The Brutally Bonkers Architecture of Sheffield 

I'm 55 born and bred in Sheffield. This film has blown me away...us sheffielders are so used to our environment we harldly bat an eyelid at it. From an outsiders point of view I can see exactly where you're coming from. When I left school in 1984 there was a load of old pubs and cobbled streets alongside the brutalist, so called modern buildings. Sheffield took a hammering in the war being a massive steel producer but as far as I know, the Germans missed their target...of the factories in the east end, and hit random areas and especially the city centre. Under the old marples pub in Fitzalan square there's 60 odd skeletons from one bombing raid....I was told they were that buried, they just threw loads of lime down to stop them decomposing. When I left school Sheffield felt hard, brutal and very left wing, union orientated. It shaped me massively as a person, gave me a lot of pride but at the same time a feeling of hopelessness, the axe had come down via Thatcher. Great music sprung up at that time.....human league, abc, heaven 17 and we had a great time tbh. The limit nightclub was amazing where all of the above played. Spent many a night off my nut on trips or whizz in there....haha....the cold war was at it's peak and Sheffield was a major target for the Russians....hence the film "threads". Love my city, it's hardness, it's down to earth-ness it's Yorkshireness.

I like to tell myself that films like this are the reason RU-vid was invented.

I nearly went to Uni in Sheffield in the 80s. When I told my mates back in Crewe where I was going to for the open day, the ones that had been were really enthused. "It's incredible", "escalators in the street", "there's this roundabout and you actually go into it and there are shops and everything". I didn't end up going Uni there and unfortunately only been back once or twice since, but always been impressed with the place and the people. Bit of a sidetrack - Sheffield's music history is at least and possibly more important than other cities e.g. Manchester, but never seems to get a look in.

I lived on Park Hill in the early 90's and I discovered, due to some workmen not closing an access door, that there is a huge network of utility tunnels that run below the flats with laddered risers that went all the way up to the roof. There was also another block of brutalist design flats, Kelvin Flats, not far outside the city centre that were demolished about the same time Hyde Park was.

Sheffield is gorgeous: you've covered the brutalist centre; but there's also the lovely stone houses in the suburbs, and the fact that Sheffield developed as an accidental amalgamation of small coal and forging villages gives it a decentralised, community feel unlike any other city I know in the UK. Then you've got the 5 rivers confluences and 7 hills with numerous parks, creating great views for orientating yourself, giving a sense of space and local character. The brutalism also reflects the rugged feel of the local environment in the Dark Peak side of the Peak District: with its harsh, dark Gritstone edges and endless barren moors, creating strong, clear, simple shapes and lines across the landscape. The rugged terrain and brutalist buildings, giving way to large riverine areas reserved for flourishes of nature provides a unique city experience. A great example of this is the Rivelin Valley, which used to be home to several steel mills which have long since been abandoned, and has slowly been reclaimed by nature, with trees growing through the ancient industrial architecture, creating a wild, post-industrial, riparian forest nestled between suburbs. Walk up the hill either side and you're back in stone-fronted houses with views of the industrial Hillsborough area and the Peak District beyond. John Ruskin became enamoured with the valley and founded a museum nearby to house Rivelin paintings. Post-WWI, it became a retreat for soldiers with PTSD to paint and reconnect with nature. Few places manage to fuse ugly ingredients into a beautiful whole like that.

Everyone seems to love to hate Sheffield and to an extent I can certainly see why. Living there myself though, I do like Sheffield. Sadly though, a combination of poor planning, bad decisions by the council, withdrawal of funding after the 2008 crisis and the current severe lack of funding in favour of other nearby cities (looking at you, Manchester) have left Sheffield city centre very fragmented, underutilised and in places extremely unwelcoming. Possibly the very worst decision was to move the main shopping area to the Moor (which admittedly did need regeneration, but which isn't ideally located in the city) whilst ignoring areas that would have been a far better fit for a refreshed commercial centre around High Street, Castle Gate, Arundel Gate and Fargate. Essentially, moving the commercial centre to the Moor has led to one of the city's best assets - the supertram, not serving the commercial centre of the city, which is madness! It's also moved it further from the bus station and train station. Compare that to the out of town shopping centre at Meadowhall which has a fully integrated and (mostly) accessible tram, bus and train station and there's no wonder the city centre is dying. What Sheffield desperately needs is a plan and funding to make it happen, preferably quickly. There's lots of good stuff in Sheffield, but it so often feels unwelcoming or at times unsafe to get to it

