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(upbeat music)

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Why are we obsessed with building skyscrapers?

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We're just like, yeah, let's see if we can do this.

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Like, hey, can we make buildings go more up?

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The higher up you go, the closer you are to the birds.

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I'm not supposed to be here.

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Look at me, the homo sapien.

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Men have to break records.

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Constantly.

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Just always seems to be a size competition, doesn't it?

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Whoever has the biggest skyscraper wins, you know.

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{\an8}Not so long ago, our cities looked like this.

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{\an8}A hundred years and 5,400 skyscrapers later,

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they look like this.

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{\an8}Today, we are building skyscrapers

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around the world collectively at something

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like 26 feet every hour.

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As long as it just keeps going up that fast,

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doesn't come down equally fast, I think we're okay.

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Skyscrapers have

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transformed the world we live in.

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They literally and figuratively

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are bringing the world closer together.

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Urbanization is probably the most important social

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and economic phenomena in human history.

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They've inspired our imaginations.

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Who's to say what's too tall?

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You ever watch the sunset on top

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of the Empire State Building?

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It's breathtaking.

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And they've stoked our darkest fears.

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I mean, King Kong did not climb a house.

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He climbed the Empire State Building.

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(King Kong roars)

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This is the history of the skyscraper

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and the race to the top.

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From the 10th floor to the 163rd.

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(upbeat music)

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How tall do I think a skyscraper is?

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{\an8}Probably like 200 feet?

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{\an8}I bring it at least a hundred feet, right?

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{\an8}I'm gonna say 500 feet.

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{\an8}1,000 is what I'm gonna guess.

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{\an8}The question about what is the height

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{\an8}that makes a skyscraper a skyscraper

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is a debatable question.

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(tools bang)
(wrench ratchets)

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{\an8}The word first was used to mean a building

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that was 10 stories or more.

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Today, most experts would agree

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that a skyscraper ain't a skyscraper

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unless it's at least 492 feet high.

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If we were to stack all 5,400 skyscrapers

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on the planet one on top of the other,

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they would reach four times as far

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as the International Space Station.

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(upbeat music)

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But our dream of touching the sky is nothing new.

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(upbeat music)

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Skyscrapers are just part of a long line

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of a human desire, really a need, to build grand projects.

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We told ourselves the heavens are up there.

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And so we're that much closer.

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{\an8}I think humans have long tried to ascend to the heights,

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{\an8}whether it's climbing a mountain or building a tower.

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To dream big is to build high.

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{\an8}But how high is too high?

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If you lived 5,000 years ago in the land of Babel,

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{\an8}you'd find the answer lies in the number 5,433,

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{\an8}give or take.

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According to the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament,

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the people of Babel tried to build a tower so tall,

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it will reach as high as heaven.

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{\an8}The closer we get to the gods,

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{\an8}the better connected we are to the gods.

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You're trying to tickle God, baby.

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That's what we're doing.

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Ah, we're trying to tickle the Lord.

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You know what I mean?

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{\an8}Scripture describes a tower precisely 5,433,

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{\an8}and a bit, cubits high, making it three times taller

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{\an8}than the tallest skyscraper today.

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{\an8}See, now I'm concerned.

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Like these are people trying to go to heaven

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without earning the right to.

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You wanna knock on God's bathroom door?

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Stop.

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{\an8}But even the number 5,433

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{\an8}isn't big enough to reach heaven.

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(thunder crashes)

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So God comes down to Earth instead and destroys the tower.

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[Disembodied Voice] Why?

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He scatters the people about the Earth

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and they end up speaking different languages.

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(characters speak foreign language)

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Unable to understand each other,

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the dream of touching the sky has become a nightmare.

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(thunder crashes)

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But as history will prove, it's a dream that refuses to die.

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(upbeat jazz music)

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Ever since people began building,

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they've been building things taller and taller.

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I mean the pyramids are thousands of years old

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and those were built to impress.

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The pyramids at Giza, Gothic cathedrals, the Eiffel Tower.

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These huge structures are built to make an impression,

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but they're not meant for actual human habitation

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or regular use.

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Humans were originally hunter and gatherers.

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And so, you know, basically evolved to work,

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live, eat, play on the ground.

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It turns out the dreaming big is one thing.

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Being able to live and work in the sky is another.

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And the higher you want to go,

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the greater the technical challenge.

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(upbeat music)

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(boat horn blows)

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New York in the 1880s.

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It's the city of the future,

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but surprisingly the architectural jewel

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in its crown isn't a skyscraper.

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It's the newly built Brooklyn Bridge,

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the eighth wonder of the modern world.

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{\an8}Standing at 272 feet, its towers are the tallest structures

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{\an8}in the city because New York is still a low rise city.

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Blame the number five.

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{\an8}There was no actual law saying

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{\an8}that you couldn't build higher.

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{\an8}And of course, engineers had figured out ways to do so,

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but we don't see buildings higher than that at the time,

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because of a physiological issue for humans.

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The maximum height of buildings

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is based on the willingness of people

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to climb a flight of stairs.

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Nobody is gonna climb more than five flights of stairs.

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The most amount of floors I would walk up

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without an elevator really depends on what's at the top.

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Yeah, if I was carrying a bunch of groceries,

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like I'd have to hire someone to walk up the stairs for me

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and then another person to carry me on their back.

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I don't wanna carry groceries up four flights.

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It's probably gonna be like two flights.

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No, it's gonna be three flights.

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And New York might still be stuck somewhere

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between the second and fifth floors.

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My legs.

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If not for an uplifting,

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technological demonstration.

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Please.

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It's a story that begins 30 years earlier

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at the 1853 World's Fair in New York City

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where an exhibit will change the world using one ax

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and two ratchets.

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Factories and warehouses already have elevating systems

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to lift and lower goods, but not people.

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No one wants to dangle from a rope.

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Now there were lifts that could hoist goods and supplies

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up many stories with a rope, you know, and pulley system.

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That existed for a long time before there were elevators.

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Problem was, what if the rope breaks?

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(rope snaps)
(character screams)

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Oh my God, that'd be so scary.

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I would just be regretting all of the decisions

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that led me up to that point.

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I would be terrified.

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I'm claustrophobic actually.

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So that would be bad.

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Panic, have trouble breathing,

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might pee myself a little bit.

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I'm a screamer.

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And I tend to projectile vomit when I'm scared.

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So it's not gonna go well for anybody

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that is in that elevator, including myself.

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If you think going into this elevator

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is endangering your life, you're not gonna do it.

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{\an8}Enter a man named Elisha Otis

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{\an8}who rides an elevator car to the top

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of a demonstration tower.

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And then his assistant on the ground picks up an ax.

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Don't do it.

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The crowds were scared.

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They were, they thought the thing was gonna fall.

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They're not wrong.

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The platform does fall,

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but only for a few inches before it's stopped

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by an ingenious locking mechanism,

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comprised of two ratchets.

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{\an8}[Disembodied Voice] Science.

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History has recorded that was the pivotal moment

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in elevator technology.

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Otis had come up with the first elevator

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that had a breaking system

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so that if the elevator rope snapped,

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that the elevator wouldn't just crash to the ground,

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it would stop.

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Otis's safety break is a game changer.

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[Disembodied Voice] Going up.

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The elevator is one of the fundamental innovations

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{\an8}that make skyscrapers possible.

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So having a form of vertical transportation that is safe,

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rapid, and comfortable radically

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alters the building height equation.

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{\an8}The first skyscraper that had elevators in it

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was the Equitable Building.

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It was an insurance company building right on Broadway,

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and it was only eight stories tall.

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But still eight stories in 1870

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was a ridiculous number of stories.

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In many respects, the Equitable Building it sort

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of established the precedent that business

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can be conducted in the clouds.

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Standing at a height of only 155 feet,

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{\an8}it's one small step towards the sky.

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{\an8}But to trigger the giant leap

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{\an8}into the age of the skyscraper,

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{\an8}one really bad thing has to happen in Chicago.

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{\an8}At number 137 West Dekoven Street.

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{\an8}So in 1871, Chicago was the fastest growing city

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in America.

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Similar to many cities during that time,

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the vast majority of the buildings were made of wood.

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Even the sidewalks are made out of wood.

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{\an8}Not only was the city of Chicago primarily

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{\an8}made out of wood.

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There was an aggressive drought.

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All you need is a spark and the whole city is ablaze.

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(siren rings)

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The first spark is in a barn

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behind 137 West Dekoven Street.

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From there it spreads and engulfs an entire city

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in a three day conflagration.

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So the fire did two things.

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It cleared away, for lack of a better term, the old city.

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And it created a kind of a, like a blank slate

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on which a new city could emerge.

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The Great Chicago Fire wipes

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out three square miles of the city,

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destroys 17,500 buildings, and 120 miles of sidewalks.

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It kills 300 people and leaves 90,000 homeless.

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Chicago needs to rebuild.

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Architects, draftsmen, engineers, builders,

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construction workers poured in from all around the country

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to rebuild this great growing young city.

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And rebuild they do.

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In the wake of the fire,

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{\an8}10,000 new building permits will be issued,

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{\an8}including one for Chicago's first skyscraper,

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the Home Insurance Building.

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At 10 stories, it's two stories higher

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than New York's Equitable Building,

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which might not sound like very much.

