I find it hilarious that the same architect did the same thing twice. Turning one building into a death-ray I can believe being an accident, but do it twice and you're just a super-villain in denial.
the one major commonality shared between communist & capitalist systems... funny (not literally) how both just seem to incentivise corruption and corner cutting for the sake of maximising profits
Seriously, almost every major incident or avoidable accident with theme parks and civic projects, greedy bastards trying to save a buck and cutting corners or skipping steps. It isn't as atrocious as Dubais nonsense projects though haha, building giant skyscraper without plumbing and needing poop trucks, just a dictators ego project
That experiment failed because they were trying to use people to direct and focus the light on to a singular point, and in their other attempt they didn't have enough mirrors to focus enough heat, on top of that, the mirrors weren't angled to a center point, they were all placed flat on a surface, if they had done a bowl-shape of mirrors that focuses to a center point it would of done a lot better.
They had trouble coordinating the volunteers for one of the tests, and in another the mirrors were poorly mounted and fell off of the frame they were using for the other.
The 6 story building I worked at in Florida got a facelift, they installed less reflective windows on the west side to cut down glare that was affecting the nearby street. However, energy has to go somewhere, and instead of reflecting, the bright sunlight heated up the windows and their frames. Once we got into full summer, the window frames failed to hold the glass in and the windows started popping out of their frames, tumbling to the parking lot below. My favorite part was that the parking closest to the building was reserved for company executives so their cars were the most damaged.
@@cronobactersakazakii5133 Yes what you need is to have a surface that spreads the reflection. With metal panels they probably just have lots of bumps.
Don't worry, it wasn't their fault. An enormous, and totally unexpected, blazing ball of fire jumped into the sky and sabotaged the entire project. Could happen to anyone.
Oh you’re talking about the sky fire, I hate that thing! It comes from the east every day and makes me miserable by heating my land and burning my skin. Glad to know I’m not the only one being attacked by a god ball!
Bingo card; Warning Signs ignored? "Louvers were part of the plan, but cut as cost cutting measure" Tells me that a designer had some of this in mind but was silenced.
The developers were clearly blinded to the architect's suggestion of glare reducing louvres but he didn't want to turn the heat up so remained somewhat aluf.
Probably did, but "it's too expensive" seems to be a common issue with these. Because who wants to spend money on stuff that could make the building safer, am I right? 😂
World militaries: spend billions of dollars and years on R&D on death rays - no results. Some random architect: accidentally builds a death ray. Twice.
"You have to give this much to the Luftwaffe, when it knocked down our buildings, it didn't replace them with anything more offensive than rubble." - Prince Charles.
Fellow uruguayan here! Can confirm that vignolli is a big meme here. Every time we heard from him in the news was for something he fuked up somewhere. He even had a big (and polemic) project here, installing two blocks of concrete that looks like a jenga in a small town near the sea side. Even his death was a big joke in uruguay because he couldn't keep ruining buildings
You know what? Kudos to the company for immediately admitting fault and ponying up to those harmed as a result. No trying to evade responsibility on their part whatsoever.
9:00 as per the explanation that follows this statement, it has nothing to do with a magnifying glass, but instead being a parabolic mirror. Both are ways to concentrate solar energy, but they work in different ways.
John I just wanna say thanks for holding to a consistent format at a time when people are always trying to be more entertaining and ending up losing the informative aspect of their channel. These incidents and events are always a great watch because they contain so much information without the fluff.
Gotta add something...the song at the end, coupled with that 1950s looking vid of a couple kids looking out the window of a tram. Those went together soooooo well dude. It was an absolute.... 🤌
It is indeed perfect. The clip is the Monorail built for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair "The Century 21 Exposition" celebrating a vision of the future.The "Space Age" Space Needle is seen in the background.
Weirdly it reminded me hugely of this "unofficial" video of Tycho from 10 years ago. I guess "retrofuture" would be an appropriate name! It uses the same World's Fair footage, but with a huge amount more. ruclips.net/video/t3N5CskS1dk/видео.html
Well if we are doing lethal buildings, I'll point to Leeds and specifically Bridgewater Place, Because while a death ray is warm and worrying, a wind tunnel building is less comedic, more terrifying, but on the comedic end of the scale, the Walt disney Concert Hall in LA was doing this on a bigger scale some ten years ago, uh, whoops... Oh and this is hilarious in a darkly comedic. Wasn't there a controversy over London's sight lines as well or am I thinking of a different building? Also wow,the owners fessed up and took responsibility as well, I didn't expect that one... EDIT: Well this is more common than you may think about focusing heat into one spot
Ya surprise on the owners fessing up. In the good old USA, people with a lot of money can get away with almost anything, especially when they are a large corporations. Corporations in the USA shield murderers a lot.