Born in the 90's but if you look back at Pre WW2 Sheffield, and even pre 1960's, Sheffield was a beautiful city with lots of beautiful architecture, whatever the Luftwaffe didn't destroy in the blitz, was knocked down in the 60's in 70's, an awful shame. Pre war Fargate, Highstreet, Angel street to name a few notable streets.

i love how sheffield contrasts the harsh architecture with an abundance of parks, greenery, and natural life. it blends the two together, maybe not perfectly - but i could definitely see it inspiring more recent movements towards architecture that incorporates green space into city environments.

This brought back Memories of when I worked as a Service engineer and was called out to Lewis,s department store in Liverpool on entering the tradesmens entrance I was greeted by a Paternoster lift 😳😱What I thought 2 lifts with no door's, one day I went past the top floor exit and had visions of being crushed against the roof as the lift I was in would collapse and fold to go around the lift Pulley at the very top to continue on its way back down 😱 luckily it just went up and over and I was able to exit on the top floor I had missed on the way back down. After using it many time's I found it to be safe and far better than modern lifts where you have to wait for ages..Absolutely brilliant Invention 👏 👍👍

I was told as a child growing up in Sheffield that the Moore St substation was designed to be able to at least partially withstand an atomic bomb detonating over the city centre, which is a large part of why it's so imposing; it's literally a fortification as well as an urban building.

Been living in Sheffield for a couple of years and I do think it's really beautiful in a way. The buildings in this video are some of the ugliest I've ever seen, but they are contrasted with some awesome rustic redbrick warehouses, blackened gothic churches and lots of greenery. Even though it's a fairly decently sized city, it feels small in a good way, and never as sprawling and unfriendly as cities like Manchester can seem. Whilst it is sad to see the amount of disposable, homogenous student accommodation buildings that seem to pop up in any small space, Sheffield definitely has its own vibe when you get here and is surrounded by some amazing landscapes and filled with interesting people. Coming from living in the often sterile-if-endearing, aborted attempt at utopia that is Milton Keynes, Sheffield also has its own character and is a cool place to walk about and be.

Sorry you missed the paternoster. It's one of my fondest (or at least strangest) memories of studying in Sheffield.

wonderfully explained. I have grown to love brutalism because they tell the story of the last century in two acts. after the war there was an opportunity for a radically utilitarian, experimental approach to design in every aspect of the system. the boldness of brutalism radiates optimism and open-mindedness for new ideas. then when the economic crises began it also became symbolic of the stagnation of tory britain. utopia and dystopia are two sides of the same coin, when the context changes so can a utopia become dystopian. the hostile, unfriendly architecture can seem almost prisonlike with an oppressive atmosphere. when they were built they weren't covered in CCTV cameras. sometimes it feels surreal, bit like a layered, ironic cosmic joke to admire brutalist architecture. it just says so much about the world we used to live in, and the world we live in now.

Funfacts and memories! I lived in Hyde Park flats in 86 and have mainly and luckily lived in council housing since. Unfortunately they now badly maintained and it feels like they are waiting for them to fall down before moving us further out where the busses don't run and selling the land to developers. I love council housing and wish that more proper council housing was being built now around the city center. It's been such a blessing despite everything really

Absolutely love this, Ollie. One of your best, IMHO. I love Brutalism... mainly because it's so awful, but it's of our time and it's fascinating to look at and dissect. Nice one!

I have lived in Sheffield for over a decade. I love here ,one of the most friendly place . I have met one the best people of my life in here . In my eyes, it's beautiful, and peaks district is cherry on the top. No doubts good and bad people are everywhere. But to be honest, I found it the most friendliest place in England.

