

[Jay] The design captures
the Olympic spirit

in a beautiful, sleek,
coiled sculpture of a museum.

To give every visitor
the same experience

as they explore the collection,

there will be no stairs.

Instead, everyone
will take an elevator to the top

and then descend via
a spiraling series

of gently sloping ramps.

This twisting shape means
they will not be able to use

standard floor plates.

Instead, they'll need to create
a special frame to anchor it.

Outside, to evoke the movement
of an athlete,

they'll need to find a way to
wrap the building

in a sparkling skin of
9,000 unique aluminum panels.

The final challenge will be to
connect it to a neighboring park

by designing a shimmering bridge

that they construct in just
eight hours

over the top of active
train tracks.

The result?

An astonishing building
that celebrates

the incredible athletes
who inspired it.

[contemplative music]

[dramatic music]

[Jay] In 2017,
construction sets off

on a donated site next to
a railyard.

[dramatic music]

[Jay] The easy part is creating
deep pile foundations

going down about 40 feet
to the bedrock below.

Then, the fun begins.

Most buildings are rectangular
for a reason.

It makes it straightforward to
channel the forces

created by their weight
down into the foundations.

The more you mess with
the shape,

the more difficult that becomes.

And here, with the whole design
centering around

a continual spiral,

they're messing with it a lot.

Everybody's used to
vertical walls and flat plates.

And when you do that,

the, everybody knows how to
build that.

So, you add a complexity
by adding even just a slant.

But then, we took a slant,
and then we twist it.

[dramatic music]

[Jay] Left to its own devices,

this is a building
that wants to fall over.

Stopping that from happening
takes

some ingenious engineering.

[Holly] We have to start
thinking about,

"What are the forces?
How are we going to align that?

"How are we going to tie
one member

"into the other member?

Uh, what, what's
the smartest way of doing it?"

[Jay] The spiraling building

requires a complex system
of steelwork

specially designed to handle
irregular forces.

[Holly] There's a floor,

and the floor then has
steel members in it

that then tie into that.

So, you can imagine...
like a dancer,

where, you know, they're,

your partner's pulled back
and leaning,

but you have an arm that
supports you

and keeps you from falling over.

[calm music]

[Jay] Huge bespoke pieces of
steel

act as the arm to hold up
the twisted frame.

But they need a body to
anchor them.

[Jeffrey] How we resolved that
was

we took tension floors to brace
the walls

back to large concrete cores.

[cool instrumental beat]

[Holly] We have four cores
at the corners.

They're the four anchor points
that then you can come off of,

um, and tie into.

[Jay] With the steel structure
now secure,

the team turns its attention
to engineering

the very complicated system
of floors.

[instrumental beat fading out]

[Jay] Instead of this being
a more conventional building

where the ramp is an addition,

the architects want all visitors
to enjoy

an identical, stair-free journey
through the galleries.

So, instead, the inside of
the entire museum

gently spirals around
a ramped route.

Because it ramps, it does mean
that the entire building

steps down as you're going down.

So, you don't have a floor plate
and then a floor plate.

[Jay] Normally, the floors are
spaced at

nice, regular intervals,

which means once you've figured
out the template,

you can just rinse and repeat.

But here, none are at
the same height

across the entire floor.

In fact, if this building was
more conventional,

it would've had three floors.

Instead, it will have
15 different levels

within a height of just 75 feet.

[Jeffrey] Uh, stepping on
the floors

was very difficult.

It's because they change all
the time,

and, uh, having to rethink,

"How do we support
that floor level?"

was pretty complex.

[dramatic music]

[Jay] Holding up the floors

is gonna take a whole lot of
engineering magic.

[Jay] It's spring 2018,
and in Colorado Springs,

engineers are striving to find
a way to support

the complex spiraling floors
needed

to make the new US Olympic
and Paralympic Museum

a world leader in accessibility.

[Jeffrey] We used almost
every trick in the book

to help support this building.

We used columns to support it,

we had to use cantilevers,

uh, to support some of
the floors.

Uh, we hung some floors from
another floor above.