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But from here on in the sky will be the limit

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because Chicago's Home Insurance Building has an advantage.

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The secret of 33%.

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Up until now walls have been built of stone

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or bricks cemented with mortar.

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Since the pyramids, it's been the way to raise yourself

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above the competition.

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[Disembodied Voice] Time to innovate.

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Fundamental problem to building tall

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was that a building relied on the walls

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00:11:40,680 --> 00:11:43,293
to bear the load of the building

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00:11:43,293 --> 00:11:47,680
and those walls were made of brick or stone.

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The problem with load bearing masonry walls

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is that as you go taller,

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walls have to get thicker and thicker and thicker

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on the bottom floors.

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And this creates several problems.

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00:12:00,945 --> 00:12:02,810
(upbeat music)

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00:12:02,810 --> 00:12:05,430
The medieval Italian town of San Gimignano

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is famous for its towers.

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They were built as displays of wealth and status,

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00:12:10,359 --> 00:12:12,700
which is all they were good for.

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It doesn't really allow for a whole lot of light

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00:12:15,160 --> 00:12:16,320
to get inside it.

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00:12:16,320 --> 00:12:21,320
And other than being tall, it's not terribly useful.

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As the walls get thicker,

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your rentable space on the inside gets smaller and smaller.

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One young Chicago architect

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00:12:28,470 --> 00:12:30,420
{\an8}has a bird brain solution.

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00:12:30,420 --> 00:12:33,290
{\an8}William Le Baron Jenney's inspiration is a book

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00:12:33,290 --> 00:12:34,257
and a bird cage.

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00:12:34,257 --> 00:12:36,070
[Disembodied Voice] Tweet, tweet.

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00:12:36,070 --> 00:12:38,360
And the bird cage is made

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00:12:38,360 --> 00:12:41,610
of this very skinny pieces of metal.

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00:12:41,610 --> 00:12:43,790
But that nevertheless was able

287
00:12:43,790 --> 00:12:46,620
to support a stack of heavy books.

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00:12:46,620 --> 00:12:51,620
The idea was by adding iron inside the masonry wall,

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00:12:52,060 --> 00:12:54,530
you could reduce the weight of the building

290
00:12:54,530 --> 00:12:58,830
by reducing some of the masonry that was needed.

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00:12:58,830 --> 00:13:01,120
Once your building doesn't need to be held up

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00:13:01,120 --> 00:13:04,680
by its exterior walls and instead it can be held up

293
00:13:04,680 --> 00:13:09,000
by steel cage or framework or skeleton,

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00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:11,850
that allows a lot more space for windows.

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00:13:11,850 --> 00:13:16,390
And that, crucially, allows a lot more light

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00:13:16,390 --> 00:13:21,390
and suddenly, bing, in his mind came this eureka moment

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00:13:21,430 --> 00:13:23,570
of I can build a skyscraper.

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00:13:23,570 --> 00:13:25,400
I think that's a great story.

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00:13:25,400 --> 00:13:28,280
So I'm not going to say whether it happened

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00:13:28,280 --> 00:13:30,280
or it didn't happen.

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00:13:30,280 --> 00:13:33,850
Jenney's 138-foot Home Insurance Building

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00:13:33,850 --> 00:13:36,730
is made possible by a steel framed structure,

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00:13:36,730 --> 00:13:40,620
33% lighter than traditional masonry.

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00:13:40,620 --> 00:13:44,290
That metal steel skeleton has really been one

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00:13:44,290 --> 00:13:47,930
of the hallmarks of what is a skyscraper.

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00:13:47,930 --> 00:13:51,280
In the race to the top, it's advantage Chicago.

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00:13:51,280 --> 00:13:54,573
But New York has its own secret weapon, the five and dime.

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00:13:56,653 --> 00:13:59,320
(numbers click)

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00:14:00,720 --> 00:14:03,740
In 1889, just four years after Chicago

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00:14:03,740 --> 00:14:05,620
unveils the Home Insurance Building,

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00:14:05,620 --> 00:14:08,130
Paris reveals what's truly possible

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00:14:08,130 --> 00:14:09,620
with the new technology.

313
00:14:09,620 --> 00:14:12,910
The Eiffel Tower becomes the tallest tower in the world,

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00:14:12,910 --> 00:14:15,690
{\an8}breaking the 1,000 foot barrier.

315
00:14:15,690 --> 00:14:18,234
{\an8}One of the early sight seers is Frank Woolworth,

316
00:14:18,234 --> 00:14:19,943
{\an8}the five and dime king.

317
00:14:21,330 --> 00:14:22,780
He starts out as a potato farm

318
00:14:22,780 --> 00:14:24,000
and then he goes onto the Eiffel Tower

319
00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:24,990
and he loved the Eiffel Tower.

320
00:14:24,990 --> 00:14:28,720
So it wasn't very hard to convince him when he came back

321
00:14:28,720 --> 00:14:32,460
to America to build the world's tallest skyscraper.

322
00:14:32,460 --> 00:14:34,950
And people flocked to it.

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00:14:34,950 --> 00:14:36,970
It was the Woolworth Building in New York.

324
00:14:36,970 --> 00:14:38,970
When it opened in 1913,

325
00:14:38,970 --> 00:14:41,210
they called it the Cathedral of Commerce.

326
00:14:41,210 --> 00:14:45,440
Unveiled in 1913, it cost $13.5 million

327
00:14:46,400 --> 00:14:48,710
and was paid for in cash.

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00:14:48,710 --> 00:14:51,240
{\an8}Standing at 792 feet,

329
00:14:51,240 --> 00:14:53,950
{\an8}it was the highest office building in the world.

330
00:14:53,950 --> 00:14:57,973
And America's skyscraper frenzy was set for lift off.

331
00:14:57,973 --> 00:14:59,667
(crowd cheers)

332
00:14:59,667 --> 00:15:01,004
(cuckoo clocks whistles)
(dominoes click)

333
00:15:01,004 --> 00:15:02,464
(balls smack)
(dial clicks)

334
00:15:02,464 --> 00:15:03,790
(upbeat music)

335
00:15:03,790 --> 00:15:05,480
It's the 1920s.

336
00:15:05,480 --> 00:15:08,730
The decade when New York City becomes the Big Apple.

337
00:15:08,730 --> 00:15:10,100
Since the turn of the century,

338
00:15:10,100 --> 00:15:12,386
it's population has doubled.

339
00:15:12,386 --> 00:15:15,349
Never before has it had such confidence

340
00:15:15,349 --> 00:15:17,330
and such wealth.

341
00:15:17,330 --> 00:15:20,190
1920s New York, we just got past the Spanish flu,

342
00:15:20,190 --> 00:15:22,590
World War I, things are building.

343
00:15:22,590 --> 00:15:23,500
People are innovating.

344
00:15:23,500 --> 00:15:24,741
People are growing.

345
00:15:24,741 --> 00:15:27,890
(train wheels click)

346
00:15:27,890 --> 00:15:28,880
Penn Station is

347
00:15:28,880 --> 00:15:31,213
a gargantuan transportation hub,

348
00:15:32,950 --> 00:15:37,730
11 platforms, 21 tracks, 144 trains an hour.

349
00:15:37,730 --> 00:15:39,660
Everyone wanted to be a part of what was going on

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00:15:39,660 --> 00:15:41,840
in New York City, whether you were investing

351
00:15:41,840 --> 00:15:44,980
in construction or you were a construction worker.

352
00:15:44,980 --> 00:15:46,860
As the city's population grows,

353
00:15:46,860 --> 00:15:48,860
so grows the demand for space.

354
00:15:48,860 --> 00:15:52,200
And New York City was growing at an insane rate.

355
00:15:52,200 --> 00:15:54,790
And literally to the point where buildings

356
00:15:54,790 --> 00:15:56,800
were being put up every single day.

357
00:15:56,800 --> 00:15:59,370
So between 1924 and 1929,

358
00:15:59,370 --> 00:16:03,150
the price of land in Manhattan shoots up 44%,

359
00:16:03,150 --> 00:16:04,300
which says a lot.

360
00:16:04,300 --> 00:16:08,860
Fundamentally, a developer builds a skyscraper to fill it

361
00:16:08,860 --> 00:16:11,560
with people who are paying money.

362
00:16:11,560 --> 00:16:13,630
{\an8}There's a careful calculation

363
00:16:13,630 --> 00:16:16,920
{\an8}that anyone making a skyscraper has to go through.

364
00:16:16,920 --> 00:16:21,120
And that has to do with at what point

365
00:16:21,120 --> 00:16:23,503
is the height the most profitable?

366
00:16:23,503 --> 00:16:26,290
If you can break even on 10 floors,

367
00:16:26,290 --> 00:16:30,230
then every floor above that will be hugely profitable.

368
00:16:30,230 --> 00:16:31,315
So the bigger the skyscraper

369
00:16:31,315 --> 00:16:34,853
often better the rents you can charge.

370
00:16:35,710 --> 00:16:37,210
But the dream of reaching the sky

371
00:16:37,210 --> 00:16:39,576
isn't fueled only by money.

372
00:16:39,576 --> 00:16:40,618
What kind of personality does it take

373
00:16:40,618 --> 00:16:41,670
to build a skyscraper?