I remember the first time I went to Sheffield one cold March day, the man at the train ticket office kept trying to persuade me from going. He said if you think its cold here (Liverpool), wait till you get over the Pennines, it's freezing!! I demanded I still wanted a ticket, but he was right though, it was so cold and the hills were blanketed in snow. I found Sheffield to be a weird place, but the buses were cheap and the people were open for conversation which was nice and an open return by rail was really not expensive either. But the city centre felt kind of vague and very ill defined, also the hills surrounding felt very claustrophobic from someone who lives near the sea usually

As someone who grew up in Sheffield I find it to be one of the most fascinating places in the country. On the surface it seems to be backwards and brutalist, almost like it’s lagging behind cities like Manchester in its mission to modernise and move on- but at the same time it has an abundance of greenery and parks weaved in and out of its hills which provide fantastic views of the brutalist inner city. Someone only staying a few days would feel unwelcome, like they are being pushed away by the city and encouraged to escape to the far more beautiful surrounding areas such as the peak district. But as someone stays a while longer they begin to be pulled back in by curiosity and wonder why such a large city would be so unfriendly to humans when it’s sole purpose is to provide a home for people. To me Sheffield is the epitome of post war practicality- the concrete blocks which have slits instead of glass for windows and the spiked fencing which surrounds many of the disused factories which are covered in hopeless graffiti. It is so urban and industrial that it has become a city that is so perfect at being a practical city that it has forgotten about the people that live in it. Although it has seemed to push me away from birth, Sheffield will always hold a special place in my heart as home. I don’t think that we should build any more of this architecture however a small amount must be preserved to show future generations what happens to a place when functionality becomes more important than joy.

I have very fond memories of Sheffield. I did my PGCE there in 1980/1. We were based in the Arts Tower and I remember the paternoster very well. I was terrified of the damn thing! They used to nickname it the Socialist Republic of Sheffield and bus fares were about 5p.

Thanks for making this great video, I work in an office near the train station and walk past the Moore Street Substation and Moorfoot building every day on my way to work. When I first moved to Sheffield I too was taken back by the architecture and I couldn't believe people could just walk past these buildings without stopping to look or comment on them. Over time though (I've lived in Sheffield for nearly a decade now) seeing the same buildings becomes routine. I see the substation, the Moorfoot, Park Hill and the Crucible constantly and they just became 'normal' and often, when I speak to Sheffield natives, the term 'eyesore' gets thrown around for them. I think its sometimes hard to appreciate architecture like this when the shock value wears off. I think this video is great because it's refreshed my perception of these buildings and I'll appreciate them again for what they are - cultural landmarks.

Great video, as ever. Studied at Sheffield in the early 1990s, and recall apprehensively riding the Paternoster lift over the top into the void, and wondering whether I’d ever see the light of day again. Moore Street substation revisited my nightmares for years afterwards.

I was doing a module in cultural heritage management for my masters degree and I went on a tour of Park Hill. By that point it was empty but we were let into some of the flats to have a look around. They were surprisingly spacious and the ones we saw had an upstairs and downstairs. The sad thing was seeing a community of homeless people seeking shelter under the walkways outside the thousands of empty flats…

Another great programme Ollie, thanks mate! Can't help but feel you've missed your calling....production standards are first class, and that means a great experience for plebs like me (up the workers!).

Im from Rotherham & thought Sheffield as posh! Had some fun times in Sheffield in the 80's. ❤ once woke up on a bench in the hole in the road after a night out, happy days.😊

Omg I loved my home city 😍 But I moved away in '95 & wish I never did cos every time I go back I don't recognise it. Seeing old footage just feels like heartache & I'm going to say it loud & proud "I MISS THE EGG BOX & THE WEDDING CAKE" & I don't care about the haters who are glad it's all gone. Those two buildings, to me, were Sheffield ❤ & I miss that 80's / 90's gritty city. All that brutalist architecture was what Sheffield was all about at one time in it's history & it was just perfect. If you never grew up around it, you probably will never get it. But I loved it & it will always feel like I just want to pack up my bags & move back to those streets in the sky ☺

As a big fan of John Grindrod, this video is fantastic. His book Concretopia is fascinating, and touches very lovingly on places like Park Hill and talks about how beloved they were by the residents at the time. How the people who first moved in there couldn't believe the luxury they were afforded by having their own heated home, with a bathroom indoors and a fridge. It also talks about how the loss of funding, the decline of the local economy, and so on resulted in many of these developments failing. This is a very long winded way for me to say excellent video.