Sometimes we had to build
something here,

and then, um, uh, build
something below it.

[Jay] It takes ten months
to complete the main structure.

Finally, though, they can move
on to the next challenge.

[serious music]

[Jay] The architects wanna
showcase

the building's muscular shape

by wrapping it in a sleek
aluminum skin.

It was to create this feeling
of movement and energy

across a façade.

[serious music]

[Jay] But figuring out
the design

for an aluminum cladding needed

on a building
with twists and curves

is far from easy.

I think that the skin was
the biggest challenge

because at the time,
it was at the cutting edge.

[Jay] It's only thanks to
modern technology

that they managed to design

the intricate pattern
of folded panels.

[Benjamin] It's really
a 21st-century thing;

the ability to have
digital environments

where you can map
complex shapes.

[Jay] Now they have to build it.

The team constructs a frame
from steel

which is strong enough to hold
the skin in place,

but flexible enough for
all the twists.

[dramatic music]

[Jay] Onto this, they attach
diamond-shaped panels

made from aluminum,

9,000 of them,
and every single one is unique.

[Holly] Each panel got
a barcode on it

right away,
from the very beginning,

so that each one is identified
and had its address.

[Jay] Getting the panels
into the correct position

is still a huge job.

Each has to be accurate to
within an eighth of an inch.

[Jeffrey] As the contractor
was building it,

they surveyed it,

they had drones scanning
the building, uh,

just to verify that they were
meeting the tolerances

and locations of all the parts
and pieces correctly.

[dramatic music]

[Jay] By October 2019,
the 9,000th panel is in place,

and the team is ready for
its final challenge.

The city wants the museum to be
linked to a neighboring park.

The problem is that means
building a bridge over

14 rail freight lines that run
alongside.

[Holly] One of
the most critical things

is figuring out how to get
this bridge in

and not disturb
the active rail line.

[Elizabeth] It had to go
250 feet across,

and it had to clear the tracks,
and we couldn't stop the trains.

[Jay] Elizabeth Diller
and her team's solution

is to ship in the bridge
already made.

The bridge was actually
fabricated in Texas,

in six sections,

and then it was shipped to
the other side of the tracks.

[Jay] Here, the sections are
welded into

one complete structure.

Then, they launch

a carefully masterminded
operation to install it,

working around
the train schedule.

The really thrilling
and exciting part

was to, uh, have
these modular, robotic movers.

[dramatic music]

They had, like, someone guiding
it from a remote.

[dramatic music]

[Jay] They know how
they're going to move

the enormous bridge into place,

but now, the pressure is
really on.

[dramatic music]

[Jay] They have just eight hours

before the next train
rolls through.

[dramatic music]

[Holly] They brought the bridge
into place

and rolled it across the tracks.

[serious music]

[Jay] The team can't relax until
the final bolt is in place.

[serious music]

[Holly] And I think that
they did it in

less than eight hours, actually.

It was really an amazing feat.

[awe-inspiring music]

[Jay] The incredible museum
opens to the public

in July 2020,

the building inspiring
its visitors

as much as the exhibits inside.

[awe-inspiring music]

[Elizabeth] This project is
unique.

It liberated us from some of
the conventions of

the way we've been thinking
about structures.

[Jeffrey] This was
a career-defining project.

Uh, just the iconic nature.

The architectural design
of the building

is unlike anything that
I've ever done before.

[Jay] With captioned and
audio-described exhibits,

American Sign Language
interpretation,

and, of course,
the innovative ramp design,

it leads the way for
museum accessibility.

[Michelle] This experience has
been by far

the best that I've been able to
have with a scooter,

as I was able to tour
the entire building

with my family.

[Corey] It was really great.

There wasn't anywhere
I couldn't go.

[Jay] A shimmering,
twisting tribute

pays homage to
the incredible athletes.

Team USA needs a place to house
not only just the history,

but the dreams.

[Michelle] For athletes,
I think the museum represents

that hard work, that grit,
that determination

to make Team USA

and to celebrate
the greatness of sport.

