Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness (2022) s01e06 Episode Script

Sixty-six stories
in the air, and I just can't get enough!
Whoo! Easy there.
-That's a big apple.
-It is a big apple.
We're in the Big Apple. I love it here.
The skyscrapers are so gorgeous.
-Don't they just make you feel so alive?
-I love it!
Almost like you're just
on the top of the world!
-Wha-- Whoo-hoo!
-Do you think I could make the Olympics?
Definitely! But you, you might
wanna try this stuff on the ground.
-Uh! Huh! Yes!
Careful there, pally. I don't wanna
have to call the meat wagon for ya.
Just let me do one more move, okay? Uh!
-No!
That's one way to make applesauce.
Heh.
Oh, wow. So many buildings.
That's the Burj Khalifa,
the tallest building
in the whole wide world, in Dubai.
Skyscrapers are so interesting to me.
I grew up in a small town, where
the tallest building was ten stories tall.
So the first time I ever went to
Chicago, I couldn't believe it!
I had my first neck sprain
when I went like this
Just kidding,
I didn't sprain my neck.
There were street after street of
tall, towering, gorgeous buildings.
When I look up
at a skyscraper, I just think,
"What secrets are you hiding?"
How did they get that tall?
And how don't they just fall over
and, like, crash into people all the time?
What are skyscrapers' histories?
How were they designed? Who pays for them?
Who decides how tall they go?
Who decides where they get built?
Does everyone love skyscrapers?
Are they stunning?
Are they not so stunning? Who knows?
I got questions. What I want is answers.
Are skyscrapers huge divas?
Hudson Yards is a
newly-constructed skyscraper community
that literally rests
on top of a subway station.
I'm going to an observation deck
called Edge of Hudson Yards,
because of the unparalleled views.
And as the ever-present student of life,
when I make eyes with my new instructor,
the blazer says "architecture."
The prowess says
"don't ask me stupid questions."
There is no bigger fan,
there is no bigger advocate
of skyscrapers than Carol Willis.
You are a skyline expert,
you're a skyscraper expert,
and I've got a lot to learn.
When were they made?
Why were they made? I need history.
-Terrific.
-Let's go. Come on.
Ooh-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!
-So cool! Ah!
-Wow. Whoa. That's amazing.
Look at this.
That's really the definition of a skyline.
It's verticals
interrupting a horizontal, right?
And here you just really see
everything flat in the distance,
and then all the energy
of the city going straight up.
This is the highest outdoor platform
observation deck
in the Western Hemisphere.
It is just breathtaking.
Oh my gosh, that is so scary.
I didn't see it until now!
-I feel exactly the same way. Yeah.
-You do, right?
I don't
wanna go, I just want to admire it.
We can go right up to an inch or two.
Oh my God. Maybe I'll just do,
like, one model-walk across it?
Do you wanna hold hands
in case it's our last walk?
-Yeah, I don't wanna look down, either.
-Okay.
Oh my God, oh my God,
oh my God. I did look down. Oh my God.
Whoo-hoo hoo hoo!
We did it! That was kind of
a sense of accomplishment.
So, this is New Jersey
that we're looking at.
-Mm-hmm.
-And what's beyond it?
-More New Jersey.
-More New Jersey. Wow.
When skyscrapers
as we think about them
first started being built,
what constituted a skyscraper?
Like, how tall did one have to be
to say, "Oh, you're a skyscraper?"
Yeah, well those
buildings were only ten stories,
but everything else
in the city was four or five stories.
-And why was that?
-Why?
-Because there were no elevators.
-Ah.
Right? So, buildings were only as tall
as people were willing to walk up stairs.
So, buildings got
less valuable at the top
-Oh.
-than they were at the lower levels.
So if you had to, like,
categorize skyscrapers, like,
you know how, like, Spice Girls,
there's like, Sporty, Scary, Ginger Spice.
What are, like, the main
categories of skyscrapers?
They're really ages.
The first era would go to about 1900,
where the buildings are shorter and,
you know, no taller than 30 stories.
They're usually rather square-ish
in this really greedy sort of style
that went straight up from the sidewalk,
and it cast big shadows, especially
to the narrow streets in lower Manhattan.
The next era
Chrysler Building,
the Empire State Building.
is shaped by the zoning law
that was passed in 1916 in, in New York.
It created this kind of pyramid form.
The, um, reformers were trying
to preserve sunlight on the streets.