Designer versus engineer, the latter being overruled because the designer had more power over the building's construction apparently, and I'd definitely add "Ignored warning signs" to the bingo card given that it had happened before with the same designer, with curved glass turning into what essentially is a satellite dish for the sun making for a big burny thing that could have set fire to some probably very expensive bits of that there london place, and they don't like great fires there... :P
I know 0 is freezing and 100 is boiling. The further away from either of those the more I feel lost in a no man's land of unknown weather conditions...
This also happened in Los Angeles when they built the Disney Music Hall, although a much smaller scale with the building being smaller and the curves being tighter and closer to the ground. But, it was polished aluminum, so although the "death ray" was smaller, it was more intense.
I miss Maplin too. I'm ancient enough to remember when they were a mail-order only business, and were a really great source of PCBs for the projects featured in Practical Wireless, Everyday Electronics, etc.
I'm pretty sure the maximum temperatures in some places could've reached away more than 90°C: The most used plastic in cars is ABS and it starts to melt only above 200°C. And even admitting it would maybe only need to soften without fully melting for that side mirror to fall off, that would still be likely at least 140-150°C or so🔥
YES! THE VDARA DEATH RAY!!! I was just going to add that but you got it! I can't believe this was the same guy. We called that casino the Death Star after the melts started -- pool furniture, SHOES (flip flops) melted literally onto the pool decks, people getting weird sunburns too.
That is pretty typicall for every tale and of every golden age. The 90s was the golden age in europe, not only for fall of the wall but also due to internet and a cultural dominance that time
I swear there's some secret society awarding architects with bonuses for sheer weirdness. They can't seem to do anything simple, graceful, functional, and practical. It all has to look strange.
I have never liked the look of this building. It looks like it about to fall over. Such and ungainly looking thing and almost deadly too! That's quite an achievement 😄
It’s really common tbh. I remember a story about the Flat Iron building in New York, though it was told as a cute story, it’s a bit icky really. Men would congregate near it when it was built because the wind tunnel it created would lift even the heaviest ladies skirts so the men could get a glimpse of their ankles. That was quite sexually exciting for them (but, wrongfully, shameful for the women and the blame was still put on them of course).
Given it has been known in the past (for example in 1975) for UK sunshine to (on its own) melt road tarmac... the architect was just lazy in his research 😂
Interestingly John, there's a series of preserved 'sightlines' across London, (actually called 'London protected views') where it is prohibited to build buildings that obstruct the line of sight between certain areas. There are two sites- St. Paul's Cathedral, there are protected views of it from Henry VIII's mound in Richmond park, Greenwich Park, Primrose hill, Alexandra palace and several other vantage points. While the other is the Palace of Westminster which is visible from Primrose hill and Parliament hill.
I can see it somewhat, some areas have been use to the smog/fog/overcast all the time. Even in my part of the world, LA and SF are starting to complain about the glass skyscapers being "too hot". Less smog means more sunlight and those structures love to absorb all the sun delicious rays and focus them around.
Since you are a musician yourself, you may appreciate this. I went to that exact branch of Maplin in 2008 or 09 to buy a phono cable for my band's live set that evening. Maplin was the best and most reliable for audio cable of all kinds, and I also miss it!
IMO, Prince Charles was right, I have always thought this was an ugly building. A lot of modern architecture doesn't have the craftsmanship, beauty and harmony that lifts our spirits and inspires we the common people.
I lived in London from the 1950s through into the 1980s, and we had some long periods of hot days and sunny days (the summers of 1959 and 1976 come to mind). I guess the architect visits in mid November when the sun rarely makes an appearance for more than a few micro seconds a week.
I don't know what's worse, them building basically a death beam in the middle of a city, or my highschool dropout brain knowing it was coming when their super high class and expensive education seemingly didn't prepare them for the how the basic functions of light and heat work...
Just saying I love your channel mate. No messing around and straight into the story without an irrelevant 10 minute history lesson like some of the others. Breath of fresh air.
