The Windowless Skyscraper Conspiracy

Join me, an architecture professor from Chicago, as we uncover the secrets behind windowless skyscrapers. These structures, often overlooked and misunderstood, play a mysterious role in our urban landscape. In this video we explore the hidden purposes and intriguing stories of these architectural anomalies.

__What's Inside These Monoliths?__
We start our journey in Chicago, looking at a massive, windowless concrete structure that could withstand a nuclear blast. This building, along with others in major U.S. cities like Atlanta, Dallas, San Francisco, Seattle, and New York, is part of a network that's shrouded in mystery and speculation.

__Surveillance and Secrecy__
These structures, implicated by figures like Edward Snowden and investigations by 'The Intercept,' are believed to be hubs in a vast surveillance infrastructure, connected to the NSA's FAIRVIEW program. But what's the truth behind these claims?

__Architectural Deep Dive__
We'll examine buildings like 10 S Canal in Chicago and 33 Thomas St. in New York, both in their design and function. Discover why these buildings, with their dense structural grids and lack of windows, are architectural anomalies. We'll explore their history, dating back to the Cold War era, and their evolution into today's high-tech surveillance hubs.

__Uncovering the Unseen__
Through a blend of historical context, architectural analysis, and a touch of humor, we'll unravel the stories these buildings tell about surveillance, privacy, and power in our society. From their origins as telecommunications hubs to their current role in the digital age, these structures challenge our understanding of architecture and its unseen impact on our daily lives.

__A Thought-Provoking Conclusion__
As we walk past these buildings in our daily lives, they stand as silent, yet powerful reminders of the complex interplay between technology, privacy, and architecture. Join me in uncovering the secrets of the architecture of the unseen, and ponder the implications of living in a world where the surveillance state never rests.

__CREDITS__
Video co-produced and edited by Evan Montgomery.
Stock video and imagery provided by Getty Images, Storyblocks, and Shutterstock.
Music provided by Epidemic Sound

#Architecture #Surveillance #UrbanMystery

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__About the Channel__
Architecture with Stewart is a YouTube journey exploring architecture’s deep and enduring stories in all their bewildering glory. Weekly videos and occasional live events breakdown a wide range of topics related to the built environment in order to increase their general understanding and advocate their importance in shaping the world we inhabit.

__About Me__
Stewart Hicks is an architectural design educator that leads studios and lecture courses as an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He also serves as an Associate Dean in the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts and is the co-founder of the practice Design With Company. His work has earned awards such as the Architecture Record Design Vanguard Award or the Young Architect’s Forum Award and has been featured in exhibitions such as the Chicago Architecture Biennial and Design Miami, as well as at the V&A Museum and Tate Modern in London. His writings can be found in the co-authored book Misguided Tactics for Propriety Calibration, published with the Graham Foundation, as well as essays in MONU magazine, the AIA Journal Manifest, Log, bracket, and the guest-edited issue of MAS Context on the topic of character architecture.

__Contact__
FOLLOW me on instagram: @stewart_hicks & @designwithco

#architecture #urbandesign

[DJTI]

I've actually been in the 33 Thomas Street building in Manhattan in the summer of 2000. I used to work for Priceline and they had a data center there. Being in a building that big with no windows is creepy as hell.

[thedudeabides]

You have to love the sheer audacity of a surveillance building being called “Fair View”.

[skyblueo]

33 Thomas Street used to be called the Long Lines Building. I used to walk by it and see the staff hanging out in the sunlight during their lunch times. It was said that working in a building that had no windows made the staff go a little crazy. My friends and I used to call it the Ministry of Love, or the Ministry of Truth, from Orwell's novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. Looks like we weren't far off regarding some of its purposes.

[HazenMire]

Many years ago I did inspection of construction work in 33 Thomas, and 811 Tenth ave (another lesser known monolithic Telecom building with no windows on the west side of NYC), on a dozen or so floors. They're both floors and floors of server rooms and telecom equipment. A couple floors for multiple generator rooms, fuel tanks in the cellars, and other areas for various types of equipment, like batteries, HVAC systems, etc.
The scariest thing about these buildings in my time within them was the just how few people are inside of them. I'd be walking around a floor for an hour or more, checking fire rated walls, piping, ducts, etc, and I'd be the only person on the floor. Rarely saw anyone coming through the lobbies aside from the security staff. Elevators were always empty. There were some times I'd be on a floor with 2 or 3 other people checking connections at servers or on computer terminals. But they're really like ghost buildings. Just the constant humming and hissing of equipment and air blowing through fans and ductwork.

[jasonsmith]

I did a big job in Tacoma, WA for Chase around 2008 in one of their large buildings. I was taken way underground where their network racks were and in there was a fallout shelter with a Kennedy plaque above the huge vault door. Inside were diesel generators, little open cell like rooms with cut outs in the concrete for mattresses, and storage. There was this massive hole in the wall....a tunnel. The old guy that ran the building said that back in the day, all of your major bank HQ's were in Tacoma and that tunnel linked to the other banks. During the Cold War, our gov wanted to preserve the bank executives and upper-tier citizen in case something happened. I have tons of pictures as I was a surveyor. It was pretty wild to see an actual fallout shelter...and it was in excellent working condition. He said the old generators would still work after all those years.

[njshore]

In 1975 I was an Architecture student at Brooklyn Tech HS and my pencil drawings of 33 Thomas were used as the foundation for my senior project on modern architecture. Wow you have brought me back.
It is also interesting how the "times" shape perception. Back then we did not think of spying, we thought of surviving the big one and seeing these types of buildings gave us strength, not fear.
Enjoy you content!