[Tyler] Being a Paralympian,

I couldn't think of anything
else

that we could've done
differently

to make this museum
a welcoming home

for every athlete in the world.

This is one of the most
exciting projects

I've worked on.

Capturing that Olympic
and Paralympic spirit,

it's really amazing.

[inspiring music fading out]

[laidback percussion music]

When it comes to leaning towers
that defy the laws of gravity,

Italy has quite a reputation
to live up to.

So, when it came to building

a bespoke and head-turning
new skyscraper

in the fashion capital of Milan,

you can bet your shirt
that what they came up with

would seriously raise the bar
in architectural high fashion.

[single piano note]

[Jay] Milan.

A city that leads the world
in matters of style.

With buildings inspired by
two and a half thousand years

of classic Italian architecture.

We are Milano,
and we are stylish people.

[Jay] It's now home to
a gravity-defying office tower.

Who says skyscrapers
have to be straight?

[Jay] A dizzying
glass-clad curve

nearly 600 feet tall.

Making a skyscraper bend

feels like you're breaking
the laws of physics.

[dramatic music]

[Jay] It's an architectural
marvel

that tested the limits of
engineering.

[Mauro] From the beginning,
we thought,

"Well, this is a little bit on
the edge.

Maybe it's not possible."

[Jay] And tested the skills of
its talented creators.

[Daniel] There were many
sleepless nights.

How will this really work?
Can it really work?

[Jay] This is Il Curvo.

So, how did they build it?

[single piano note]

[contemplative music]

[Jay] It's 2010, and in Milan,

the closure of
an exhibition center

leaves an area of downtown
in need of regeneration.

The developers hope to create
a vibrant community

with workspaces, homes, museums,
and parks.

[contemplative music]

[Aldo] This mixed use piece
of land

became, uh, really, a part of

the urban regeneration
of Milan.

[Jay] The heart of
the master plan

of this new development

will be three dazzling
office towers,

each designed by
a super-star architect.

[contemplative music]

[Jay] First, Arata Isozaki
builds Il Dritto,

"The Straight One".

Zaha Hadid follows up with
Lo Storto,

"The Twisty One".

The third creation

by renowned
Polish-American architect

Daniel Libeskin
has a lot to live up to.

I thought, "Here is a chance to
really extend

the vocabulary of urban design
in this great city

and create something really,
totally innovative."

[Jay] Libeskin takes inspiration

from Italy's classical
building style

seen all over Milan.

[Daniel] The Italian
architecture

is rich with curvatures.

So, this is a very
Italian building.

[calm music]

[Jay] Libeskin's design is
Il Curvo,

or "The Curved One".

A tower that looks like
it wants to tip over.

So, the team's first challenge
will be figuring out

what kind of foundations

can handle this epic battle
with gravity.

[calm music]

[Jay] Then,
they will need to engineer

a special concrete core

that won't buckle under
the uneven forces

caused by the building's shape.

[calm music]

[Jay] To create its curve,

they'll need 28 different
floor plates.

[calm music]

[Jay] And they'll need to
work out how to deal with

the different forces each of
these floors will create.

Bespoke glass panels
will be designed to cover

each bending floor.

[calm music]

[Jay] And on top, they will need
to somehow create

the building's
final masterpiece:

a 600-ton, self-supporting
glass roof.

[calm music fading out]

[Jay] It's 2015.

Two towers are nearly finished
when work begins on Il Curvo.

For the building to stand up
and stay put,

the first thing the team needs
to get right

are the foundations.

The big issue for foundation
is that

the tower should not sink
over time.

It should just stay there
and absorb all the stresses,

and put that into the soil,
into the ground.

So, we will not have
a Pisa Tower effect.

The Tower of Pisa leans because
the soil underneath

is different on both sides.

The thing is, the foundations
don't take that into account.

They can't risk that happening
here.

[machines whirring]

[Jay] The foundation system
they choose

is a wide, stable raft of
concrete that sits on piles.

[Mauro] It's a
2.5-meter-thickness raft,

which is one of the biggest
casting operations

doing without, uh, interruption,
in, uh, in Italy.