I've always assumed that's where the guy got the idea from. Gateway and HP had some funky cases back in the early 2000s, so it's not even like it had to be a "gaming" PC to have a weird case.
The wind tunnel issue has been fatal before! I lived in Bridgewater place in Leeds, which is famous for having killed a man by channeling wind onto a passing lorry, tipping it and crushing him! The engineering solutions have been interesting, the glass shields break almost weekly still to this day!
Cooking an egg is nothing! Wait till they turn it on! Right now the building is in standby mode. You guys don't know but this is for Zombie Apocalypse defense
If anyone is familar with the Toothpick building bordering Central Park in NYC, this guy also designed it. He really made some of the most hated buildings in the world!
Can't believe that not one person looked at the plans, put 2 & 2 together and asked what direction the building was going to face? It truly shows how much ridiculous regard people in the business show to architects. A classic case of the Emperor's new clothes. Anyone lower in the construction food chain knows exactly what Architects will try to get away with and re-designs are always necessary. My Dad was a Civil Engineer/Contracts Manager on large construction projects and he hated Architects with an absolute vehement passion........ with good cause.
I'm delighted to see older footage of the Space Needle and the monorail in Seattle at the end! The monorail still operates daily and is a quick way to get from Westlake Center to Seattle Center if one is on foot. The skyline is rather more full these days but it's still a neat way to see some things while headed to or from the Space Needle.
Excellent videos as always, and can I just say that I really appreciate you crediting the photos you use in your videos. A very classy touch and something I wish more people would do!
I’m a carpenter and once had to replace vinyl siding that had been melted by sunlight reflected off neighbor’s old distorted windows. Went with cement-board. Did the job when it was cool out but even then I could feel the reflected solar heat on my back.
Seattle's World's Fair! My mom and dad both went to that World's Fair as kids. Western Washington is where my heart is. Part of me wishes I never moved to Oregon. I guess Portland isn't that far but I miss the Salish Sea and Puget Sound. Whenever I see my home state I get so gushy. Great video. Love the death ray. I guess some sun farms do that too. Birds fry in the sky.
We made patanolic reflectors and boiled water with the sun in my highschool physics class. ISTG the guy that designed these death rays had a compulsion.
Nice clips of vintage Seattle there at the end, especially when they still had the amusement park at the Seattle Center (62 Worlds Fair location). Memories of riding the bubbleator and endless visits to the Science Center in the 70's.
That's pretty cool, but scary at the same time. If you are interested in another building with issues, look up the Plywood Palace. In the 1970s, John Hancock Insurance Company, not to be outdone by Prudential Insurance, built a new tower in Boston Massachusetts. This much taller building created a wind tunnel that sucked the windows out of the new tower sending a cascade of falling windows to the pavement below. I don't remember if anyone was injured because I was too young to pay attention to such things, but for the longest time, this office tower was covered with patches of plywood until the windows were replaced with something else that wouldn't fall out on to the pedestrians below.
Congratulations professional architect, you built a building that looks like a combo between a giant bluetooth speaker and a trash can that doubles as an energy weapon
I find it hilarious that the same architect did the same thing twice. Turning one building into a death-ray I can believe being an accident, but do it twice and you're just a super-villain in denial.
One building in vegas, the other frying a dude's luxury car... maybe he's just playing the long con against rich people? XD
If I had a nickel every time my building turned into a death ray, I'd have 2 nickels
Good thing nobody could afford to build the skyscraper sized turntable required to aim the thing
the vegas building permit office gets some blame for approving such a thing in a goddamn desert
@@1224chrisng I understood that reference
It's a hidden-in-plain-sight supervillain lair, complete with heat ray.
Environmentally conscious supervillain because the death ray is solar powered.
@@anteshellpower is expensive, solar isn't
: Dr Evil pinky:
🎶Doofenshmirtz Accidental Heat Ray!!!!!🎶
@@christophersanders3252 once is an accident, twice is intended
Cost cutting feels like a Free space on the bingo card.
Such a staple for almost anything going wrong in one way or another.
In the earlier videos that mainly dealt with nuclear exposure incidents cost saving was less of an issue.