374
00:16:41,670 --> 00:16:44,180
I think you kind of have to be a little bit

375
00:16:44,180 --> 00:16:47,400
of an egomaniac to build a skyscraper

376
00:16:47,400 --> 00:16:48,516
because it's very much like,

377
00:16:48,516 --> 00:16:50,150
hey, look at me.

378
00:16:50,150 --> 00:16:52,023
I am the tallest out of everyone.

379
00:16:52,023 --> 00:16:53,350
Pay attention to me.

380
00:16:53,350 --> 00:16:55,631
You have to be the big swinging D in the house

381
00:16:55,631 --> 00:16:56,910
in order to be able to build one of those.

382
00:16:56,910 --> 00:16:59,680
Fricking Jeffrey from my third grade

383
00:16:59,680 --> 00:17:01,214
probably builds skyscrapers.

384
00:17:01,214 --> 00:17:03,400
He took all the cake at my birthday party.

385
00:17:03,400 --> 00:17:04,393
Not cool, Jeffrey.

386
00:17:05,400 --> 00:17:07,840
It's a race to the top that's powered by money,

387
00:17:07,840 --> 00:17:11,623
ego, and 7 million cubic feet of hydrogen gas.

388
00:17:12,480 --> 00:17:14,970
{\an8}In 1928, Walter Chrysler announces to the world

389
00:17:14,970 --> 00:17:16,920
{\an8}that he's gonna build the world's tallest building,

390
00:17:16,920 --> 00:17:18,630
{\an8}over 800 feet high.

391
00:17:18,630 --> 00:17:20,310
Taller than the Woolworth Building,

392
00:17:20,310 --> 00:17:21,660
the previous tallest building.

393
00:17:21,660 --> 00:17:22,650
At the same time,

394
00:17:22,650 --> 00:17:26,458
the Bank of Manhattan lower down on Manhattan Island

395
00:17:26,458 --> 00:17:28,610
is building what it claims is going

396
00:17:28,610 --> 00:17:31,013
to be the tallest skyscraper in the world.

397
00:17:33,160 --> 00:17:35,743
{\an8}Well, Chrysler didn't like this idea.

398
00:17:37,020 --> 00:17:40,000
Chrysler, in secret, developed a plan

399
00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:42,740
to make his building taller.

400
00:17:42,740 --> 00:17:44,910
The people at the Bank of Manhattan Building got wind

401
00:17:44,910 --> 00:17:47,060
of Chrysler's plan to extend their building.

402
00:17:47,060 --> 00:17:50,500
So they went ahead and extended their building higher.

403
00:17:50,500 --> 00:17:53,510
So when the Bank of Manhattan was completed,

404
00:17:53,510 --> 00:17:57,090
it was looking like the tallest skyscraper in the world.

405
00:17:57,090 --> 00:17:58,670
It was going to win the contest.

406
00:17:58,670 --> 00:18:03,000
But secretly, as the Chrysler Building was being completed,

407
00:18:03,000 --> 00:18:08,000
its architect had built on the inside of its dome,

408
00:18:08,230 --> 00:18:11,030
a 120 foot tall steel spire.

409
00:18:11,030 --> 00:18:13,690
{\an8}On October 23rd, 1929,

410
00:18:13,690 --> 00:18:17,123
{\an8}Chrysler's secret spire rises like a telescoping antenna.

411
00:18:19,120 --> 00:18:21,530
At the point that the Bank of Manhattan Building

412
00:18:21,530 --> 00:18:22,810
was topped out.

413
00:18:22,810 --> 00:18:26,360
All's fair in love and war and skyscrapers.

414
00:18:26,360 --> 00:18:27,880
And not only a tallest skyscraper,

415
00:18:27,880 --> 00:18:31,720
but also the first skyscraper taller than the Eiffel Tower,

416
00:18:31,720 --> 00:18:34,620
at more than a thousand feet tall.

417
00:18:34,620 --> 00:18:38,420
And Walter Chrysler had the tallest skyscraper in the world

418
00:18:38,420 --> 00:18:42,470
and he got to brag about it for a year.

419
00:18:42,470 --> 00:18:45,800
Only for a year because less than a mile away,

420
00:18:45,800 --> 00:18:48,740
another group of developers is watching the competition.

421
00:18:48,740 --> 00:18:51,459
61, 62, 63.

422
00:18:51,459 --> 00:18:53,400
And adding floors to their design.

423
00:18:53,400 --> 00:18:54,723
97, 98, 99.

424
00:18:57,020 --> 00:18:57,917
{\an8}The original Empire State Building

425
00:18:57,917 --> 00:19:01,730
{\an8}was gonna be 80 floors and 1,000 feet.

426
00:19:01,730 --> 00:19:05,110
That would only have been a little bit taller

427
00:19:05,110 --> 00:19:06,670
than Chrysler's building.

428
00:19:06,670 --> 00:19:08,750
That wasn't a lot of room for comfort

429
00:19:08,750 --> 00:19:11,600
because maybe Chrysler had something up his sleeve.

430
00:19:11,600 --> 00:19:14,370
And they came up with this idea of a mooring mast.

431
00:19:14,370 --> 00:19:16,670
The idea was to add another 200 feet

432
00:19:16,670 --> 00:19:18,820
to the top of the Empire State Building,

433
00:19:18,820 --> 00:19:19,960
really to make it taller,

434
00:19:19,960 --> 00:19:21,910
but they told the world, okay,

435
00:19:21,910 --> 00:19:25,670
we're gonna build this mooring mast for airships.

436
00:19:25,670 --> 00:19:27,140
The Airship docking station

437
00:19:27,140 --> 00:19:29,895
puts the Empire State Building over the top.

438
00:19:29,895 --> 00:19:31,395
Oh yeah.

439
00:19:32,230 --> 00:19:35,910
These passengers would walk down a gang plank,

440
00:19:35,910 --> 00:19:40,471
102 stories above the ground and go in through the top

441
00:19:40,471 --> 00:19:42,073
of the Empire State Building.

442
00:19:42,073 --> 00:19:44,700
(robots beep)

443
00:19:44,700 --> 00:19:47,340
But 7 million cubic feet of hydrogen gas

444
00:19:47,340 --> 00:19:49,540
will prove inherently unstable.

445
00:19:49,540 --> 00:19:52,740
Just six years after the Empire State Building opens,

446
00:19:52,740 --> 00:19:55,140
the Hindenburg explodes in New Jersey,

447
00:19:55,140 --> 00:19:59,523
killing 36 and the dream of airships over Manhattan.

448
00:20:02,700 --> 00:20:06,491
{\an8}So the image that you will see of the airship docked

449
00:20:06,491 --> 00:20:08,970
to the top of the Empire State Building

450
00:20:08,970 --> 00:20:10,960
is actually early Photoshop.

451
00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:11,827
So it's faked.

452
00:20:11,827 --> 00:20:13,259
[Disembodied Voice] Not the airships.

453
00:20:13,259 --> 00:20:14,800
[Terri Meyer Boake] So it never happened.

454
00:20:14,800 --> 00:20:16,000
But who needs an airship

455
00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:18,600
when you've got an elevator to the clouds?

456
00:20:18,600 --> 00:20:22,070
{\an8}When it officially opens on April 11th, 1931,

457
00:20:22,070 --> 00:20:25,341
the Empire State Building is beyond comprehension.

458
00:20:25,341 --> 00:20:30,341
1,454 feet, 66 elevators, 102 floors,

459
00:20:32,077 --> 00:20:37,077
$44 million, over 2 million square feet of office space

460
00:20:37,537 --> 00:20:40,959
and a great view of the loser's building.

461
00:20:40,959 --> 00:20:43,490
(numbers click)

462
00:20:43,490 --> 00:20:45,920
Vision, money, ego,

463
00:20:45,920 --> 00:20:48,517
but that's not all it takes to build a skyscraper

464
00:20:48,517 --> 00:20:50,793
because when you're 1,000 feet in the air,

465
00:20:50,793 --> 00:20:52,840
just six inches can be the difference

466
00:20:52,840 --> 00:20:54,573
between life and death.

467
00:20:56,880 --> 00:20:58,130
Am I scared of heights?

468
00:21:00,052 --> 00:21:03,105
When I was 10,

469
00:21:03,105 --> 00:21:05,840
I cried when my mom made me go

470
00:21:05,840 --> 00:21:07,678
off the high diving board.

471
00:21:07,678 --> 00:21:09,480
It's not the height that's the problem, right?

472
00:21:09,480 --> 00:21:11,522
It's the falling that's the issue.

473
00:21:11,522 --> 00:21:13,130
That was a lie.

474
00:21:13,130 --> 00:21:15,920
I tried to go off the high diving board last week

475
00:21:15,920 --> 00:21:16,810
and I cried.

476
00:21:16,810 --> 00:21:19,473
Iron workers back then had to have

477
00:21:19,473 --> 00:21:22,864
been the most courageous or foolhardy people

478
00:21:22,864 --> 00:21:24,893
that there were.

479
00:21:24,893 --> 00:21:26,350
[Disembodied Voice] Die if we have to.

480
00:21:26,350 --> 00:21:28,550
The iron workers who built the steel skeletons

481
00:21:28,550 --> 00:21:29,996
of skyscrapers were often first

482
00:21:29,996 --> 00:21:32,540
or second generation immigrants.

