Here's The Scary Part About The New London Building Producing A Light Beam So Hot It Caused A Car To Melt
A bombshell architecture story is brewing in London's Financial District.
A new construction at 20 Fenchurch - dubbed the Walkie Talkie building, due to its curved shape - is producing a reflected ray of light so hot, it caused a man's Jaguar to partially melt. Here's a photo of the building. You can see how curved it is, and how bright the reflection is.
Jim Waterson at UK website City AM has been breaking stories on the building left and right.
And is back today with a report on what may be the most ominous aspect of the whole thing: It's not just one spot on a nearby street that's going to get hot. As the days and seasons change, the hot spot is going to move. So it's not like you can just erect some shade somewhere to solve this issue.
"I'm flabbergasted," said Dr Philip Oldfield, an expert in tall buildings at the University of Nottingham's Department of Architecture, who warned other parts of London could be hit by the light beam. "At street level it's unprecedented. The scary thing is that the light won't always be on that part of the street. The sun angle will change through the next weeks and months - and in the winter the localised hotspot will have moved substantially."
City AM's Laura Lean also took this incredible photo of a thermometer in the bright spot hitting 70 celsius which is 158 Fahrenheit! (Much thanks to City AM for permission to run the photo)
Meanwhile, if you haven't seen it, here's the Jaguar that the building allegedly melted.