Not remotely true
@bradsanders407 have you been following the same channel?
the one major commonality shared between communist & capitalist systems... funny (not literally) how both just seem to incentivise corruption and corner cutting for the sake of maximising profits
Seriously, almost every major incident or avoidable accident with theme parks and civic projects, greedy bastards trying to save a buck and cutting corners or skipping steps.
It isn't as atrocious as Dubais nonsense projects though haha, building giant skyscraper without plumbing and needing poop trucks, just a dictators ego project
You'd think an architect would understand the consequences of a concave structure made entirely of glass.
Genuinely confuddling.
Nepotism...
That's why he's an architect and not an engineer
@@AcidfunkishNice word!
To be fair his original design had mitigations in place that were then removed by "committee" to cut costs.
The Mythbusters tried to make a mirror death ray. Turns out they didn't make it *big* enough.
That experiment failed because they were trying to use people to direct and focus the light on to a singular point, and in their other attempt they didn't have enough mirrors to focus enough heat, on top of that, the mirrors weren't angled to a center point, they were all placed flat on a surface, if they had done a bowl-shape of mirrors that focuses to a center point it would of done a lot better.
They had trouble coordinating the volunteers for one of the tests, and in another the mirrors were poorly mounted and fell off of the frame they were using for the other.
@@subduedreader5627 Their challenge was to start a fire, to be fair. And their target was moving.
You can start fires and burn stuff with a parabolic mirror the size of a printer paper.
@@NinoJoel At distance?
The 6 story building I worked at in Florida got a facelift, they installed less reflective windows on the west side to cut down glare that was affecting the nearby street. However, energy has to go somewhere, and instead of reflecting, the bright sunlight heated up the windows and their frames. Once we got into full summer, the window frames failed to hold the glass in and the windows started popping out of their frames, tumbling to the parking lot below. My favorite part was that the parking closest to the building was reserved for company executives so their cars were the most damaged.
Likely the same executives who approved the design of the building.
I’m sure that resulted in a quick fix.
"Energy has to go somewhere" yup, you can’t fool thermodynamics
And how did those executives wrong you, exactly?
@@cronobactersakazakii5133 Yes what you need is to have a surface that spreads the reflection. With metal panels they probably just have lots of bumps.
Trying to fry an egg while reporting on really hot weather/heat wave building/etc. is such a reporter thing to do, lol.
That is/was often done in places with extreme temperatures like Phoenix, Airzona - 'Hot enough to fry an egg'.
Where I live reporters like to get a towel wet and show it freeze instantly in the winter.
@@fffrrraannkksome hard hitting journalism there to discover that cold is in fact, cold
Don't worry, it wasn't their fault. An enormous, and totally unexpected, blazing ball of fire jumped into the sky and sabotaged the entire project. Could happen to anyone.
Well, it is in England, where it rains 390 days of the year …
Oh you’re talking about the sky fire, I hate that thing! It comes from the east every day and makes me miserable by heating my land and burning my skin. Glad to know I’m not the only one being attacked by a god ball!
Bingo card; Warning Signs ignored? "Louvers were part of the plan, but cut as cost cutting measure"
Tells me that a designer had some of this in mind but was silenced.
Yep - was burned before in Vegas.
@@paulbarnett227 ha "burned" very punny
And 'Company blames victim'
The developers were clearly blinded to the architect's suggestion of glare reducing louvres but he didn't want to turn the heat up so remained somewhat aluf.
Probably did, but "it's too expensive" seems to be a common issue with these. Because who wants to spend money on stuff that could make the building safer, am I right? 😂
World militaries: spend billions of dollars and years on R&D on death rays - no results.
Some random architect: accidentally builds a death ray. Twice.
I guess the problem is militaries like being able to aim
@@silentlyjudgingyoubut that's so boring!
I bet the Architect hated the Building where his "Death-Ray" just so happened to focus.
actually wasn't his first Death ray building I think he has one in Vegas.
Bro is exclusively hired by supervillains.
🤣 his ex wife probably works where it's aimed
@@coyote16able correct. the same guy designed the vdara hotel in las vegas. the death ray of that hotel is focused on its pool area.
Architects are never wrong, they shift the blame on to the client "they should have checked the plans"
"You have to give this much to the Luftwaffe, when it knocked down our buildings, it didn't replace them with anything more offensive than rubble." - Prince Charles.
Mabye they could come back and add a few billion pounds of city improvements
@@ddunfuh9239 They could do it American way and leave just nice flat area + some radiation.