[Jay] It takes 36 hours
and a steady stream of trucks

pouring 200,000 tons of
concrete.

But now, they have a massive
foundation block

that isn't going anywhere.

[serious music]

[Jay] The work below ground
was easy

compared to what they have to
figure out next.

The most important point is also
the most obvious one:

how do you stop
a curved building

from falling over?

[Jay] As any fitness instructor
will tell you,

the secret to great stability is
having a solid core.

In a normal building,
that's pretty straightforward.

With a symmetrical tower,
the core is right in the middle.

So, pressure is applied equally
downwards.

But Il Curvo's shape means

the core is being pulled in
all directions.

[Jay] This is because to create
the curve,

the floor plates sit in

slightly different positions
to one another.

[contemplative music]

[Jay] As they go up
the building,

some of the floors have more of
their area on the one side,

some on the other.

[Daniel] Each floor is in
a different position in space.

There's no floor exactly
above you,

and no floor exactly below you.

[Jay] But this means the forces

each floor puts on the core
are different

and risk it cracking under
the strain.

Part of the solution lies in

building in
special tension cables

into the concrete.

Those cables are pulled and then
blocked into the concrete,

so we have a big traction in
the cables

that compress the concrete,
so the whole shaft,

the whole core is always under
compression

so it doesn't lose, uh,
stiffness.

[Jay] On its own,

reinforcing the core won't be
enough.

The team also needs to add
extra columns on each level.

In a typical
rectangular building,

engineers could use one design
throughout.

[serious music]

[Jay] But not here.

So, unevenly stacked floors
mean the pressures on

each of these columns is
different.

Basically, there's no
one-size-fits-all solution.

[Jay] Each column must be
individually designed

and fabricated to deal with

the precise load
it needs to carry.

It takes a whole lotta math

and even more concrete
and steel.

But Il Curvo's structure
can now quickly take shape.

[contemplative music]

[Jay] The next job is to get
the glazing right.

And some
similarly bendy buildings

have shown what happens when
it goes wrong.

Palazzo Lombardia in Milan

and 20 Fenchurch Street,

AKA the Walkie Talkie, in
London, England

were both built with
curving glass.

When the sun's rays first hit
these new towers,

their smooth curves caused
an unexpected problem.

[serious music]

Like a magnifying glass,

these buildings focused
the sun's rays

all into one place,

damaging nearby cars
and buildings.

[serious music]

[Daniel] How to make sure that

the reflectivity of
the building,

particularly on
the concave side,

does not impact people and heat
on the outside.

Because, you know, a curvature
takes the light and focuses it.

[serious music]

[Jay] How will they create
a glittering, curved façade

without frying the streets
below?

[Jay] In Milan,
the team behind building

a new curving skyscraper

need to make sure its
glass façade

won't focus the sun on
people below,

like ants under
a magnifying glass.

It was a real challenge

because the façades are

very different from each other.

In fact, the southern elevation
is concave,

while the northern part
is convex.

[Jay] The team's ingenious,
but simple solution

is to make the concave side

from a series of stepped
vertical panes.

It will give the illusion of
a curve from a distance,

but break up
the reflected light.

Each level steps in, in, in and
out as it goes,

so that the reflectivity is
parallel to the ground,

never focusing into the ground.

[serious music]

[Jay] Passing pedestrians
will now be safe.

But it does mean all
2400 glass cells

have to be individually made.

It took a long time.

In one day,
it was possible to create

about 14, 15 cells.

No more given
the high complexity.

[Jay] Once on site,

fitting these 15 foot
by 5 foot panes

is a high-wire job.

Especially higher up,

where the building curves back
onto itself

with no supporting structure
below.

It takes eight
painstaking months,

but finally, they reach the top.

[Gian Luca] The installation of
the final glass cell

was a very emotional moment.

This was where we could relax.

We'd achieved our first goal.

[Jay] As the tower nears
completion,

the team faces
one final challenge.

Normally the roof of
a skyscraper

is used for practical purposes,

and Il Curvo is no different.