The next one would be in the post-war era,
the changing technology
of lighter steel frames
-and glass curtain walls.
-And, are we still in that one?
We kind of are in terms of the materials,
because glass is still a favored material.
But there are variations from the 1960s
because the zoning law changes again,
and then it does something really
important for the New York skyline.
Puts it really high in the sky by
making really tall and skinny buildings.
So what are some of your
very favorite skyscrapers?
Well, the, the Empire State Building
is my favorite skyscraper.
It's probably my favorite
building in the whole world too.
-Is it the story of how it came to be?
-Yeah, well, you know,
the Empire State Building
is the building that to me is kind of the
perfect expression
of American enterprise and industry.
The stock market crash was in October 1929
and that's about the time the
building was, started its construction.
It was finished, um, May 1, 1931, so
basically, they spent
only 13 months building that building.
They built
that building in 13 months?
It was the most extraordinary
record of construction management
that had ever been performed, right?
And they were optimistic
that they'd be able to rent it out.
They weren't for a very long time,
so it got the nickname
the Empty State Building.
-Oh.
-Because its,
it didn't become
profitable until the 1950s.
-Wow! Twenty years?
-Um. Yeah.
This is beautiful. I can see why you are
obsessed with skyscrapers and skylines.
Okay, I got a little distracted
because the light is hitting your eyes,
and they're so pretty, your blue eyes
out here, and the next-level
with the sky and your eyes.
Can we do a selfie?
The state of New York.
The state of New Jersey.
Ah!
-The state of euphoria.
Now that I know that elevators ushered
in the era of very tall skyscrapers,
I need to see
how skyscrapers are conceptualized.
How does it all come together?
If I want to get a haircut,
I know to go to a salon.
But if I want to make a skyscraper,
where do I go?
I go to the premier skyscraper
designing place in the world, SOM.
-Are you Chris?
-I am. Chris Cooper.
-So nice to meet you, Chris Cooper.
-Nice to meet you,
and I'm so glad
to have you visit our office.
I am so excited to be here.
It is stunning. I mean, I don't
know how you literally do any work,
'cause I would just be taking selfies
with this natural light, 24/7.
SOM is actually
an architecture engineering office.
Mmm.
We're not just an architecture office,
we're not just an engineering office.
And a skyscraper
is really an engineering feat.
Okay, so picture it.
I have like 17
trillion billion jillion dollars,
and I am coming in and I am,
I'm shopping for my skyscraper,
you know? So then what happens?
Our client comes and says,
"I have an idea."
"I want my building
to look this size, this height."
And then you figure out
how to hold that up,
and you figure out how to structure that.
So you make drawings, renderings.
To design a skyscraper, the marriage
of structure and architecture is critical.
So we put it into the computer,
-we start to see this three-dimensionally.
-Mmm.
And so we start to
give the building real shape and form.
We'll build a model.
And there's nothing
that replaces a physical model.
So you could, right, so you could imagine,
if you put your head here,
what it feels like to
stand in here and look out that window.
We document every piece of the building
and we hand over
a set of instructions, and then
the contractor can do that.
Which is this one?
This tower, this is the same project,
these two towers, which is pretty cool.
And actually, this is the physical model
that's supposed to be what it looks like.
-Yes.
-But this is a testing model.
So when we design skyscrapers,
we're really designing against the wind.
That's the greatest force
that we're fighting against.
And so this is a model
that's built for the wind tunnel.
We blow the wind from different
directions, different orientations--
Oh, it's literally built for a wind tunnel
that you literally
put these in to test it?
That's right. And you can see
here there's, like, the sensors.
-so we can test the wind pressures
-Ah!
on every point of this building.
We love. Ah!
-Hello, I'm Ken Lewis. Nice to meet you.
-Hello. Nice to meet you, Ken.
Ken is a managing partner,
so Ken's the strategist.
Yes.
A skyscraper has
so many factors that go into it,
-and there are so many voices.
-Yes.
And so,
managing those voices, that's this guy.
Ken Lewis is a part
of the team that created
the world's
tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.
And also One World Trade Center.
Wow!
We were actually
working with the owner of the site
from October 16th of 2001,
-a month after 9/11. We started working.
-October 16, 2001.
He called everybody in for,
to a meeting,
and said, "I'd like you
to start thinking about this."
And we-- everybody was a little bit like,
"Maybe we ought to wait a while."
And he said, "It's so
important that we get going on this
because everybody's looking to us."
It's New York.
We had to get back. We had to get going.