[jwschu]

I work in these AT&T data centers including 10 S Canal. The creepiest part is most of these buildings are completely empty of humans but full of running equipment like one big dark breathing machine. Even at Canal those office spaces are completely uninhabited and it looks like in the 90s all the employees just decided to get up and walk out one day.

[LargelyNonsense_]

33 Thomas St was also the inspiration for "The Oldest House" in the game Control (2019). Its in-game address is even a direct reference - 34 Thomas St.

[bigboicreme]

Dropped this video 3 months before the ATT NETWORK DEBACLE

[jeffm]

I really liked Control's rendition of 33 Thomas. Exploring inside of "The Oldest House" felt endless. Each level was like entering a door from Monsters inc.

[davidbalcon]

You can find these structures in the city centre of most major cities as this is how the early telephone system was structured as wires ran in/out to link telephones in businesses and homes. There’s a particularly curious tower in central Tokyo near Shinjuku that resembles a windowless, shrunk Empire State Building. They were generally wireless and self-sufficient as the early telephone system was a huge capital investment by these companies and the lifeline in times of disaster particularly when services like electricity and water are cut off for whatever reason. This was not a conspiracy by governments but sound corporate investments in critical telecommunications infrastructure before microwave and wireless technologies. The same logic and hard structures reside in dozens of server farms that comprise “the cloud” though often located outside major cities for their security. Consider them as the telecom version of railway shuttling yards that were built to manage vast networks of freight or passenger trains.

[johnhaller]

These buildings built in the 1970 coincided with the introduction of the 4ESS, originally called the Number 4 Electronic Switching System. This was the first digital switch system the Bell System made. There are reasons for the windowless exterior. One of the big reasons is that a storm is not going to break a window and let water into sensitive electric equipment. Additionally, the magnetic tape machines used to record billing details used to use a reflective surface at the beginning and end of the tape, and sunlight coming into a switching building had caused problems with false detector reports. If there was anything the Bell System didn't want, it was losing billing data from the days that a long distance call could be $3 per minute.

The large batteries were lead-acid batteries, and each cell was 1.5 volts. They could store lots of energy, and were interconnected with thick copper cables which fed a large copper bus bar. An installer where I worked dropped a screwdriver, and the power in those batteries vaporized the tip off the screwdriver. But, relevant to the building, those batteries were very heavy, and needed a lot of structure to support them. Not only were the batteries (filled with lead and acid) heavy, but so were the copper wires connecting the batteries to each other and to the equipment they supplied.

Fun fact on one of the Chicago buildings is that it was built with no provisions for heating the floors with equipment. The equipment itself made enough heat to keep the building warm. It did have air conditioning though. As equipment for smaller and more efficient, it produced less heat, to the point that there were concerns about whether the equipment would work on cold days. Interior equipment was only tested to 0C/32F, non-condensing.

Windowless buildings have been a hallmark of telephone equipment for many years, and you will find a building like that in almost every town in the US. Tall ceilings were a reflection of the high equipment from older times that had many relays to direct calls. In particular, step-by-step switches were very tall, and maintained with ladders attached to a rail attached to the ceiling which could be moved. I may or may not have been discovered playing with those ladders while doing some unrelated work in an old central office.

I doubt there is much spy equipment in Chicago. I have no first-hand knowledge (or I wouldn't be allowed to say anything), but most of the spy equipment I've read about was on the coasts, as the NSA is only allowed to intercept foreign calls. Still, CALEA does require telephone carriers to provide for legal wiretapping capabilities when a search warrant permits it. Stories I heard about CALEA capabilities were that at least 5 different agencies should be able to tap a particular number without any agency knowing any other agency was interested in the same number. This would keep local police (more easily corrupted because there are more officers) from Knowing that the FBI or DEA was interested in a certain number. VOIP using applications has challenged these capabilities, especially foreign controlled apps like Telegram.

[isdeirinnme]

I appreciate that Zach Mortice, architecture critic, is wearing a shirt with 33 Thomas St. tower on it. Nice touch 👌

[Sacto]

They were built primarily to serve as easy-to-service centers for the massive banks of telephone switching equipment. Nowadays, with the switching equipment going mostly electronic, the space opened up are now being used for web server farms used by the likes of Google, Cloudflare, Microsoft and other companies that doe a lot of web hosting.

[Wub-isdp]

There's a building just like this in my city, I've always wondered what it could be but now I know exactly what it is thanks to this video. It was constructed in the 70's and served as a communications hub for Bell

[donjones]

I worked in the one you mention on Folsom St in San Francisco. It’s simply the AT&T telephone exchange.

[pauld]

The creepiest thing about 1122 3rd Ave, here in Seattle, is that it butts right up against the sidewalk. It's a giant, mostly windowless building, with a high security entrance, that you can lean against while you're waiting for your bus.

[JohnnyNiteTrain]

This is wild. Never knew anything about these buildings. Thanks!

[filanfyretracker]

these buildings are not overbuilt just because of attack in the cold war but also analog phone hardware of the era they were built in was physically heavy. Whole floors of mechanical phone switches doing what is today done in a few racks of digital switching.

[dakel]

I will add, AT&T has existed since 1885, and they've been deep in the pocket of the government since then. These structures also have nothing on AT&Ts Project Offices. Large (10 story), copper clad buildings, buried in mountain tops to serve continuity of government purposes.