- This building isn't real. None of these are.
Around the world there are dozens of buildings
that look ordinary on the outside,
but hide a secret behind locked doors
and blacked-out windows.
There's like a little gated area here,
so I'm gonna try and just look.
So I rounded up my friends. - What?
- To figure out what's inside and why they exist.
- So, one of these buildings is not real,
but I can't figure out which one that is.
- But first, I wanna thank Native
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Now, let's get back to the video
knowing that I just smelled incredible the entire time.
I always thought fake buildings were an urban legend,
you know, something neighborhood kids say
to explain that house on the block
whose lights never turn on,
just adding some spice to the suburbs.
I basically forgot all about it
until I was scrolling on the internet one day
and I saw this photo.
It might not look like it, but this is an oil rig,
and I thought, no way, that can't be true.
Otherwise, everyone would know about it, right?
So I spent the next few days digging deeper
and learning that not only are fake buildings real,
they are way more common than you might expect.
(tube pops) (paper rustling)
It's not just LA, there's New York, Paris, Toronto.
I'm in Toronto and I have never heard of this,
so I gotta get a closer look.
(cellphone ringing)
- Yo, what's up? - What?
- Could I ask you a favor?
- Sure, I'm so tiny.
- Am I legally obligated to say yes?
- (laughs) Yes. - Fine.
- You're going to New York, right?
- Yes, for the pizza video.
- Nice, while you're there,
could you go to the buildings
that I am sending you right now?
- Okay, are they safe?
- This is not in my country.
- Yeah, it's like Paris, which is like, what,
a two-minute walk from the UK?
- Please. - So you're gonna go?
- Fine. - Nice.
- Yeah. - Sick. Thank you.
That's two. We got them. - [Taha] Okay. But what I-
- I'm hanging up now. Bye.
Now, while those two do that, I'm gonna explore Toronto.
- [Announcer] Once the seatbelt sign has been turned off.
- Okay, so I am currently in a, like a town square
and one of these buildings is not real
but I can't figure out which one that is, so...
Oh, okay, yeah, I've just seen it.
- Okay, it's probably at this point that I should explain
what I mean by fake buildings.
Like what are we looking at?
These buildings are not designed to mimic the architecture
of a different place, nor are they empty shells
for movie sets.
These buildings are different.
What we've got here is probably best described
by the photographer Robin Collier when he said
that buildings like these ones are forms
pretending to be something other than their function.
The form is usually made to blend into the surroundings,
to look like any other apartment in the city
or house in a neighborhood.
- [Melissa] This safe?
What if somebody lives here?
Okay, I found the right house.
- This is legitimately not scripted,
but I just walked past the fake building.
What I was getting confused by was
this is all apartment buildings and then this right here,
you can kind of see that this is all fake.
- [Sabrina] But not all fake buildings are that convincing.
- I don't know what to tell you.
Well, this is underwhelming.
It just exists.
- But all these buildings exist so that the function,
whatever is inside doesn't disrupt the visual atmosphere.
So what's inside?
It all starts with the sign on the door.
High voltage, keep out.
There's like a little gated area here.
So I'm gonna try and just look.
Okay, can I just, woo, sick.
This is an electrical substation
and it's the only thing inside this house.
Holy shit.
This is what it looks like when it's not in a fake house.
Basically, it transforms electricity
from the really dangerous high voltage energy
generated in a power station
to something you can safely use in your home.
But it's not just Toronto.
There are plenty of places with hidden substations
- And this is a fake building.
It is actually an electrical transformer
and you can tell it's a transformer
because there are a bunch of you will be electrocuted
and die signs on the one door
that lets you into the building.
Other than that, it is basically just a wall.
- [Sabrina] However, fake buildings disguise more
than just substations, there are those oil rigs in LA,
cell phone towers and church steeples,
a nuclear bunker in an Essex cottage,
a pump station in North Carolina and in high density places
with tunnels for cars or trains,
there are disguised ventilation shafts.
- On the map, this building doesn't actually have a roof.
It's just a massive hole.
- [Melissa] So this place was gutted by New York's IRT
in the 19 hundreds to bring fresh air into the subway system
to avoid carbon monoxide buildup
and to serve as an emergency exit.
- So that is what fake buildings are usually hiding.
But why do these things need to be hidden
in the first place?
I figured it was a safety measure to prevent
curious urbanites from accidentally electrocuting themselves
or falling down a ventilation shaft.
But it turns out the actual answer is hard to find
because I don't think we were supposed to care this much.
Fake buildings are basically just gift wrapping on a box,
icing on a cake, like we discovered,
the important thing is what's inside.
