Guangzhou International Finance Center

This guide to the Guangzhou International Finance Center traces the diamond lattice climbing its glass face back to an engineering choice: inside every steel diamond, engineers at Arup pumped liquid concrete as the tower rose, wrapping steel around solid stone to keep it stiff against typhoon winds and tremors. You'll hear from Arup engineer Vincent Lam about the argument over how steeply to angle each diamond, so it satisfied architects and engineers without blocking the view. It follows the round-the-clock construction push, when crews were finishing two entire floors a day to close the tower in about eighteen months.