- Doctors are actually very lucky
in comparison to architects,
'cause if a doctor makes a mistake,
he or she gets to bury it,
where if an architect makes a mistake,
it's on display for the world to see.
(sparkling jazz music)
My name is Philip Youakim,
and I'm an architect.
Most of my career,
I've designed hospitality,
so hotels, nightclubs, restaurants.
I spent a lot of time in the commercial workplace,
so those are all around the world.
I have so much unbuilt work that's all around the universe.
Most of what an architect does,
unfortunately never makes it into fruition.
Today, I'm gonna build a skyscraper,
without instructions, from scratch,
out of Legos.
I'm assuming I'm not gonna have to be
very particular with colors
because there's not enough of one specific color
to make it true to whatever building it becomes.
So now let's find out what we're building.
I don't know what I'm gonna get.
I'm obviously hoping it's not the Guggenheim
or the Opera House or something.
(drum roll music)
The Empire State Building,
that should be easy enough, so I say now.
So the good news about the Empire State Building,
I know quite a bit about it
because for a long period in modern architectural history,
it was the tallest building in the world.
The Empire State Building took it, I believe,
from the Chrysler Building.
Otherwise, it's a pretty typical tower of the time.
It cascades back from the street
to try to not overshadow the street too much,
because people were terrified of these towers going up
and blocking their views of the sky.
I mean, it's a New Yorker.
The tower is, it's got attitude,
it's got style, it's bold.
I prefer the Chrysler building
just because of the detailing on its top.
But the Empire State Building has some detail which,
because of its scale, you can't see as easily.
So I've been given one hour (alarm clock ticking)
to build this.
Let's see what I can come up with.
So the Empire State Building has a pedestal base,
so a big block that exists on the street level.
And what's interesting is on its front and back facades,
it has these indents on the tower portion.
If I can get that level of detail
in building it out of Legos,
I think it would be enormously successful.
I think also why it's important that we started planning,
I'm not sure if we're gonna have enough of the right pieces
to build this in its full scale.
(speaking quickly)
So if we assign this as x,
(speaking quickly)
this is number three, let's call that 4x.
(speaking quickly)
Our tower component,
(alarm clock ticking)
(bell dings) I imagine it's
probably like a two.
I think that's the plan,
plus that little tower off the end there.
This is much more daunting now.
I think I need to make a mess.
I need to be able to see what we have.
These eyes will be very helpful.
So I'm gonna try to pull out the larger pieces
which I think will be significant for the base.
And then maybe I'll start pulling out
into a separate section these mid-sized bricks.
If we were gonna doing the Chrysler building,
we could use these as the gargoyles.
But, we didn't get it.
Every time one building would add some new height to it,
the other one would
go and redraw their plans mid-construction
and add more height as well.
And the Chrysler Building actually built its antenna
on the top of the tower
within the building and at the very last minute
pulled it out.
Much like the others,
the Empire State Building then, as it was mid-construction,
decided to add some more height
and build its tower on top.
I mean, this is exciting.
It might ruin my career if I can't produce anything.
Otherwise, maybe I'll get a job as a Lego master builder.
Oh, we're gonna make a mess.
I'm gonna have to reclaim the workspace eventually.
I think this scale is gonna be very off
from what I initially thought,
because if this becomes our x,
I mean, maybe two of these would be nice as an x.
Again, I don't have much time to think too much about it.
Let's start with this for our pedestal
and see how we go on from there.
(playful music)
Yeah, that's not gonna be thick enough.
(playful music)
I'm gonna offset that for stability
even though it sacrifices one of my smaller blocks.
So I think that's all I can afford to put
for the pedestal base,
but I would have liked it thicker than that.
I mean, it would be horrible to through to the top
and have the whole thing collapse,
both in life and in Lego.
I think that's as good as it's gonna get.
(alarm clock ticking) I'm thinking
maybe I skip this section,
try to build this central tower and assess then.
The most important feature
to get right (playful violin music)
is probably the height.
If it ends up looking about this short,
I don't think it will feel like
it represents the actual Empire State Building.
It very quickly turned into a stressful experience,
mostly because of the time restraint.
It's still fun.
I mean, I'm not complaining that I have to play with Lego
and build the damn thing.
My perfectionism wants to have this piece fit here and here.
I don't see any others,
so I'm considering snapping this in half.
And for structural sake, it has to happen.
No, no, it snaps.
That was a little anticlimactic.
I was hoping for a big (imitates snapping sound).
You do sound effects, right?