I just would think that
designing in that time would have been
just rife with so much emotion
for so many people, and navigating that--
How do you embody all of those
emotions and conditions into a building?
There's, you know, a certain simplicity,
a certain dignity that you're trying
-to put into the form of the building.
-Yeah.
The building can have a, a proud
stature, but also recognizes the sadness.
The most important things about
this building were its memory elements.
It really is a symbol about 9/11.
The trade centers were always
the tallest building in New York,
and it was
to put back the tallest building.
There's even pieces of the old
World Trade Center that are underneath
and included in the building.
Oh, that's really amaze.
And I don't know if you came into
the city as a kid, at the end of the day,
and the corners of the Trade Center,
they were at a 45-degree angle.
And the sun would catch them.
You would see the lines of the light,
and it would stand out
against the whole skyline.
-Ah.
-And so today,
not only the corners light up,
but as you see here
that you and I are looking at it,
-that-- Exactly.
-You doubled your glimmer lines. Aw.
When you were saying, "If you've ever
come to the city as a kid--"
I, unfortunately, my first time
in Manhattan, hold onto your seats,
was at 29 years old in 2015.
So I was in
a 9th-grade classroom in rural America
on the morning of September 11th.
I, like, it's a morning I'll never,
-ever forget.
-Everybody--
And, and, I mean, I have
chills from, you know, wrist to wrist,
you know, over my back, thinking about
just what this means
for the history of our country.
And it's really just beautiful.
It's just such incredible work.
-Let's get some work done.
-I am so ready.
Being in the company of all this
architectural prowess makes me wonder,
do I have what it takes to be
an architectural creative genius?
So here's the thing,
I want to build a gigantic center
for LGBTQ people who
don't understand architecture good.
It's a Zoolander reference.
I want it to be really kind of
playful. I want it to scream, "shapes!"
Like, can it be, like, a circle
with a thick, like, you know, like,
several things on top.
Triangles and rainbows.
-Plural shapes, not singular shapes.
-Shapes, I don't-- Yes exactly.
Is it too literal to have
our building feel like a giant rainbow?
Can it be a double rainbow?
Double rainbow!
This is
a figure skating center.
These are triangle bases, maybe, for our
rainbow, because we really like triangles.
So it might even be that the, that
the plan of the building is a triangle.
Ooh! You really got my essence
for the LGBTQ Center for People
That Don't Understand Architecture Good.
We're gonna get it into the computer,
and then model this next piece.
What do you need, about twenty minutes?
I'll wait in the lobby?
-No problem.
-Okay, great!
Ooh.
Oh my Gosh, that's tall.
Ooh, pretty!
Even taller!
Ah!
Just a little
tiny bit taller, but still very tall.
Two thousand? But-- to-- 20--
Now that I understand architecture good,
I need to get my glamour-puss,
non-binary self on the ground
at a construction site.
I need to hear the clangs.
I need to see the steel beams.
I need to see the bones of these
skyscrapers being built in real life.
How do you keep the people safe?
How do you source your materials
for these steel building behemoths
that are skyscrapers?
This building is
going to be 60 stories tall.
-Sixty stories?
-But it starts all at the base, right?
-How far deep down does it go?
-It doesn't go very deep down,
but the rock in Manhattan
is actually really, really tough.
You know a little soup can?
Imagine an elephant standing on it.
On one leg, on a little soup can,
and the soup can doesn't get crushed.
-Oh, so that's how strong our rocks are.
-That's, that's how strong--
Why, is it 'cause they used to come from
volcanoes? Like, why is it so strong?
It's, it's a granite formation.
-Ooh, yes, granite.
-And that's one of the reasons
why Manhattan has
this many tall buildings.
It is the perfect place
to build tall buildings.
Because all you have is
really hard rock underneath.
Yes, really hard rock, thank you!
We are constructing,
we are building stuff.
Let's continue to learn!
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!
This is the "foundacion"?
-Not really.
-I'm nervous and excited.
I feel like we're gonna get in trouble,
but I'm with the principal, so it's okay.
Look at all these trains.
I have always wanted
to get on one of these elevators.
That's what we're gonna do
right now.
Yay! I'm scared, go first.
We're gonna stand here,
and then there's going to be
the operator, who's going
to be operating this, this--
-So we don't press the buttons ourselves?
-We cannot.
Ah. Ah. Wow.
All of the stuff you see here
is structured steel
that's holding up the building.
Wow.