483
00:21:32,540 --> 00:21:35,320
Many first nations workers traveled from Canada,

484
00:21:35,320 --> 00:21:38,503
particularly from the Mohawk nation near Montreal.

485
00:21:40,360 --> 00:21:43,520
{\an8}In my classroom, obviously I have the iconic picture

486
00:21:43,520 --> 00:21:45,230
of the construction workers sitting

487
00:21:45,230 --> 00:21:47,880
{\an8}on probably a six inch beam 300 feet in the air

488
00:21:47,880 --> 00:21:50,700
{\an8}having lunch, but they're all white,

489
00:21:50,700 --> 00:21:52,850
which therefore gives the impression

490
00:21:52,850 --> 00:21:55,070
that construction workers were all white.

491
00:21:55,070 --> 00:21:58,620
{\an8}One reason we might not remember these workers of color

492
00:21:58,620 --> 00:22:01,180
{\an8}and indigenous workers is because there were

493
00:22:01,180 --> 00:22:04,670
so many publicity photographs done of the construction

494
00:22:04,670 --> 00:22:06,010
of these skyscrapers,

495
00:22:06,010 --> 00:22:10,163
but they focused on white or European immigrant workers.

496
00:22:11,180 --> 00:22:13,410
The Mohawk beam walkers are famous

497
00:22:13,410 --> 00:22:14,890
for their fearlessness.

498
00:22:14,890 --> 00:22:19,030
Their aerial ability is prized by the skyscraper builders.

499
00:22:19,030 --> 00:22:20,420
An American judge rules that

500
00:22:20,420 --> 00:22:21,920
because their historical lands

501
00:22:21,920 --> 00:22:24,340
straddle the US/Canada border,

502
00:22:24,340 --> 00:22:27,223
Mohawk iron workers are free to work in America.

503
00:22:28,193 --> 00:22:31,040
They'd come down during the building season.

504
00:22:31,040 --> 00:22:33,200
They would live in New York City, for example,

505
00:22:33,200 --> 00:22:34,090
they would live in Brooklyn.

506
00:22:34,090 --> 00:22:35,980
They would just save all the money that they earned.

507
00:22:35,980 --> 00:22:39,100
And then they would sort of send it back home.

508
00:22:39,100 --> 00:22:40,810
According to official accounts,

509
00:22:40,810 --> 00:22:42,550
five workers lost their lives

510
00:22:42,550 --> 00:22:44,520
building the Empire State Building.

511
00:22:44,520 --> 00:22:47,830
Unofficially that number may have been as high as 42.

512
00:22:47,830 --> 00:22:50,438
People did it because they were willing to take the risk.

513
00:22:50,438 --> 00:22:53,105
(numbers click)

514
00:22:54,201 --> 00:22:55,034
It was the heyday

515
00:22:55,034 --> 00:22:56,870
of New York's skyscraper craze,

516
00:22:56,870 --> 00:22:59,270
but that dream is about to turn into a nightmare

517
00:22:59,270 --> 00:23:01,673
in the shape of a 55-foot gorilla.

518
00:23:01,673 --> 00:23:03,130
(King Kong roars)

519
00:23:03,130 --> 00:23:05,510
The rise of the skyscraper coincides

520
00:23:05,510 --> 00:23:07,090
with the Great Depression.

521
00:23:07,090 --> 00:23:09,040
So as people are suffering under all

522
00:23:09,040 --> 00:23:11,520
of this economic collapse,

523
00:23:11,520 --> 00:23:15,010
they're doing it under the shadow

524
00:23:15,010 --> 00:23:17,760
of these huge monuments to capitalism.

525
00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:19,350
As incredible as skyscrapers are,

526
00:23:19,350 --> 00:23:20,210
when they were being built,

527
00:23:20,210 --> 00:23:23,690
people were very apprehensive and suspicious.

528
00:23:23,690 --> 00:23:25,810
What are our overlords plotting

529
00:23:25,810 --> 00:23:27,283
high up in those towers?

530
00:23:28,420 --> 00:23:31,270
Popular culture begins to reflect this fear.

531
00:23:32,440 --> 00:23:36,698
Fritz Lang's Metropolis, which was filmed in 1927,

532
00:23:36,698 --> 00:23:40,020
really explores the shift that's occurring in cities

533
00:23:40,020 --> 00:23:44,270
at the time of these skyscrapers for the wealthy

534
00:23:44,270 --> 00:23:46,320
and the exploitation of the poor working

535
00:23:46,320 --> 00:23:49,000
in this underclasses below.

536
00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:51,140
It's no coincidence the Empire State Building

537
00:23:51,140 --> 00:23:52,804
is the backdrop to King Kong.

538
00:23:52,804 --> 00:23:54,850
(airplane buzzes)
(King Kong roars)

539
00:23:54,850 --> 00:23:56,390
But nothing dreamt up in Hollywood

540
00:23:56,390 --> 00:23:58,900
can come close to the real nightmare.

541
00:23:58,900 --> 00:24:01,363
July 28th, 1945.

542
00:24:02,257 --> 00:24:05,007
(dramatic music)

543
00:24:07,780 --> 00:24:10,008
The Empire State Building like all New York

544
00:24:10,008 --> 00:24:12,670
was hidden by fog as a Mitchell bomber,

545
00:24:12,670 --> 00:24:14,740
trying to reach Newark Airport crashed

546
00:24:14,740 --> 00:24:16,863
into the tallest structure in the world.

547
00:24:16,863 --> 00:24:19,640
It's a horrifying moment in the city's history.

548
00:24:19,640 --> 00:24:22,250
America's still at war with Japan in 1945.

549
00:24:22,250 --> 00:24:25,070
And you have this iconic skyscraper hit

550
00:24:25,070 --> 00:24:27,150
by one of its own bombers.

551
00:24:27,150 --> 00:24:28,363
It's such an irony.

552
00:24:29,897 --> 00:24:33,152
(numbers click)

553
00:24:33,152 --> 00:24:35,750
After the war, the GI's return.

554
00:24:35,750 --> 00:24:39,516
There's a boom in jobs, wages, and babies.

555
00:24:39,516 --> 00:24:42,770
And the demand for office space skyrockets.

556
00:24:42,770 --> 00:24:44,690
Developers spy an opportunity,

557
00:24:44,690 --> 00:24:47,370
fueling a second skyscraper boom.

558
00:24:47,370 --> 00:24:50,363
One that relies on an 80 foot high bamboo pole.

559
00:24:51,570 --> 00:24:53,210
Profit margins are key.

560
00:24:53,210 --> 00:24:55,890
And the skyscraper's traditional steel skeleton

561
00:24:55,890 --> 00:24:58,053
is beginning to show its limitations.

562
00:24:59,210 --> 00:25:01,826
There's a column and a column and the bigger the building,

563
00:25:01,826 --> 00:25:03,370
the more columns.

564
00:25:03,370 --> 00:25:05,570
So the floor plates were not open.

565
00:25:05,570 --> 00:25:07,650
They had columns in them.

566
00:25:07,650 --> 00:25:09,510
The amount of leaseable floor space

567
00:25:09,510 --> 00:25:11,060
is being compromised.

568
00:25:11,060 --> 00:25:13,890
A new technical solution is required.

569
00:25:13,890 --> 00:25:15,693
{\an8}Enter Fazlur Rahman Khan.

570
00:25:16,560 --> 00:25:19,210
{\an8}Many people consider him kind of like the Einstein

571
00:25:19,210 --> 00:25:20,603
{\an8}of structural engineering.

572
00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:24,020
His innovation was to come up with new ways

573
00:25:24,020 --> 00:25:29,020
to build tall buildings in a much more efficient manner.

574
00:25:29,130 --> 00:25:31,150
Khan grows up in a Bangladeshi village,

575
00:25:31,150 --> 00:25:32,986
surrounded by bamboo forests.

576
00:25:32,986 --> 00:25:36,567
The young bamboo shoots grow into poles that soar 80 feet

577
00:25:36,567 --> 00:25:39,113
and are as straight as they are strong.

578
00:25:40,010 --> 00:25:43,643
But what inspires Khan is on the inside, nothing.

579
00:25:45,137 --> 00:25:47,680
[Terri Meyer Boake] Khan invented a tube system based

580
00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:51,490
on his understanding of the way bamboo is so strong

581
00:25:51,490 --> 00:25:56,340
and bamboo is a hollow material with a void in the middle.

582
00:25:56,340 --> 00:25:58,680
Khan's eureka moment is to place columns

583
00:25:58,680 --> 00:26:00,360
around the perimeter of the tower

584
00:26:00,360 --> 00:26:02,220
to create a tubular structure,

585
00:26:02,220 --> 00:26:05,820
rigid on the outside and open on the inside.

586
00:26:05,820 --> 00:26:10,070
{\an8}This perimeter tube would span from that outside structure

587
00:26:10,070 --> 00:26:13,930
{\an8}to the elevator and stair core in the center,

588
00:26:13,930 --> 00:26:16,600
and they were able to start to eliminate the columns

589
00:26:16,600 --> 00:26:18,120
in the floor plate.

590
00:26:18,120 --> 00:26:20,490
From bamboo jungle to urban jungle.