@@ceu160193 Look at all that parking!
@@ceu160193In some cities it'd probably be an improvement.
@@6yjjk They nuked paradise and put up a...well, a radioactive parking lot.
It's nice to get the occasional vid where no one died. Greetings from sunny and warm Hamburg, Germany, and have a great weekend, John!
That is such a nice post. 🙂
Missed out my favourite nickname - Walkie Scorchie !
😆😊👍
Oi mate you do have a loicense for that pun?
Some called it 'The microphone' like those used in the 1950's-1970's.
Fellow uruguayan here! Can confirm that vignolli is a big meme here. Every time we heard from him in the news was for something he fuked up somewhere. He even had a big (and polemic) project here, installing two blocks of concrete that looks like a jenga in a small town near the sea side. Even his death was a big joke in uruguay because he couldn't keep ruining buildings
I'm sorry you felt compelled to go into London for this one.
I'm glad you made it back safe.
He lives in South London.
It's almost like that architect didn't play with mirrors and the sun as a kid. 😂
Or he did too much?🤔
@@thing_under_the_stairs, lolol! Devious! 😝
I didn't 😜 do you burn something during that play?
You know what? Kudos to the company for immediately admitting fault and ponying up to those harmed as a result. No trying to evade responsibility on their part whatsoever.
8:04 Only £900 to fix the damage caused to a Jaguar by a death ray? Such a bargain!
9:00 as per the explanation that follows this statement, it has nothing to do with a magnifying glass, but instead being a parabolic mirror. Both are ways to concentrate solar energy, but they work in different ways.
I refuse to believe this was a design accident, it is too perfect of an oopsie.
Plus the architect had done this before in Vegas? You know he was that kid who fried ants with a magnifying glass.
It had mitigations in the original design that were later removed to cut costs.
@@paulbarnett227 That could've been the sneaky plan
John I just wanna say thanks for holding to a consistent format at a time when people are always trying to be more entertaining and ending up losing the informative aspect of their channel. These incidents and events are always a great watch because they contain so much information without the fluff.
They have to change because of the algorithm.
Sounds like something Doofenshmirtz or Dr. Evil would build.
THE HEAT-RAY-INATOR-INATOR!
@@arifhossain9751 🙂
Are the neighbors... ill-tempered?
@@arifhossain9751 🙂 AND FU YT for deleting my comment
(Doofenshmirtz sees dodgy cartoon)
"Difficult?"
(Cartoon gains speech bubble saying "Balls")
"Plainly Difficult?!?"
"Fryscraper" is maybe the most British insult that could be made at this thing, and it gets me every time you say it. 😂
i was like "90 degrees isn't that hot, what's the big deal?" then heard centrigrade and realized it might be.
194 F??
Roasty toasty
Congrats on not being melted by a death ray! Some days this summer that's felt like a major accomplishment.
The Disney concert hall in SanFran had the same problem. They ended up sandblasting it to make it duller.
...in more ways than one 😂
The Walt Disney Concert Hall is in LA. The same county as Disneyland.
@@avsystem3142 I stand corrected. I got it mixed up with the Disney family museum.
Not all that bad, it didn’t collapse and kill everyone 😂. A much better problem to deal with than cracks and failing joints. All the best John.
You could get a WICKED sunburn standing under that thing
A fate worse than death for some residents of that area
That, and for ages it was alleged to have roasted live Pigeons 😂
@@jimtaylor294 Think of the smell!😂
"It didn't collapse and kill everyone...so far." - Homer Simpson
@@casbyness as of time of writing😂😂😂
Gotta add something...the song at the end, coupled with that 1950s looking vid of a couple kids looking out the window of a tram. Those went together soooooo well dude. It was an absolute....
🤌
Thank you!!
It is indeed perfect. The clip is the Monorail built for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair "The Century 21 Exposition" celebrating a vision of the future.The "Space Age" Space Needle is seen in the background.
Weirdly it reminded me hugely of this "unofficial" video of Tycho from 10 years ago. I guess "retrofuture" would be an appropriate name! It uses the same World's Fair footage, but with a huge amount more. ruclips.net/video/t3N5CskS1dk/видео.html
@@PlainlyDifficult
Would you be interested in covering the PH&E Humboldt nuclear power plant events perchance?
It also had another good nickname : The walkie scorchie :)
A bit suprised it wasen`t mentioned in the video :)
Great point!