-And, this is really, like, the core.
-Correct.
And you see these bolts?
They look small to you?
That's what holds
all of the steel together.
That's one bolt.
Wow.
And there's almost half a million bolts
-eventually in this building.
-Wow! Ah!
Yeah. Exactly.
You could do that.
It's great. Here you go.
Going up!
This is Roger.
He's the general superintendent on site.
How many people
does it take to build a skyscraper?
So, at our height, once we're building,
we'll have around
600, 650 workers on a daily basis.
Wow, it's a lot to coordinate.
Do people have to, like, harness in if
they'll be on a steel thing by the edge?
They do. If they're by the
edge everyone has a harness
or, and a high line that they attach to,
and also in the elevator shaft.
But I get
very scared of heights.
-Oh, okay.
-I had a lot of anxiety in that elevator.
You do? You can see outside.
-Yeah.
-It's pretty exhilarating.
You like that feeling?
-I do, actually, yeah.
-Wow.
My private parts are tingling with
fear just thinking about that feeling.
You've seen buildings
get taller and taller during your career.
Absolutely, yes.
What do you think the tallest building
you'll see worked on in Manhattan will be?
I, I think the sky's the limit.
You're sitting on a rock, right?
The taller you want to go, it's possible.
It is possible.
You pay more for the
upper floors, 'cause the view is better
-Right.
-right? So
As high as you're allowed, you'll
build high as long as someone will pay.
We are building higher,
skinnier, taller, faster than ever before.
But I want to know,
what is the price tag that the Earth pays
for our newer, taller,
glassier skyscrapers?
What's glass made of and,
like, where does it come from?
So the glass
is actually coming from sand.
Some of this glass you see
comes from halfway around the world.
From China, from Mexico.
That glass is
a single piece of glass, which is--
-Goes all the way up to that line?
-All the way up, a single piece of glass
in the back, which is 42 feet in height.
How much sand did that
take to make, do you think?
That I don't know.
I, I'd worry about sand, because
you just cannot keep digging and
taking out materials from Mother Earth.
While skyscrapers
are a lot to take in,
they also take up
a lot of raw materials.
The glass is transparent,
but it's not super transparent
exactly what is going on to the Earth.
But then there's also concrete.
You only have a finite amount of material
to make big, big buildings, right?
Yeah. Are structural
engineers starting to think about it?
It's on everybody's mind,
and that's what we have to aim for.
A building like this is going to be
designed for a hundred, two hundred years.
Next time you get into a skyscraper,
just think about all
that went into making it stand.
I will!
Thank you so much. You are so smart,
and also I'm really proud of myself
'cause I made it
through an entire interview
without complimenting you
physically, but now I'm gonna break it.
Your eyebrows are so fucking perfect,
and I love the shape of them.
Because it's your signature,
and it's gorgeous.
-Love you to pieces, bye.
-Love you.
There are just buildings
jutting up everywhere, and it's clear.
It takes so much vision, organization,
and human ingenuity to create skyscrapers.
And, for some, they can be
amazing money-making opportunities.
But at what point
do we have enough skyscrapers,
and how do they impact
the people's lives who live
around these gigantic construction sites?
Are they benefitting everyone? Or not?
-Ah! Paula, so nice to meet you.
-Hi!
So nice to meet you.
You work with TakeRoot Justice.
Yeah, I'm an attorney
at TakeRoot Justice. We--
You're an attorney, which I object!
I don't m-- I just, whenever I talk to
attorneys I just want to say that,
I can't help it.
That's the Elle Woods in me.
I don't know what my problem is,
I think it's all the way worked out now.
What distinguishes us
from other legal service organizations
is we're not just lawyers.
We're movement lawyers.
We're looking for where having
an attorney and making a legal argument
is gonna strengthen a social movement.
And the reason we're here
is because skyscrapers
-Yes!
-some for-profit,
speculator-driven developers
would like to add four more right here.
So a
speculator-driven developer
is someone who wants to, like--
is that like a Kushner, honey?
It's like a Kushner.
It's like somebody who sees
real estate as a way to make money.
And who sees
a building like that as a bank.
Folks ask, "Who lives there?"
Mostly nobody.
-So nobody lives there, really?
-Mostly nobody.
So the future for this neighborhood
is a site of conflict right now.
About 3,000 units, mostly unregulated.
So luxury, sell 'em
at whatever price you want,
and it would absolutely
destroy the fabric of this neighborhood.