591
00:26:20,490 --> 00:26:24,143
Khan's tubular design is the new blueprint for skyscrapers.

592
00:26:25,600 --> 00:26:28,190
So we talk about revolutions in structural engineering,

593
00:26:28,190 --> 00:26:31,760
but fundamentally it was about answering the needs

594
00:26:31,760 --> 00:26:34,160
of developers who wanted to build taller,

595
00:26:34,160 --> 00:26:36,360
but using less money.

596
00:26:36,360 --> 00:26:37,730
Well, any system that allows you

597
00:26:37,730 --> 00:26:42,710
{\an8}to get 75% more leaseable space on a floor,

598
00:26:42,710 --> 00:26:46,473
{\an8}absolutely is a game changer for skyscrapers.

599
00:26:47,460 --> 00:26:48,820
It triggers another orgy

600
00:26:48,820 --> 00:26:50,190
of skyscraper construction

601
00:26:50,190 --> 00:26:51,940
through the sixties and seventies.

602
00:26:51,940 --> 00:26:54,750
The Chicago/New York rivalry rises again.

603
00:26:54,750 --> 00:26:56,750
Chicago has the one, two punch.

604
00:26:56,750 --> 00:26:59,950
The Willis Tower at 1,729 feet.

605
00:26:59,950 --> 00:27:03,584
{\an8}And the John Hancock Center at 1,499 feet.

606
00:27:03,584 --> 00:27:05,270
{\an8}(upbeat jazz music)

607
00:27:05,270 --> 00:27:08,590
Probably the two most famous skyscrapers

608
00:27:08,590 --> 00:27:09,840
that use this tube system.

609
00:27:09,840 --> 00:27:13,100
And you can make a much bigger space and a much taller space

610
00:27:13,100 --> 00:27:17,830
because the rigidity of each tube works

611
00:27:17,830 --> 00:27:19,290
with the rigidity of the other tubes.

612
00:27:19,290 --> 00:27:22,823
And together they make a much more rigid structure.

613
00:27:23,670 --> 00:27:25,330
New York makes a stunning statement

614
00:27:25,330 --> 00:27:27,860
with not one tower but two.

615
00:27:27,860 --> 00:27:30,160
The other most famous buildings that used the tube system

616
00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:32,630
were the Twin Towers completed

617
00:27:32,630 --> 00:27:34,713
in the early 1970s in New York.

618
00:27:35,600 --> 00:27:37,770
The American skyscraper scene holds steady

619
00:27:37,770 --> 00:27:40,530
through the final decades of the 20th century.

620
00:27:40,530 --> 00:27:45,343
Between 1970 and 2000, nearly 400 skyscrapers are completed.

621
00:27:47,040 --> 00:27:49,882
An impressive number but innovations were few.

622
00:27:49,882 --> 00:27:52,331
(upbeat jazz music)

623
00:27:52,331 --> 00:27:54,340
(dramatic music)

624
00:27:54,340 --> 00:27:57,933
Then a terrible tragedy threatens to change everything.

625
00:28:00,950 --> 00:28:03,520
After 9/11 people thought, okay, cities are dead,

626
00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:05,090
skyscrapers are over.

627
00:28:05,090 --> 00:28:07,827
There were some years there where just the thought

628
00:28:07,827 --> 00:28:10,594
of putting yourself at the potential risk

629
00:28:10,594 --> 00:28:14,620
of another dreadful attack like that

630
00:28:14,620 --> 00:28:17,660
just ruled that idea out for people.

631
00:28:17,660 --> 00:28:22,660
What 9/11 taught people is that skyscrapers are necessary

632
00:28:23,210 --> 00:28:26,750
and important for cities but they're going to need

633
00:28:26,750 --> 00:28:30,410
to have more safety features, better fire safety,

634
00:28:30,410 --> 00:28:32,230
better structural design that might help

635
00:28:32,230 --> 00:28:33,640
against terrorist attacks.

636
00:28:33,640 --> 00:28:35,590
So the effect of 9/11 on the skyscraper world

637
00:28:35,590 --> 00:28:38,130
was basically to make them safer.

638
00:28:38,130 --> 00:28:41,060
{\an8}Evidence that 9/11 didn't scare off Americans

639
00:28:41,060 --> 00:28:44,227
{\an8}from skyscrapers is the fact that half of the skyscrapers

640
00:28:44,227 --> 00:28:48,519
in America today were built after the Twin Towers fell.

641
00:28:48,519 --> 00:28:52,080
(dramatic music)

642
00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:53,330
The higher you go,

643
00:28:53,330 --> 00:28:55,500
the greater the technical challenges.

644
00:28:55,500 --> 00:28:58,810
For engineers, it often means going back to basics

645
00:28:58,810 --> 00:29:01,020
and Skyscraper 101.

646
00:29:01,020 --> 00:29:03,770
Take, for example, the winds.

647
00:29:03,770 --> 00:29:05,890
The first use of the term skyscraper

648
00:29:05,890 --> 00:29:08,570
was a reference to a tall sailing ship.

649
00:29:08,570 --> 00:29:12,920
As with a tall sail, a tall building gathers more wind.

650
00:29:12,920 --> 00:29:15,660
It's what we call a vertical cantilever.

651
00:29:15,660 --> 00:29:18,280
When you start to build tall, you have wind resistance,

652
00:29:18,280 --> 00:29:20,170
and that can cause a tower to shake.

653
00:29:20,170 --> 00:29:22,770
It's imperceptible when a building

654
00:29:22,770 --> 00:29:25,350
is only 30 or 40 stories high,

655
00:29:25,350 --> 00:29:28,220
but if a building is 100 stories tall or more,

656
00:29:28,220 --> 00:29:29,610
you can notice that swing.

657
00:29:29,610 --> 00:29:31,270
It's attached at the ground

658
00:29:31,270 --> 00:29:32,740
and it's just sticking out at the top.

659
00:29:32,740 --> 00:29:35,653
So the wind can cause it to move.

660
00:29:36,810 --> 00:29:38,220
So what about areas of the world

661
00:29:38,220 --> 00:29:42,910
prone to high winds or earthquakes, or even both?

662
00:29:42,910 --> 00:29:44,053
A place like Taiwan.

663
00:29:44,990 --> 00:29:48,923
On average, the island is hit by 3.7 typhoons every year.

664
00:29:50,020 --> 00:29:54,240
It's also located in what's known as the Ring of Fire

665
00:29:54,240 --> 00:29:57,650
and is hit by an earthquake 7.0 or higher

666
00:29:57,650 --> 00:29:59,173
every four to five years.

667
00:30:00,580 --> 00:30:02,930
Yeah, if I was atop of skyscraper it started wobbling,

668
00:30:02,930 --> 00:30:06,380
I guess I'd just pray, hold on to something and pray.

669
00:30:06,380 --> 00:30:09,320
It's concrete, concrete doesn't wobble, right?

670
00:30:09,320 --> 00:30:10,660
Or maybe it does.

671
00:30:10,660 --> 00:30:11,540
Does it?

672
00:30:11,540 --> 00:30:13,220
Disaster prone it may be,

673
00:30:13,220 --> 00:30:15,510
but Taiwan has one of the tallest skyscrapers

674
00:30:15,510 --> 00:30:18,590
in the world, Taipei 101.

675
00:30:18,590 --> 00:30:23,277
101 floors, 1,667 feet to the tip of its spire.

676
00:30:23,277 --> 00:30:24,827
(offscreen whistle)
Big boy.

677
00:30:26,480 --> 00:30:27,890
The reason it doesn't topple over

678
00:30:27,890 --> 00:30:30,090
is an ingenious technical innovation

679
00:30:30,090 --> 00:30:32,100
high up in the building.

680
00:30:32,100 --> 00:30:36,510
At the top of the Taipei 101 is this giant damper.

681
00:30:36,510 --> 00:30:38,850
It's basically a large pendulum.

682
00:30:38,850 --> 00:30:41,155
They hang that at the top of the building.

683
00:30:41,155 --> 00:30:46,155
It's attached back to the structure with shock absorbers.

684
00:30:46,267 --> 00:30:49,324
So the idea is when the wind starts blowing,

685
00:30:49,324 --> 00:30:53,800
the damper starts to swing in the opposite direction

686
00:30:53,800 --> 00:30:58,130
and it slows down the sway of the building.

687
00:30:58,130 --> 00:31:00,020
Welders sandwiched steel discs

688
00:31:00,020 --> 00:31:05,020
in concentric rings creating a single giant cannon ball.

689
00:31:05,140 --> 00:31:07,240
It weighs 728 tons.

690
00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:08,600
Hurray.

691
00:31:08,600 --> 00:31:09,910
And it swings.

692
00:31:09,910 --> 00:31:12,170
Essentially a big weight hanging

693
00:31:12,170 --> 00:31:13,910
in the center of the building,

694
00:31:13,910 --> 00:31:18,910
which offsets the push and the sway from heavy wind.

695
00:31:19,910 --> 00:31:22,790
For an engineer, it's kids' play.

696
00:31:22,790 --> 00:31:24,830
Imagine you're on a swing.

697
00:31:24,830 --> 00:31:27,800
Instead of pumping your legs to make yourself swing higher,

698
00:31:27,800 --> 00:31:30,150
you draw your legs back beneath you.

