| Description |
1 online resource (streaming video file) (46 min. 51 sec.) ; 281541160 bytes |
| Series |
Grand Designs ; Series 12, Episode 5 |
| Summary |
It is the 100th episode of Grand Designs this week and to mark this momentous occasion - a truly momentous project.Couple Leigh Osborne and Graham Voce attempt to convert and extend a landmark 150-year-old, 30 metre high water tower right in the heart of central London. Grade II listed and utterly derelict, with 1.8 metre thick walls and crowned with a huge steel tank - it is an almighty task. Kevin McCloud says, "I've seen the odd water tower conversion before, but none as daunting or as terrifying as this one."And if restoring the tower isn't challenging enough, Graham and Leigh plan to build two additional contemporary structures at the base: a new lift shaft connected to the tower by a series of glass tunnels, and a modern living space nicknamed the 'Cube'. Altogether this cluster of buildings will create a four bedroom luxury home, over nine floors, crowned with a spectacular viewing room at the top of the tower. Housed inside the old giant cast iron tank, the viewing room will offer 360 degree views across London.The downside is that all this has to be done within a ludicrously tight schedule because Graham and Leigh only have access to the land around the tower for four months.Their solution is to throw money and people at the project and build as fast as they can. But straight away they encounter more challenges than they anticipated. The foundations costs thousands more than predicted, and conservation of the outside of the tower, deemed by English Heritage at risk of collapse, proves even more extensive than first feared. With building costs hitting #35,000 a week, soon the budget crashes through the million pound mark and the deadline to complete this astonishing place is in serious jeopardy.PRODUCTION DETAILS:Written and presented by Kevin McCloud. Series Producers: Mike Ratcliffe and John Lonsdale. Executive Producer: Fiona Caldwell |
| Event |
Broadcast 2013-07-07 at 19:40:00 |
| Notes |
Classification: G |
| Subject |
Architecture -- Remodeling.
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Architecture, Domestic.
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Dwellings -- Design and construction.
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Historic buildings.
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Water towers.
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England -- London.
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| Form |
Streaming video
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| Author |
McCloud, Kevin, host
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Osborne, Leigh, contributor
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Voce, Graham, contributor
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