Many of the services of
the building

are up in that space.

[Jay] The problem is that
maintenance cranes,

ventilation,
and water recovery systems

are hardly glamorous.

And Daniel Libeskin doesn't want
his curvy masterpiece

ruined by ugly equipment.

[Daniel] The top of any building
is incredibly important.

From the Empire State
to any building,

you look at the top--

what does it look like
in the, in the, in the sky?

[Jay] Libeskin's idea is
to conceal all the machinery

inside a glass roof
over a hundred feet tall;

a beautiful idea.

To pull it off 450 feet
in the air,

the team invents a 600-ton
steel and glass structure

that's stable during each step
of construction without support.

The design in, in construction
is like a very big puzzle.

It's uh, uh, very crowded
steel structures.

We work with, uh, millimeters
between each part.

[Jay] When the steel framework
is finally in place,

it stands 130 feet tall

with not a ventilation shaft
in sight.

[Marco] For me, it's one of
the best place of the tower,

because it, uh, this,

this factor is, uh, is, uh,
fantastic.

[percussion music fading out]

[Jay] It's 2020, and Il Curvo
is finally finished,

completing
the striking trilogy of towers

that redefines Milan's skyline.

Completing this project
was very satisfying for me.

And every time I see it,

it fills me with
great happiness.

[Jay] The team has engineered
and built something

that shouldn't have been
possible.

[Mauro]
I personally was skeptical

about the shapes of
these buildings

when I saw the proposal
at the beginning.

Now, I'm totally convinced,
and the city is, too.

But it's an important tower,

it's one of
the iconic building in Milano,

and, and this is my office.

[Jay] In the process,

they've created a new icon of
Italian architecture.

[Corina] For hundreds of years,

Italy's been famous for having
one leaning building,

and now it has two.

[Daniel] If you're an architect,
never start by thinking,

"Can it be built?"

Because the answer will be
always no.

Start with something that you
have no idea if it can be built.

[inspiring music]

[laidback percussion music]

Next stop, Chicago,

where a new student center was
needed for

the Illinois Institute of
Technology.

Now, not only would the building
have to function

beneath a noisy train line,

it also would have to complement
the existing 1940s campus

designed by Bauhaus School
legend

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

No pressure, guys.

[contemplative music]

[Jay] Chicago, Illinois is
America's railroad capital.

[contemplative music]

[Jay] From its
long-distance lines

fanning out from Union Station

to the 122 miles of

the rapid transit system's
elevated tracks,

the railroads have had
a big impact on the city.

[contemplative music]

[Jay] On the South Side,

the Illinois Institute of
Technology

was cut in half by
an elevated rail line

until a brilliant architect
and clever engineers

came up with
an astonishing solution.

[awe-inspiring music]

[Jay] This is the McCormick
Tribune Campus Center,

a brand-new building squeezed
under the railroad tracks,

which brought the university
back to life.

What an amazing structure.

[Jay] Engineers had to silence
the roar from overhead.

The train measures at
a hundred decibels.

It's the equivalent to
a jet engine at 300 meters.

[Jay] It had to be built without
interfering with

the trains running through it.

There's a train every
eight minutes.

Just imagine working around
that.

[Jay] So, how did they build it?

[single piano note]

[contemplative piano music]

[Jay] Located in
Chicago's South Side,

the Illinois Institute of
Technology

is a university with
a proud history.

The original campus was designed
in the 1940s and '50s

by one of the world's
most important architects,

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe,

one of the founding fathers of
modernist design.

Mies van der Rohe's
design philosophy

was one of less is more.

He wanted to make the campus
a statement of the modern era--

that is, logical
and linear architecture

for a technological society.

[Jay] With 20 buildings all
designed around

an orderly 24-foot grid system

in Mies's
signature stripped-back style,

in its day,

the university's
breathtaking simplicity

was revered.

But by the late 1990s,

it's being seen through
different eyes.

[Donna] This campus was
considered one of

the least beautiful campuses in
America,

and there may have even been
a survey that said that.