699
00:31:30,150 --> 00:31:31,890
You kill the swing.

700
00:31:31,890 --> 00:31:33,670
That's what the damper does.

701
00:31:33,670 --> 00:31:36,500
It counteracts and kills the structure's sway.

702
00:31:36,500 --> 00:31:39,653
So you can rest easy when the wind blows.

703
00:31:41,290 --> 00:31:42,613
And the earth quakes.

704
00:31:45,149 --> 00:31:46,965
(numbers click)

705
00:31:46,965 --> 00:31:48,400
(upbeat music)

706
00:31:48,400 --> 00:31:50,540
Technical innovation is making the dream of living

707
00:31:50,540 --> 00:31:52,270
in the sky a reality.

708
00:31:52,270 --> 00:31:55,675
Or if you're in China, 1 billion dreams.

709
00:31:55,675 --> 00:31:58,610
(train rattles)

710
00:31:58,610 --> 00:32:01,020
In China, since the 1970s,

711
00:32:01,020 --> 00:32:03,360
we've been seeing this huge movement of people

712
00:32:03,360 --> 00:32:05,110
from rural areas to urban areas

713
00:32:05,110 --> 00:32:06,830
seeking economic opportunity,

714
00:32:06,830 --> 00:32:10,593
something that we saw in Europe in the previous century.

715
00:32:13,160 --> 00:32:15,590
Over 1 billion people will move

716
00:32:15,590 --> 00:32:19,320
from rural into urban areas over the next 20 years.

717
00:32:19,320 --> 00:32:21,809
It's an unprecedented mass migration

718
00:32:21,809 --> 00:32:24,223
and it promises to be vertical.

719
00:32:25,320 --> 00:32:28,570
In 1979, four out of five citizens

720
00:32:28,570 --> 00:32:31,550
of mainland China live in rural areas.

721
00:32:31,550 --> 00:32:36,120
{\an8}By 2020, over half of the population lives in a city.

722
00:32:36,120 --> 00:32:38,560
{\an8}Mainland China didn't have any skyscrapers

723
00:32:38,560 --> 00:32:40,318
{\an8}for most of the 20th century.

724
00:32:40,318 --> 00:32:44,610
{\an8}They got their very first one in 1976.

725
00:32:44,610 --> 00:32:47,480
This is Shanghai in 1987.

726
00:32:47,480 --> 00:32:50,850
This is Shanghai in 2013.

727
00:32:50,850 --> 00:32:53,600
Today 10 of the tallest 20 skyscrapers

728
00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:55,350
in the world are in China.

729
00:32:55,350 --> 00:32:59,920
And six more of them are under constructions.

730
00:32:59,920 --> 00:33:01,240
So within a couple years,

731
00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:05,410
China will have 16 buildings in that top 20 skyscrapers

732
00:33:05,410 --> 00:33:06,540
in the world.

733
00:33:06,540 --> 00:33:10,210
China has really taken over in the race to the sky.

734
00:33:10,210 --> 00:33:11,400
The Chinese are building

735
00:33:11,400 --> 00:33:14,950
so many new skyscrapers, they can demolish old ones

736
00:33:14,950 --> 00:33:15,890
by the dozen.

737
00:33:15,890 --> 00:33:18,030
Many small cities or non-existent cities

738
00:33:18,030 --> 00:33:20,160
basically get built from scratch.

739
00:33:20,160 --> 00:33:22,890
{\an8}So Chinese officials will create a master plan

740
00:33:22,890 --> 00:33:24,270
{\an8}and they'll say, okay, over here,

741
00:33:24,270 --> 00:33:27,010
{\an8}we're gonna have our skyscraper district.

742
00:33:27,010 --> 00:33:29,080
{\an8}So that is part of the reason why we're seeing them

743
00:33:29,080 --> 00:33:31,471
{\an8}spring up across China is they're not

744
00:33:31,471 --> 00:33:35,553
quite as constrained by the profit motive.

745
00:33:35,553 --> 00:33:37,373
(numbers click)

746
00:33:37,373 --> 00:33:38,440
(upbeat music)

747
00:33:38,440 --> 00:33:39,770
For more than a hundred years,

748
00:33:39,770 --> 00:33:42,850
whether you're in New York, Taipei, or Shanghai,

749
00:33:42,850 --> 00:33:45,150
skyscrapers have looked pretty much the same.

750
00:33:45,150 --> 00:33:46,410
They're all tall and upward.

751
00:33:46,410 --> 00:33:48,490
It's all these engineers and like architects

752
00:33:48,490 --> 00:33:50,310
just trying to impress a girl, you know?

753
00:33:50,310 --> 00:33:51,560
Are skyscrapers phallic symbols?

754
00:33:51,560 --> 00:33:52,900
Absolutely.

755
00:33:52,900 --> 00:33:55,540
A hundred percent skyscrapers are phallic symbols.

756
00:33:55,540 --> 00:33:57,140
But that's about to change.

757
00:33:57,140 --> 00:33:59,550
Thanks to the number 360.

758
00:33:59,550 --> 00:34:02,840
{\an8}In 1958, women represent only about 1%

759
00:34:02,840 --> 00:34:04,570
{\an8}of registered architects.

760
00:34:04,570 --> 00:34:07,510
{\an8}By 1988, it's up to 4%.

761
00:34:07,510 --> 00:34:10,840
One of these female architects is Zaha Hadid.

762
00:34:10,840 --> 00:34:15,030
{\an8}Zaha Hadid's practice really began to challenge form.

763
00:34:15,030 --> 00:34:16,822
And she started that very early on

764
00:34:16,822 --> 00:34:19,500
in her low rise buildings.

765
00:34:19,500 --> 00:34:23,000
And that just sort of naturally seemed to evolve into all

766
00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:26,833
of the skyscrapers you see coming out of that office.

767
00:34:29,076 --> 00:34:32,730
Zaha Hadid, an Iraq born British citizen,

768
00:34:32,730 --> 00:34:36,360
famously said, "There are 360 degrees.

769
00:34:36,360 --> 00:34:38,673
Why use only one of them?"

770
00:34:38,673 --> 00:34:41,340
Hadid is called the Queen of the Curve.

771
00:34:41,340 --> 00:34:45,310
{\an8}Zaha Hadid is a good example of someone with amazing ideas

772
00:34:45,310 --> 00:34:48,620
that took a really long time to actually see them realized.

773
00:34:48,620 --> 00:34:50,590
She was awarded a number of contracts.

774
00:34:50,590 --> 00:34:53,210
Her projects had never actually went through.

775
00:34:53,210 --> 00:34:54,810
It wasn't until much later in her life

776
00:34:54,810 --> 00:34:58,020
that she saw her first major construction project.

777
00:34:58,020 --> 00:35:01,330
Hadid took the skyscraper and gave it a twist.

778
00:35:01,330 --> 00:35:03,620
She was see first female to win the Pritzker Prize,

779
00:35:03,620 --> 00:35:07,160
which is basically like the Nobel Prize for Architecture.

780
00:35:07,160 --> 00:35:10,190
Hadid really challenged the idea of a skyscraper

781
00:35:10,190 --> 00:35:13,710
as this obelisk phallic monolith,

782
00:35:13,710 --> 00:35:16,470
and that there really are other shapes you could use,

783
00:35:16,470 --> 00:35:19,320
not just from an aesthetic perspective,

784
00:35:19,320 --> 00:35:22,920
but would also change how people utilized the building.

785
00:35:22,920 --> 00:35:25,120
Students in architectural programs today

786
00:35:25,120 --> 00:35:28,160
are about 50/50 male and female.

787
00:35:28,160 --> 00:35:30,010
But when we look at registered architects,

788
00:35:30,010 --> 00:35:32,230
{\an8}it's still only 17% female.

789
00:35:32,230 --> 00:35:33,968
So we still have a long way to go.

790
00:35:33,968 --> 00:35:36,091
(numbers beep)

791
00:35:36,091 --> 00:35:37,100
(upbeat music)

792
00:35:37,100 --> 00:35:40,600
From Chicago to New York, Taipei to Shanghai,

793
00:35:40,600 --> 00:35:42,450
it's a race to be number one.

794
00:35:42,450 --> 00:35:45,420
But now there's a city where one isn't enough.

795
00:35:45,420 --> 00:35:46,950
Only two will do.

796
00:35:46,950 --> 00:35:49,130
When I think skyline, I think Dubai.

797
00:35:49,130 --> 00:35:51,520
You wanna break records and get higher.

798
00:35:51,520 --> 00:35:52,353
I mean if they're anything like me,

799
00:35:52,353 --> 00:35:53,733
they just like getting real high.

800
00:35:54,950 --> 00:35:56,730
It's 2003.

801
00:35:56,730 --> 00:35:58,980
The oil rich Emirate of Dubai wants the world

802
00:35:58,980 --> 00:36:01,650
to know there is more to life than crude.

803
00:36:01,650 --> 00:36:03,070
They commission a skyscraper

804
00:36:03,070 --> 00:36:05,773
that will break every height record standing.

805
00:36:07,310 --> 00:36:09,350
{\an8}You have a central core that's buttressed

806
00:36:09,350 --> 00:36:13,320
{\an8}by sort of three wings on each side of the central core.