(dramatic organ music) (Lego crunches)
(Lego crunches)
Now, I think I have to keep it hollow
so I can preserve the bricks for later.
I have a feeling
I'm just gonna have to conceal this at the back.
We just added some new window penetrations to the facade
of one of the most historic buildings of all time.
I think the architect was named Lamb.
He's probably rolling over in his grave somewhere,
unless he was cremated,
then he's blowing in the wind somewhere.
(upbeat music)
I'm getting closer.
Any project is visually developed
as per the restraints of either the site or the budget,
and I think this is no different
that we're having some budgetary restraints.
I think Empire State was one of the few buildings
that actually was under budget
and finished ahead of schedule.
I think this took them one year to build,
just over a year,
it was a year and a month.
That's unheard of nowadays.
It takes a year to change a light bulb.
It still needs to be at least triple what I have there
and then the tower can go on top.
Oh, those would be great as the wings
that are on top of antenna.
Pick up some Lego and you all of a sudden do feel younger.
(upbeat music)
I am being flooded
with childhood memories of trying to find the right brick
for the right purpose.
I forgot what that was like until this very moment.
So as an update, I feel like I need still
another three or four, at least,
layers on top of this tower.
Nothing to say for the back,
I'm gonna probably keep that empty
so I can make sure I have enough
to get to the overall form I'm looking for.
We're definitely getting a little more creative
in the use of these pieces,
which is the whole point of Lego, isn't it?
Number one, the digging,
number two, the imagination.
As long as I have one flat side,
it doesn't matter what it looks like on the inside,
so that's what we're going for now.
No one's gonna see the inside.
We'll make that the interior designer's problem.
(energetic music)
There we go again.
I tried to fix one of the holes in the back,
and now I have some structural problems.
I'm only an architect,
I'm having to fix the structure,
that's the engineer's job.
I need that piece.
We talked about it being a place of worship.
It's holy.
I think this might be our last level
on the second block here, oops.
I need that one.
I think we're getting there.
- [Producer] Ten minutes left. (alarm clock ticking)
- Okay, it would really help if it wasn't
one of the most recognized buildings in the world,
'cause everyone will know it's wrong.
I hope this doesn't click.
Oh, it's not in the right position (laughs).
How much time do I have left?
- [Producer] Six minutes.
- Oh, let's see if we can do some troubleshooting here.
So that tire works perfectly for the observation deck.
It's actually now a revolving restaurant.
That might be it.
- [Producer] You got it?
I think so.
I think I'm content with that.
I think I got it.
I mean, it's not perfect but.
There is something off in the scale
which I'm not working out what it is yet.
Maybe it's the tower's too high.
I wonder why.
- [Producer] You still have four minutes!
- Oh, well now I want to do an indent here.
I'm not sure if that's a wise thing to start on.
I'm gonna do it.
I'm gonna try to fix the bottom.
This should hopefully all come off in one piece.
- [Producer] You're taking the whole thing out?
- Just this part, I have to.
The perfection is coming out. (alarm clock ticking)
No, that's the middle part.
What have I done? (laughs)
Reverse this and this, aah!
I think I'm regretting this decision.
- [Producer] 45 seconds left.
Okay, now isn't the time to choose the color you prefer.
- Ten, - Okay.
- [Producer] Nine,
eight,
seven,
six,
five,
four,
three,
two,
one.
Time.
(audience cheering) - [Audience] Hooray!
- We're good?
I'm very happy I decided to redo this indent at the front.
I think it makes a big difference.
I think that was a lot harder than I expected.
And the terraces, we kept to the front one quite well,
but I think they exist all around the building,
so we are missing those.
We're honest here, you can see all the holes
that were carelessly left behind as we went up the tower.
At first, I was thinking this would be easy.
I'm a professional, I can do this.
Then when the bricks came out,
I was like, "I'm never gonna find what I want here."
And I think there was like this constant torment
that this is going horribly.
This is going great.
This is going horribly,
which I think perfectly echos
the design process.
One minute, you think you're on track,
and then all of a sudden, you're like,
"I'm the worst person in the world.
This will never work."
When you build something, an actual building,
it usually outlasts the architect.
So you don't have to deal with
the prospect of it being destroyed in front of you.
I know this is gonna come apart soon,
and I'm a little heartbroken about that.
You were all hoping it would smash apart then,
weren't you?
I know you were.
If I got any facts wrong
or if I insulted anyone by breaking apart pieces,
please let me know in the comments below,
and I'll happily ignore those ones.
Otherwise, this was a lot of fun.
We can hopefully do this again soon.
(light jazz music)