[Jay] The campus just isn't
suited for modern student life,

and there's a major problem in
sorting that out.

Campus is split in half by
an elevated rail line

that runs throughout Chicago.

[Dr. Mabry] It means
the original plan,

the area directly below was to
be landscaped gardens.

But the idea falls by
the wayside,

and the land evolved into
an unsightly parking lot.

[Jay] On the one side,
there are the student dorms.

On the other, the classrooms.

For the students, whichever side
of the train tracks

that you were on
was the wrong one.

[Jay] It's a problem that's
becoming impossible to ignore.

[Donna] As it runs through
campus,

it creates a lot of noise
and vibration.

When people were outside,
if a train went by,

they had to stop conversation
and wait

until they could be, uh,
heard again.

[Jay] So, in 1998,

the university decides to do
something about it.

[Donna] They wanted
a significant building.

Not one that just solved
the problem,

but one that really talked
about the future of architecture

in the same way that Mies had

when he put his buildings here
on campus.

[serious music]

[Jay] They launch
a worldwide competition

to design a soundproof,
five-story building

to go beside the tracks,

near to one of the historic
Mies van der Rohe buildings.

But Dutch architect Rem Koolhas
disregards the brief.

Koolhaas suggested not
a five-story building,

but instead a one-story building

that wiggle itself underneath
the train track.

No one had seen a scheme
like this before.

So, it felt quite adventurous.

[Jay] Koolhaas's design wins
the competition,

and will send the team
who have to build it

into uncharted territory.

[orchestral music]

[Jay] First, they'll have to
find a way to safely support

the hundred-year-old railroad
overhead.

Then, they'll need to design
a bespoke acoustic structure

capable of muffling the noise
of the trains,

which can be built
while they're still running.

To unite the campus

and give the students
the facilities they need,

they'll then have to squeeze

an entire
110,000-square-foot building

beneath the elevated line.

[inspiring music]

[Jay] To complete Koolhaas's
vision,

the building must be linked to
one of the original

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
structures

without detracting from
its historic features.

[serious music]

[Jay] In late 2000,
work begins.

[serious music]

[Jay] And the first problem
engineers face

is the railroad that runs over
the site of the new building.

[serious music]

[Greg] The Chicago
fire department

was concerned about a fire
on the tracks

now that there's a building
under it and around it.

[serious music]

[Jay] In the event of a fire,

the old iron railway structure
could buckle,

even collapse quicker
than more modern materials...

...with a building
full of students underneath.

The solution is to replace
the iron columns

with huge, highly engineered
concrete piers

sunk 64 feet down into
the bedrock.

[dramatic music]

[Greg] We got something like
four hours of

fire separation between
the tracks and the building,

with the thought being that
within four hours,

we should be able to
completely evacuate the building

in the event of an emergency.

[Jay] It takes six months
to create the 18 new supports,

but by the summer of 2021,

they're ready to move on to
their next challenge:

finding a way to deaden

the deafening sound of
the trains

roaring overhead
at 55 miles per hour.

[Greg] The train measures at
100 decibels.

Normal conversation
can continue at 70 decibels.

[laidback percussion music]

[Jay] So, how will they
turn down the volume?

[Jay] In Chicago, Illinois,

a new student campus center
is being built directly beneath

the elevated tracks of
one of the city's train lines.

To reduce the deafening sound of
trains going overhead,

their bold plan is to wrap
the tracks

in a specially designed
stainless steel acoustic tube.

For it to work,

the engineers first need to
minimize the vibrations.

They do that by constructing

a completely
independent framework

to support the tunnel.

It has no structural contact
with the track or the building.

By not having the structure of
the building,

the tube, and the CTA tracks
touch one another,

we were not transferring
the vibration of the tracks

into the tube or into
the building.

[Jay] It takes several months
to build the supports

in the bottom half of the tube.

But simply wrapping the trains
in steel

and preventing vibrations
won't be enough.

The other key principle
that acoustic engineers look for

is sound insulation.

The louder the sound,

the more mass you need between
the source

and the people you're trying to
protect.