807
00:36:13,320 --> 00:36:14,970
It gives us this pyramidal shape.

808
00:36:16,070 --> 00:36:18,950
When the Burj Khalifa topped out in 2009,

809
00:36:18,950 --> 00:36:21,140
it surpasses the Taipei 101

810
00:36:21,140 --> 00:36:23,500
as the world's tallest building.

811
00:36:23,500 --> 00:36:26,823
In fact, it's the tallest structure in the world, period.

812
00:36:28,480 --> 00:36:31,640
It's so high, you can watch the sunset twice.

813
00:36:31,640 --> 00:36:34,790
Sunset number one from the base of the building

814
00:36:34,790 --> 00:36:38,033
and sunset number two from the 124th floor.

815
00:36:39,740 --> 00:36:42,210
When the Burj Khalifa was unveiled to the world,

816
00:36:42,210 --> 00:36:46,780
one man was invited to the top, but not via the elevator.

817
00:36:46,780 --> 00:36:48,232
I don't even know what I'm looking at.

818
00:36:48,232 --> 00:36:51,710
Is this man climbing a building free hand?

819
00:36:51,710 --> 00:36:54,040
Like no nothing.

820
00:36:54,040 --> 00:36:55,090
Whoa.

821
00:36:55,090 --> 00:36:57,110
Oh, this guy's trying to steal something.

822
00:36:57,110 --> 00:36:57,943
I could do this.

823
00:36:57,943 --> 00:36:59,320
No, I couldn't, I would die.

824
00:36:59,320 --> 00:37:00,810
Is he okay?

825
00:37:00,810 --> 00:37:01,643
Why am I asking?

826
00:37:01,643 --> 00:37:02,763
He's clearly not okay.

827
00:37:05,180 --> 00:37:08,110
{\an8}Alain Robert is known as the French Spiderman,

828
00:37:08,110 --> 00:37:10,622
but instead of eight legs, he uses only two hands,

829
00:37:10,622 --> 00:37:14,890
some chalk, and one pair of rock climbing shoes.

830
00:37:14,890 --> 00:37:16,900
{\an8}They wanted to do a big event.

831
00:37:16,900 --> 00:37:19,900
{\an8}That was for the kind of for the opening of the building.

832
00:37:19,900 --> 00:37:23,190
I enjoy climbing buildings

833
00:37:23,190 --> 00:37:28,130
because it's a pure vertical.

834
00:37:28,130 --> 00:37:31,430
It is something that actually, you cannot really find it

835
00:37:31,430 --> 00:37:34,370
if you're climbing a natural landscape.

836
00:37:34,370 --> 00:37:36,610
There is always a reference point.

837
00:37:36,610 --> 00:37:40,430
Visually when you climb a building, you can see the cars,

838
00:37:40,430 --> 00:37:44,150
you can see the trucks, and you can see people.

839
00:37:44,150 --> 00:37:44,983
{\an8}In his time,

840
00:37:44,983 --> 00:37:48,000
{\an8}Alain has climbed over a hundred skyscrapers.

841
00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:50,390
{\an8}I climbed the Empire State Building,

842
00:37:50,390 --> 00:37:52,510
but not all the way to the top

843
00:37:52,510 --> 00:37:55,336
because I get caught by the cops.

844
00:37:55,336 --> 00:37:58,199
(police siren blares)

845
00:37:58,199 --> 00:37:59,960
(upbeat music)

846
00:37:59,960 --> 00:38:02,390
It might look like Alain's one in a million,

847
00:38:02,390 --> 00:38:03,940
{\an8}but he's actually one in three.

848
00:38:04,860 --> 00:38:06,940
{\an8}That's how many of us are afraid of heights,

849
00:38:06,940 --> 00:38:09,860
including surprisingly, Alain.

850
00:38:09,860 --> 00:38:11,290
Everybody is afraid of height.

851
00:38:11,290 --> 00:38:14,350
It's not that you're afraid to fall, afraid to die.

852
00:38:14,350 --> 00:38:16,780
I guess, not I guess, I know.

853
00:38:16,780 --> 00:38:21,780
My love for climbing was bigger than my fear of height.

854
00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:25,330
I'm one of those three.

855
00:38:25,330 --> 00:38:27,030
I'm deathly afraid of heights.

856
00:38:27,030 --> 00:38:29,230
I cannot look over a ledge

857
00:38:29,230 --> 00:38:31,520
without having some sort of panic attack.

858
00:38:31,520 --> 00:38:33,191
(numbers beep)

859
00:38:33,191 --> 00:38:34,350
(upbeat jazz music)

860
00:38:34,350 --> 00:38:36,130
The race for the sky has been driven

861
00:38:36,130 --> 00:38:39,420
by a series of astonishing technical breakthroughs.

862
00:38:39,420 --> 00:38:41,240
Honestly, I don't think we'll ever hit

863
00:38:41,240 --> 00:38:42,370
this idea of too tall.

864
00:38:42,370 --> 00:38:45,220
And the reason is because of the technology.

865
00:38:45,220 --> 00:38:46,400
But what if that technology

866
00:38:46,400 --> 00:38:50,950
becomes out of date, like 169 years out of date.

867
00:38:50,950 --> 00:38:53,273
{\an8}Right now, all of the elements of the technology

868
00:38:53,273 --> 00:38:57,500
{\an8}except one are in place to create a mile high skyscraper.

869
00:38:57,500 --> 00:39:00,350
The invention that made the skyscraper possible

870
00:39:00,350 --> 00:39:01,860
is now the hold up.

871
00:39:01,860 --> 00:39:03,340
The only thing that we're missing right now

872
00:39:03,340 --> 00:39:05,530
in terms of the technology is the elevator.

873
00:39:05,530 --> 00:39:08,620
So elevator salesman have their jokes.

874
00:39:08,620 --> 00:39:10,520
{\an8}Ask me how business is doing.

875
00:39:10,520 --> 00:39:12,350
{\an8}How's business, Nick?

876
00:39:12,350 --> 00:39:14,923
It has its ups and downs.

877
00:39:14,923 --> 00:39:16,003
Da da da.

878
00:39:17,160 --> 00:39:18,450
Elisha Otis introduced

879
00:39:18,450 --> 00:39:21,534
the passenger elevator in 1853.

880
00:39:21,534 --> 00:39:25,480
169 years later his invention will make

881
00:39:25,480 --> 00:39:27,854
or break the next big thing.

882
00:39:27,854 --> 00:39:30,600
(upbeat music)

883
00:39:30,600 --> 00:39:33,540
In 2013, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

884
00:39:33,540 --> 00:39:36,220
begins construction of the Jeddah Tower.

885
00:39:36,220 --> 00:39:39,970
Planned to be over one kilometer or 3,000 feet high,

886
00:39:39,970 --> 00:39:42,630
this is an ultra skyscraper.

887
00:39:42,630 --> 00:39:44,060
But to get that high,

888
00:39:44,060 --> 00:39:46,663
you've got to go back to the elevator drawing board.

889
00:39:48,768 --> 00:39:52,760
{\an8}An elevator car weighs 3,500 pounds.

890
00:39:52,760 --> 00:39:56,020
It's passengers weigh 3,500 pounds.

891
00:39:56,020 --> 00:39:57,873
That's three and a half tons.

892
00:39:59,460 --> 00:40:01,020
The steel cable that lifts the car

893
00:40:01,020 --> 00:40:03,373
weighs 1.78 pounds per foot.

894
00:40:04,900 --> 00:40:07,720
A vertical run of 3,000 feet will yield a cable

895
00:40:07,720 --> 00:40:09,603
that weighs 2.7 tons.

896
00:40:11,020 --> 00:40:13,053
That's a total of 6.2 tons.

897
00:40:14,780 --> 00:40:17,320
{\an8}Well, the problem is that if you add a steel cable

898
00:40:17,320 --> 00:40:21,792
{\an8}stretched a kilometer, it would stretch.

899
00:40:21,792 --> 00:40:24,900
{\an8}It's not a stable mechanism.

900
00:40:24,900 --> 00:40:28,150
(upbeat jazz music)

901
00:40:28,150 --> 00:40:30,900
It's a new technical challenge to overcome.

902
00:40:30,900 --> 00:40:33,100
One solution is to replace the steel cable

903
00:40:33,100 --> 00:40:36,483
with carbon fiber ribbon, which is 80% lighter.

904
00:40:40,130 --> 00:40:45,130
How do you test something to go a kilometer in the sky

905
00:40:45,280 --> 00:40:47,780
before that building has been constructed,

906
00:40:47,780 --> 00:40:50,720
knowing that everything that's being constructed in the core

907
00:40:50,720 --> 00:40:54,330
of that building is relying on this technology to work.

908
00:40:54,330 --> 00:40:55,740
The quest to build taller,

909
00:40:55,740 --> 00:40:58,407
forces elevator engineers to go deeper.

910
00:40:58,407 --> 00:40:59,710
[Terri Meyer Boake] So what they did was

911
00:40:59,710 --> 00:41:03,100
{\an8}to construct a test pit down into the earth.

912
00:41:03,100 --> 00:41:05,230
{\an8}One company constructed its test facility

913
00:41:05,230 --> 00:41:06,963
in an active limestone mine.