Well if we are doing lethal buildings, I'll point to Leeds and specifically Bridgewater Place, Because while a death ray is warm and worrying, a wind tunnel building is less comedic, more terrifying, but on the comedic end of the scale, the Walt disney Concert Hall in LA was doing this on a bigger scale some ten years ago, uh, whoops...
Oh and this is hilarious in a darkly comedic. Wasn't there a controversy over London's sight lines as well or am I thinking of a different building? Also wow,the owners fessed up and took responsibility as well, I didn't expect that one...
EDIT: Well this is more common than you may think about focusing heat into one spot
Ya surprise on the owners fessing up. In the good old USA, people with a lot of money can get away with almost anything, especially when they are a large corporations. Corporations in the USA shield murderers a lot.
Designer versus engineer, the latter being overruled because the designer had more power over the building's construction apparently, and I'd definitely add "Ignored warning signs" to the bingo card given that it had happened before with the same designer, with curved glass turning into what essentially is a satellite dish for the sun making for a big burny thing that could have set fire to some probably very expensive bits of that there london place, and they don't like great fires there... :P
There needs to be a "ignored the laws of physics" square on the bingo card.
Frank Gehry had this problem with the Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Living in LA, I'm still shocked that building did not achieve max supervillain powers.
For the Americans 90C is 194F.
Thank you...
I know 0 is freezing and 100 is boiling. The further away from either of those the more I feel lost in a no man's land of unknown weather conditions...
@traildoggy If it's any consolation, that's how we Brits feel with Fahrenheit.
Hot damn
@@reachandler3655 🤝
This also happened in Los Angeles when they built the Disney Music Hall, although a much smaller scale with the building being smaller and the curves being tighter and closer to the ground. But, it was polished aluminum, so although the "death ray" was smaller, it was more intense.
That building was clad in titanium panels.
I miss Maplin too. I'm ancient enough to remember when they were a mail-order only business, and were a really great source of PCBs for the projects featured in Practical Wireless, Everyday Electronics, etc.
I'm pretty sure the maximum temperatures in some places could've reached away more than 90°C:
The most used plastic in cars is ABS and it starts to melt only above 200°C. And even admitting it would maybe only need to soften without fully melting for that side mirror to fall off, that would still be likely at least 140-150°C or so🔥
This is one of my all-time favourite "random facts" to throw out when the room gets quiet and I, inevitably, panic. Loved this video! :D
YES! THE VDARA DEATH RAY!!! I was just going to add that but you got it! I can't believe this was the same guy. We called that casino the Death Star after the melts started -- pool furniture, SHOES (flip flops) melted literally onto the pool decks, people getting weird sunburns too.
When will eveybody learn about reflective curved panels and thermodynamics!?
Ikr? And now some arab prince wants a gigantic mirror in the middle of the desert and put a city inside of it.
I swear almost everything designed in the 2000s was weird. Buildings, cars, clothing…
And my sister
@@jokuvaan5175 I don't think this is the right place to be talking about your weird relationship with your sister.
That is pretty typicall for every tale and of every golden age.
The 90s was the golden age in europe, not only for fall of the wall but also due to internet and a cultural dominance that time
The millennial generation lol
@@matsv201nah the 80s where the golden age here in Europe.
The 90s where the start of the downfall
Archimedes' Heat Ray . . . I KNEW this story rang a bell!
Feels strange watching a plainly difficult video where nobody dies
Enjoy the non deathyness!!
Concave like a lens? That was what I thought of when I heard of it.😂
That building, along with the 'gherkin' make the city skyline look ridiculous.
I know it does look silly!!
@@PlainlyDifficult ...and along with The Shard, it does make it unmistakable!
I actually like the gherkin, I think it's kind of iconic now. The shard is pretty bad though.
I swear there's some secret society awarding architects with bonuses for sheer weirdness.
They can't seem to do anything simple, graceful, functional, and practical. It all has to look strange.
All three buildings are gross. The gherkin is also known as 'The Dildo'. The shard is uninteresting and the walkie talkie looks like it's meeeeeelting
That architect must have had some serious BALLS to design a second deathray shaped building.
Omg ive seen this building, its amazing you can mess up that badly to accidentally make a heat ray. XD
It kind of reminds me of electric shaver.
It is kind of like a shaver, just more permanent like laser hair removal.