There would be more
wealthy people than there are the current
low- and middle-income
residents of the neighborhood.
It's like this is the intersection
of the future of Manhattan,
and this is what you're fighting for.
Yep, this is it. So,
you're like, I'm gonna tear up.
-I know, I--
-It's gonna happen!
No, I mean, I, it's good,
I mean, I feel it too.
For some people, it's a money-making
thing and for other folks it's
Yeah.
your right to be where you've been.
I'm really excited
for you to meet a couple people
from the organizations that we work with.
In a perfect world,
which we obviously aren't in,
is this butt-kicking
Charlie's Angels-like crew of advocacy,
what do you hope the future holds
in the Two Bridges neighborhood?
I look at it as,
as responsible development.
We can do that in a city.
This one block is beautiful.
It has a little coffee shop.
-Some little stores.
-Beautiful.
We're not saying, "No,"
to new people moving in.
We just wanna make sure we
keep the same type of neighborhood
so that the people
who live there can stay there.
When we think about the impact of
2,000-something luxury units coming here,
people with all this money,
the whole neighborhood will change.
Businesses will change, but also
who gets to belong here will change.
We've already seen
that in the past few decades.
I don't want to be forced to move
because four super towers are going up,
which will change the complete
character of the neighborhood,
it will change the little shops that we
go to, which makes me feel like it's home,
and I don't wanna lose my home.
Once you realize that
these buildings are coming up,
then we come together,
like, so did we beat 'em?
Like, did we get that gorgeous part in
Erin Brockovich, where it's like, "PG&E,
you owe us a bajillion dollars,
and no you cannot do the towers."
-We beat 'em once. We beat 'em--
-We're still in the middle.
Yeah, we're still in the middle.
This is not over. Uh, no one has won.
I think we need to ask ourselves
what we'd like this city to look like
ten years from now. Do we want to keep
our beautiful tenement buildings,
or do we want a, a bunch of super-talls?
I think there are 16,000 empty
apartments right now in New York City.
And is that what we want?
Or do we want neighborhoods?
Mm-hmm. There's more empty apartments
than homeless people in New York City.
And that's been the case
for a very long time.
My stepdad always used to say,
"If you like what you got,
then don't change anything,
but if you don't like what you got,
you gotta fight for it." And
thank you, thank you, thank you.
You don't get a skyscraper!
You don't get a skyscraper!
You don't get a skyscraper!
Nobody is saying
no skyscrapers ever again,
they're really saying that there has to
be meaningful community involvement
when it comes to new developments.
There has to be a diverse group of people
from the community in the room
where these decisions are being made,
around how these
skyscrapers will be built.
And what we need to do more of,
when it comes to matters of housing,
is doing the right thing.
Hello!
-Hello sweetie!
-Come, come, come!
Could this be the LGBTQ Center for People
That Don't Understand Architecture Good?
-It is.
-Oh my God. Let's go.
Growing up in a small
Midwestern city that has no skyscrapers,
I always marveled
at the beauty and ingenuity
of what skyscrapers and skylines created.
But I didn't comprehend
what goes into designing,
constructing, and sustaining skyscrapers.
They're a ginormous subject.
Nathan, do you
think it's quite "Derelicte" where
the Center for LGBTQ People Who Don't
Understand Architecture Good is placed?
Yes.
As a kid, I always associated
skyscrapers with freedom of expression.
As an adult, I've traveled the world.
I've seen skyscrapers in Tokyo,
I've seen skyscrapers in Manhattan,
I've seen skyscrapers in Sydney.
I never realized what
this race to the top really created
for the people living
in these urban centers.
It is clear that
skyscrapers aren't going anywhere.
And we love a skyscraper!
They can be beautiful.
But we need to make sure that skyscrapers
are contributing to the communities
that they become a part of.
Nathan,
I can't believe your holy hands
are about to literally reveal
the LGBTQ Center for People Who
Don't Understand Architecture Good.
-Et voilà!
Yay!
-Honestly, she's beautiful.
-Isn't it gorgeous?
But an architecture center
for LGBTQ people
that don't understand architecture good
would have to be at least
three times this size!
First day on the job, kid?
It is.
I never get,
I never get comfortable up here.
You're really blowin' my wig, here.
-Hey, hey, you see?
I'm all over the map here, see?
Oh God, my lunch!
Aces. That was a cool move.
Watch your getaway sticks, there.
-Careful there, pally.
-Yes!
Huh.
Yes!