914
00:41:08,033 --> 00:41:09,740
It's the only one in the world that can test

915
00:41:09,740 --> 00:41:12,083
{\an8}over 984 feet vertical.

916
00:41:13,330 --> 00:41:16,230
{\an8}With an elevator traveling over 40 miles per hour,

917
00:41:16,230 --> 00:41:18,910
{\an8}you need that much distance to ensure a smooth ride

918
00:41:18,910 --> 00:41:20,683
from liftoff to arrival.

919
00:41:23,670 --> 00:41:25,630
But there may be another solution.

920
00:41:25,630 --> 00:41:27,750
Instead of a 3,000 foot cable,

921
00:41:27,750 --> 00:41:29,750
what if there was no cable at all?

922
00:41:29,750 --> 00:41:32,450
{\an8}The big problem with building tall

923
00:41:32,450 --> 00:41:34,796
{\an8}is you can't just have one elevator going

924
00:41:34,796 --> 00:41:39,480
{\an8}from floor 1, 2, 3, 4 up to 300, 400 and so forth.

925
00:41:39,480 --> 00:41:40,750
You need different shafts

926
00:41:40,750 --> 00:41:42,554
and express elevators and so forth.

927
00:41:42,554 --> 00:41:47,340
Sooner or later, your ground floor has almost no room

928
00:41:47,340 --> 00:41:49,570
for offices or apartments anymore.

929
00:41:49,570 --> 00:41:51,150
It's just elevators.

930
00:41:51,150 --> 00:41:54,300
(cars honk)

931
00:41:54,300 --> 00:41:57,630
It's an elevator equivalent of a traffic jam.

932
00:41:57,630 --> 00:42:01,200
But what if instead of a cable, each cabin had its own motor

933
00:42:01,200 --> 00:42:03,493
and the ability to travel horizontally?

934
00:42:04,400 --> 00:42:07,470
Elevator cabins would be more like passenger vehicles,

935
00:42:07,470 --> 00:42:11,955
able to move independently and allow other cabins to pass.

936
00:42:11,955 --> 00:42:13,975
(numbers beep)

937
00:42:13,975 --> 00:42:15,200
(upbeat music)

938
00:42:15,200 --> 00:42:17,510
But it turns out that the future of the skyscraper

939
00:42:17,510 --> 00:42:20,133
is subject to forces more powerful than gravity.

940
00:42:22,470 --> 00:42:25,860
In 2017, intrigue in the Saudi royal family

941
00:42:25,860 --> 00:42:27,963
puts the Jeddah Tower on hiatus.

942
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:34,000
The planned kilometer high building is a 328 foot stump.

943
00:42:34,080 --> 00:42:36,670
And in the skyscraper capital of the world,

944
00:42:36,670 --> 00:42:39,760
Chinese President Xi Jinping declares a moratorium

945
00:42:39,760 --> 00:42:43,090
on buildings over 1,640 feet.

946
00:42:43,090 --> 00:42:45,750
And then this happens.

947
00:42:45,750 --> 00:42:48,060
{\an8}The COVID pandemic's really put a giant question mark

948
00:42:48,060 --> 00:42:49,840
{\an8}on the future of skyscrapers.

949
00:42:49,840 --> 00:42:51,400
Now that employers have recognized

950
00:42:51,400 --> 00:42:53,070
that employees can work from home,

951
00:42:53,070 --> 00:42:55,493
they don't really need these big commercial leases

952
00:42:55,493 --> 00:42:57,273
in skyscrapers.

953
00:42:58,150 --> 00:42:59,830
When the Empire State Building opens

954
00:42:59,830 --> 00:43:01,884
for business in 1931,

955
00:43:01,884 --> 00:43:05,030
it features an astonishing 2 million square feet

956
00:43:05,030 --> 00:43:06,053
of office space.

957
00:43:07,540 --> 00:43:10,330
In 2021, 40% of its tenants

958
00:43:10,330 --> 00:43:13,730
are reportedly exploring hybrid work options.

959
00:43:13,730 --> 00:43:17,170
That's not the only problem facing the modern skyscraper.

960
00:43:17,170 --> 00:43:19,543
Just ask 600 million birds.

961
00:43:21,820 --> 00:43:23,770
Skyscrapers are clearly unnatural,

962
00:43:23,770 --> 00:43:25,950
but they're particularly dangerous for birds,

963
00:43:25,950 --> 00:43:29,600
especially at night because they're attracted to the light,

964
00:43:29,600 --> 00:43:32,430
don't realize that they're flying into something.

965
00:43:32,430 --> 00:43:35,670
So skyscrapers kill around 600 million birds

966
00:43:35,670 --> 00:43:37,500
in the US every single year.

967
00:43:37,500 --> 00:43:40,570
And the city that's the greatest offender is Chicago

968
00:43:40,570 --> 00:43:43,993
because it lies on some major bird migratory routes.

969
00:43:43,993 --> 00:43:45,820
Meanwhile, the carbon footprint

970
00:43:45,820 --> 00:43:47,810
of the concrete industry is considered one

971
00:43:47,810 --> 00:43:49,700
of the world's worst.

972
00:43:49,700 --> 00:43:51,530
There's, you know, an increasing interest

973
00:43:51,530 --> 00:43:55,080
in experimentation with wood high rises,

974
00:43:55,080 --> 00:43:59,140
trying to reduce the embodied carbon element

975
00:43:59,140 --> 00:44:02,930
and replace steel and concrete with wood.

976
00:44:02,930 --> 00:44:04,290
But just goes to show you

977
00:44:04,290 --> 00:44:08,150
that you can't always predict what direction technology

978
00:44:08,150 --> 00:44:10,150
and development is going to go.

979
00:44:10,150 --> 00:44:12,220
Sometimes it will surprise you.

980
00:44:12,220 --> 00:44:14,799
For as long as there have been human beings,

981
00:44:14,799 --> 00:44:18,086
there's been the dream of reaching for the sky.

982
00:44:18,086 --> 00:44:20,250
(numbers beep)

983
00:44:20,250 --> 00:44:21,640
The history of skyscrapers

984
00:44:21,640 --> 00:44:24,040
is the history of American cities.

985
00:44:24,040 --> 00:44:28,770
Skyscrapers grew up just as America's cities grew up

986
00:44:28,770 --> 00:44:31,880
and became an essential part of that transformation

987
00:44:31,880 --> 00:44:34,070
into the modern age.

988
00:44:34,070 --> 00:44:38,070
And in a way, the technology that they manifested

989
00:44:38,070 --> 00:44:42,460
has a similar story in the space program, the space race.

990
00:44:42,460 --> 00:44:47,460
It's an example of what had been unthinkable technology

991
00:44:47,800 --> 00:44:50,993
blossoming into something that became common place.

992
00:44:52,340 --> 00:44:53,359
Because I'll be honest.

993
00:44:53,359 --> 00:44:55,710
If I could, I wouldn't go to space.

994
00:44:55,710 --> 00:44:57,470
I would want to build the biggest building in New York City,

995
00:44:57,470 --> 00:45:00,240
because I feel like they forget about your space trip

996
00:45:00,240 --> 00:45:01,460
if you're a billionaire,

997
00:45:01,460 --> 00:45:03,340
but that building will be there forever.

998
00:45:03,340 --> 00:45:06,610
And if you go to Rome, if you go to Paris,

999
00:45:06,610 --> 00:45:08,140
you're going to look at a church.

1000
00:45:08,140 --> 00:45:09,849
Well, if you're in the United States,

1001
00:45:09,849 --> 00:45:12,863
you should look at our cathedrals of commerce,

1002
00:45:13,939 --> 00:45:18,939
our contribution to architectural grandiosity.

1003
00:45:19,290 --> 00:45:22,150
You should walk inside these buildings

1004
00:45:22,150 --> 00:45:27,150
and just look up at a space that was made to impress you.

1005
00:45:27,380 --> 00:45:29,870
That's the point of these skyscrapers.

1006
00:45:29,870 --> 00:45:31,110
Honestly, I don't think

1007
00:45:31,110 --> 00:45:33,310
we'll ever hit this idea of too tall.

1008
00:45:33,310 --> 00:45:35,730
Eventually we're gonna have skyscrapers in space.

1009
00:45:35,730 --> 00:45:37,900
I always picture this kind of Jetson thing

1010
00:45:37,900 --> 00:45:41,530
where the buildings are like avoiding traffic, right?

1011
00:45:41,530 --> 00:45:43,620
And I think we're gonna get those flying cars soon, right?

1012
00:45:43,620 --> 00:45:47,670
So be easier to park up by your apartment

1013
00:45:47,670 --> 00:45:49,050
that is in the sky.

1014
00:45:49,050 --> 00:45:50,310
And they're all made of glass, too.

1015
00:45:50,310 --> 00:45:51,559
All it takes is one little meteor.

1016
00:45:51,559 --> 00:45:53,410
Phew, your head explodes.

1017
00:45:53,410 --> 00:45:54,440
Space elevators.

1018
00:45:54,440 --> 00:45:55,790
It's gonna happen.

1019
00:45:55,790 --> 00:45:56,623
I look forward to it.

1020
00:45:56,623 --> 00:45:59,145
(upbeat music)