A result of this is that there doesn't seem to be a lot
of energy put into documenting the story of the outside,
which makes my question of why make very realistic
fake buildings very hard to answer.
So I decided to try and start at the beginning
and look into the history of fake buildings nearby.
Okay, so I think I might have something.
Back in the 19 hundreds when electricity
was really new and exciting, they put these substations
in these really grandiose buildings.
This was around the same time
that that dude was building this castle
in Toronto before he bankrupted himself.
But the good times can't last forever.
And World War II rolls around, not good, famously.
Economic hardship rationing comes into play
and a bunch of people are moving towards the city
to work in manufacturing,
rapidly forming a bunch of suburbs.
And what do they need?
Ah, I wish I had like an animation.
Can I?
Ooh, I got it.
But what do they need?
Electricity!
So Toronto's power company is faced with a situation
where they need a bunch more substations
in residential areas and they need to be cheap to make.
What do they do?
Well, I found this blog post, specifically,
I found this comment under the blog post.
It says that their mother says that their grandfather,
Harold Bodwell was tasked with designing substations
to fit in, so he chose houses, genius,
but can we trust a comment?
We gotta corroborate.
So I found this other article
that also credits Harold Bodwell.
Unfortunately, in the very next sentence,
they misspell his name, red flag, but we persist.
So I go into Toronto's archive of city directory,
slip back to the early 19 hundreds, and who do I find,
but a draftsman named Harold A. Bodwell.
So his middle name starts with an A.
What can we do with that?
Except go to the Bodwell family homepage.
It is an online family tree for all North Americans
with the last name Bodwell, is your last name Bodwell?
You're probably on this.
And who do I find except for Harold Alfonso Bodwell.
And he has a kid, Marion Colton, who in 1937
marries Richard Reed Smith and their child
could be none other than MSS Smith.
I don't know what this proves.
I just know that I spent the last two days
putting it together.
I think the thing that's bothering me
is the fact that these are electricity services,
transit systems, oil companies.
They are not known for caring a lot about their impacts
on the environment.
So why do it?
Why are they covering up their infrastructure
in fake buildings that are so realistic
that you might walk by and never notice?
So I tried to look at more modern sources
and watch webinars and town halls.
Double speed playback was human's most important invention.
I spread my research out to other countries.
(speaking French)
I don't speak French.
I also realize that the UK has fake buildings
and Taha did not need to go to Paris.
- My lawyer will be in contacts.
(laughing)
- This fuck.
So I think I have an answer or a theory.
Two theories, theory one starts in a neighborhood
with a need like power, ventilation or sewage.
The kind of utility infrastructure that overall
improves lives but can negatively impact
its immediate neighbors, leading to the nickname
NIMBY facilities or not in my backyard.
The arguments against these facilities
are usually based in lifestyle and investment conflicts.
With residents fearing the loss of neighborhood resources,
potential danger and other consequences
that not only make living in a community less pleasant,
they can also harm property value,
which alienates people who see housing as an investment
instead of a human right.
I understand a lot of these concerns, but sometimes,
it's just straight up whack.
Listen to this dude talk about a parking lot.
- [Person] This parking lot is a hub,
it's the heart of a community.
- It's the hub.
Now here's him talking about unhoused people.
- [Person] To increase the population density here
with 64 units of people going through the most troubling,
difficult times of their lives,
this may not be the appropriate place to do it.
- Unaffordable house, but motives aside,
people with NIMBY mentalities can be incredibly influential
in North American urban design.
It's because they tend to participate more
in local politics, which informs things like zoning laws.
So theory one is that developers with essential projects
will cover them in incredibly realistic fake houses
just to protect the property value
and lifestyles of people with NIMBY mentalities.
Bummer.
But what about theory two?
What about this?
What an undisguised substation actually looks like.
There's a bunch of metal rods
and signs that promise they will kill you.
Imagine if that was your neighbor.
So theory two for why we have fake buildings
is just good urban design.
Our environment can impact our health
simply by how it's designed.
It influences our sense of safety
and the way we socialize.
Aesthetic justice theorizes that just like clean air
and access to education, well designed environments
are also a social good,
one that can improve our quality of life.
If that's true, then it just makes sense to approach
designing the form with as much thoughtfulness
as we do the function.
Because a substation that powers the neighborhood
can also make the person next door feel anxious.
It's just a bit scary.
And a ventilation shaft that clears the air
can become the center of mysteries and conspiracies.
So theory two is that designers recognize
that good function can't exist without good form
and they decided that the best form may sometimes
be one that fits in into the hearts of cities
or quiet suburbs all around the world.
Unremarkable until you take a closer look.
Except for this building.