That name was already taken by Strata SE1 on the other side of the river, also constructed during the roughly the same time frame.
Looks like one of those mini portable fans lol.
Thank you algoritme for giving me a fresh vid for my breakfast
I have never liked the look of this building. It looks like it about to fall over. Such and ungainly looking thing and almost deadly too! That's quite an achievement 😄
Fun fact: Nike WHQ in Beaverton, OR has the same issue along Walker Rd.
There was also a building in Leeds that ended up creating a really bad wind tunnel effect on the street underneath.
It’s really common tbh.
I remember a story about the Flat Iron building in New York, though it was told as a cute story, it’s a bit icky really. Men would congregate near it when it was built because the wind tunnel it created would lift even the heaviest ladies skirts so the men could get a glimpse of their ankles. That was quite sexually exciting for them (but, wrongfully, shameful for the women and the blame was still put on them of course).
Well given the average weather in the UK is it really so surprising that they didn't think to take the sun into account?
Given it has been known in the past (for example in 1975) for UK sunshine to (on its own) melt road tarmac... the architect was just lazy in his research 😂
Apparently they freak out if it's 90 degrees.
@@data_abort Are you American? 90 decrees Celsius is 194 degrees Fahrenheit. That's quite uncomfortably warm.
@@data_abort 90°C is 27°C more than fast food joints legally require to cook their food 😆
yes
Interestingly John, there's a series of preserved 'sightlines' across London, (actually called 'London protected views') where it is prohibited to build buildings that obstruct the line of sight between certain areas. There are two sites- St. Paul's Cathedral, there are protected views of it from Henry VIII's mound in Richmond park, Greenwich Park, Primrose hill, Alexandra palace and several other vantage points. While the other is the Palace of Westminster which is visible from Primrose hill and Parliament hill.
10:35 - for Vegas, however, stuff just melts no matter what. People are used to being melted.
The globil warming excuse lol
I can see it somewhat, some areas have been use to the smog/fog/overcast all the time. Even in my part of the world, LA and SF are starting to complain about the glass skyscapers being "too hot". Less smog means more sunlight and those structures love to absorb all the sun delicious rays and focus them around.
Since you are a musician yourself, you may appreciate this. I went to that exact branch of Maplin in 2008 or 09 to buy a phono cable for my band's live set that evening. Maplin was the best and most reliable for audio cable of all kinds, and I also miss it!
It was great! The table top mic stand I use for voice overs on this channel was a maplins jobby!!
I remember people calling it the walkie scorchie too. I wasn'T far at the time it happened, I checked the hot area. Low key proud to have witnessed it
The architect should have been sued heavily as building such things should not be at the expense at of their neighbors.
Looks like a Gear Shifter knob.
IMO, Prince Charles was right, I have always thought this was an ugly building. A lot of modern architecture doesn't have the craftsmanship, beauty and harmony that lifts our spirits and inspires we the common people.
It's like they get bonuses for weirdness.
Lovely shout-out to Joolz guides there. ❤ Thanks for making and sharing!
Imagine if they'd built it in somewhere like Arizona or Dubai? It would have been lethal!
Same guy made a building in Vegas that melted pool furniture. Maybe he thought the sun worked differently in London?
I lived in London from the 1950s through into the 1980s, and we had some long periods of hot days and sunny days (the summers of 1959 and 1976 come to mind). I guess the architect visits in mid November when the sun rarely makes an appearance for more than a few micro seconds a week.
The fact that the architect did this not once, but *twice* makes me think he had some… ulterior motives
Some very melty ones
I don't know what's worse, them building basically a death beam in the middle of a city, or my highschool dropout brain knowing it was coming when their super high class and expensive education seemingly didn't prepare them for the how the basic functions of light and heat work...
‘I miss maplin’ same….
I heard about this one years ago on history channel, Engineering Disasters. Lots of great engineering fails.
❤Throw some solar panels on it and call it a day😂😂😂 As always well presented😊
Just saying I love your channel mate. No messing around and straight into the story without an irrelevant 10 minute history lesson like some of the others. Breath of fresh air.
If the phrase you were struggling with was "brise soleil", it's pronounced "Breeze so-lay" and it's French for "sun breaker". Hope this helps!