[dramatic music]

[Jay] Deafening
the 100-decibel trains

will take an enormous
9,200 cubic yards of concrete,

laid in
an eight-inch-thick slab.

The concrete in the underbelly
was really the, the mass,

the separation to control
the sound and the noise.

[electronic music]

[Jay] With the concrete poured,
the tube is almost complete.

All that remains is to build
the top half.

On most construction sites,

this would be fairly
straightforward.

But here, it's anything but.

[Donna] The Chicago
Transit Authority

has many regulations and
strictures

for how construction can happen.

And they didn't want

train service to be interrupted
at all.

[Jay] The upper part of the tube
is made up of

23 individual steel arches,

which need to be craned in place
over the live tracks.

[Greg] That's when we really had
to be careful

in engaging with the trains.

[Jay] It takes meticulous
planning and preparation

before they're ready to start.

[contemplative music]

[Greg] We chose a time when

the fewest number of trains
were running,

and that happened to be midnight
on a Friday night.

The cranes were set up,

they had the structural
steel hoops.

[Jay] The team works quickly
during gaps between trains,

dropping their tools each time
one needs to pass.

[Greg] The trains would
slow down to almost a crawl,

you know, just for
safety concerns.

[contemplative music]

And they sat the first one
in place.

Couldn't have worked out
any better.

There were kind of cheers
on the site.

[Jay] Three days later,

the freestanding tube is
complete.

[hopeful music]

[serious music]

[Jay] With the difficult part of
the build out of the way,

work starts on
the new campus building,

which will run under the tracks.

It's been designed to
neatly connect to

the original commons building,

which has its support columns
arranged

on the same 24-foot grid.

[dramatic music]

[Jay] But some parts of
the architecture community

fear that once complete,

the new building
will overwhelm the old.

[dramatic music]

[Donna] There were meetings to
try to effect a way

in which the design could sit
happily

with this existing
Mies building.

[Jay] Architect Rem Koolhaas
finds a simple,

yet ingenious way
to connect the buildings

without spoiling the view of
the commons.

The compromised solution
was that the glass type used in

the last bay of
the new elevation

would be a super clear glass.

And that would allow you to see
that this existing building

by Mies was actually,
uh, something to be understood

from all sides.

[Jay] And Koolhaas has
one final flourish

to honor Mies's work.

We excavated down and exposed
a portion of the foundation

of the existing
commons building.

So, as you move around inside
the campus center,

you see this historic
Mies van der Rohe building

that appears to be kind of
lifted up on a pedestal.

[gentle string music]

[Jay] In September 2003,

after five years of planning,
designing, and construction,

the campus center opens its
doors to the students.

The building's corridors
track the routes they once took

as the traveled
under the elevated train

between dorms and classes.

But now, instead of dashing
through a parking lot,

they can linger in spaces
designed for hanging out.

[Male Student]
Personally, I love it.

It's the crossroads where
everybody comes together,

and it's just where a lot of

the special moments during
college happen.

[Male Student] This is where
all the students go for food

and sometimes studying.

And if we wait long enough,
sometimes a train will pass,

and the students get really
excited from that.

[calm string music]

[Jay] Thanks to
the ingenious science

behind the acoustic tube,

with noise levels well below
the target 70 decibels,

even the quietest of activities
is now possible here.

[Female Student] We're in
our student-run radio station

on campus.

All of the recording and stuff
happens right here.

You can definitely hear
the train when it goes by,

just sort of, like,
a little rumble.

It's not anything that is
distracting.

It just sort of adds
a little character to the shows.

[calm string music]

[Jay] Now the design students
have a new masterpiece

to inspire them.

As an architecture student,
this is the perfect campus.

You've got Mies van der Rohe

really showing off new
Bauhaus style

to the full extent,

and then you've got Rem Koolhaas
twisting it a bit.

[Greg] Mies's quote was,

"I leave my buildings to you

to do with them what you'd
like."

So, I think Mies would've been
very pleased

with the state of the campus
now.

[calm string music fading out]

[dramatic orchestral music]

[dramatic choral music]

♪ MTV ♪