Kudos to the building owner for being so honest and responsible
Nice touch at 7:47- "I miss> maplin". So do I 😞
The Walt Disney Concert Hall has the same issue but with stainless steel panels
The offending cladding on that building was titanium.
This building always reminds me of a slightly dated looking giant PC tower
I've always assumed that's where the guy got the idea from. Gateway and HP had some funky cases back in the early 2000s, so it's not even like it had to be a "gaming" PC to have a weird case.
I would say that the topic for this video was……. BRILLIANT
1:25 A deaf ray?
Only if it melts your ears off!
1:22 😂
Pardon?
The wind tunnel issue has been fatal before! I lived in Bridgewater place in Leeds, which is famous for having killed a man by channeling wind onto a passing lorry, tipping it and crushing him! The engineering solutions have been interesting, the glass shields break almost weekly still to this day!
Awful looking skyscraper is awful, but also melting things, neat!
“On the one hand, she’s not good-looking. On the other, she has a dreadful personality.”
'Fry scraper' was all I needed to read 😂 I really like watching your content! Greetings from a currently wet and windy Antwerp 😁
Cooking an egg is nothing! Wait till they turn it on! Right now the building is in standby mode. You guys don't know but this is for Zombie Apocalypse defense
If anyone is familar with the Toothpick building bordering Central Park in NYC, this guy also designed it. He really made some of the most hated buildings in the world!
stupid modern architects. hate modern buildings. WE MUST RETURN TO THE DAYS OF GLORY
Can't believe that not one person looked at the plans, put 2 & 2 together and asked what direction the building was going to face?
It truly shows how much ridiculous regard people in the business show to architects. A classic case of the Emperor's new clothes.
Anyone lower in the construction food chain knows exactly what Architects will try to get away with and re-designs are always necessary. My Dad was a Civil Engineer/Contracts Manager on large construction projects and he hated Architects with an absolute vehement passion........ with good cause.
Architects work overtime to make their building look stupid. Sometimes an architect really lucks out and the building can also act stupid.
I'm delighted to see older footage of the Space Needle and the monorail in Seattle at the end! The monorail still operates daily and is a quick way to get from Westlake Center to Seattle Center if one is on foot. The skyline is rather more full these days but it's still a neat way to see some things while headed to or from the Space Needle.
iconic skyline? does that mean ugly, because all those buildings are eyesores
Excellent videos as always, and can I just say that I really appreciate you crediting the photos you use in your videos. A very classy touch and something I wish more people would do!
Toasty!
"the walkie talkie building looms over"
such ominous words 😱
5 views, 2 comments in 1 minute?
Hemakinganameforhimeself
I’m a carpenter and once had to replace vinyl siding that had been melted by sunlight reflected off neighbor’s old distorted windows. Went with cement-board. Did the job when it was cool out but even then I could feel the reflected solar heat on my back.
OooooH the old trust worthy excuse of Global Warming...
Seattle's World's Fair! My mom and dad both went to that World's Fair as kids. Western Washington is where my heart is. Part of me wishes I never moved to Oregon. I guess Portland isn't that far but I miss the Salish Sea and Puget Sound. Whenever I see my home state I get so gushy. Great video. Love the death ray. I guess some sun farms do that too. Birds fry in the sky.
OH GOD! I worked on a roof next to a glass building. It doubled how awful the sun was until the sun went down.
We made patanolic reflectors and boiled water with the sun in my highschool physics class.
ISTG the guy that designed these death rays had a compulsion.
Nice clips of vintage Seattle there at the end, especially when they still had the amusement park at the Seattle Center (62 Worlds Fair location). Memories of riding the bubbleator and endless visits to the Science Center in the 70's.
That's pretty cool, but scary at the same time.
If you are interested in another building with issues, look up the Plywood Palace. In the 1970s, John Hancock Insurance Company, not to be outdone by Prudential Insurance, built a new tower in Boston Massachusetts. This much taller building created a wind tunnel that sucked the windows out of the new tower sending a cascade of falling windows to the pavement below. I don't remember if anyone was injured because I was too young to pay attention to such things, but for the longest time, this office tower was covered with patches of plywood until the windows were replaced with something else that wouldn't fall out on to the pedestrians below.
Congratulations professional architect, you built a building that looks like a combo between a giant bluetooth speaker and a trash can that doubles as an energy weapon
What if the architect ultimately wanted to design an energy efficient egg cooker all along? Good architecture does good for the community!