Thank you so much for this personal tour of brutalist Sheffield. Perhaps because I came of age when it was new and fashionable, I’ve always liked the best of brutalism, but then it was probably mostly downhill after Corbusier’s inspirational post war work. New York has a brutalist Family Courthouse that is anything but “family friendly.” Originally clad in forbidding black granite and looking like a science fiction nightmare, the budget-strapped city even went to the expense of resurfacing the whole thing in grey stone. The result is only slightly less unwelcoming. Thanks again!

Concrete brutalism may be depressing, but its still less depressing that the glass and steel brutalism that came after it. Brutalism feels inhospitable in the same way a barren quarry or lunar scape is. It has the appearance and texture of rock, a dead place, where nothing lives. Modern steel and glass brutalism however is different. It feels like corporatism. It feels alien. Concrete brutalism feels devoid of life, but atleast a dead rock isn't threatening. You can even make concrete brutalism feel natural with the addition of plants, like a rocky cliff with outcrops of grass growing on it. Steel and glass brutalism reminds you that this was designed by a person. An intelligence. A building that not only isn't designed for humans, but that is designed to maliciously crush you into the corporate drone it wants you to be. Fuck modern brutalism, it'll be a happier world when its all rubble in the ground.

The timing of the release of this video is extremely helpful with my essay on Sheffield and its post-war brutalist architecture such as Parkhill and alike

I love thee dear Sheffield ,what have they done too you? I see your streets are empty, i see your shops are too. I love thee dear Sheffield, what have they done too you? Your factorys are missing your steel is missing too. Your history? your future? You haven't got a clue I love thee dear Sheffield what have they done to you? Where are all your silversmiths and all your cuttlers too,your furnaces your accent what have they done to you? Your publicans ,your people, you've run em out a town,replaced em all with robots supplied by the crown. OH how i loved thee Sheffield, now a deserted foreign town.😢

I used to live there. It's beautifully depressing. Congrats for the video.

Concrete suits dry climates where it doesn't rain as much. When it rains it can look drab as fk. Saying that when brutalism is done well it looks distinctive which is the whole idea I guess. Modern buildings arent built to last whilst you look at brutalist building and think it could survive a nuclear blast. Interesting cities have architectural variety and looks like sheffield has that so should be proud of it.

More of these please. Manchester, Liverpool. Erm, skip Stockport.

I'm Sheffield born and bred. Don't get me started on Sheffield. I left for more than 20 years and travelled the world. I was never going to come back until my dad died and I came back to look after mi' mum. It's the worst city in the country. The shopping centre is mad cos it is linear (Haymarket to Moorfoot) boring as hell. Miles of walking to get nowhere. Don't get me start on Meadowhell. Go about once a year for Christmas shopping. However, what Sheffield does have is wonderful countryside. My local park is 17 1/2 acres of woodland. My husband calls it middle earth.

What a fantastic video. I lived in Sheffield for almost a decade and saw some real changes. Demolishing castle market and most of the Moor buildings was a tragedy, castle market in particular was brutalism turned up to 12 and was fantastic. Some really short sighted decisions were made there. The John Lewis / Coles building is up for demolition as well I understand, which is criminal as it's a beautiful boxy white tiled beacon of 60s architecture.

I had some great nights out in Sheffield- Top Banana at Ponds Forge, The Leadmill and Music Factory. Happy days.

Thanks for the vid, I'll not be the first to correct you about the Moorfoot building, it was designed to let the street run through the middle of it: The Moor, to join with London Rd. But a bomb scare in the 80's made the council close the access. It remains really annoying.

Worked at Park Hill flats a few times, the best thing about them is that from the roof, you can see pretty much all of Sheffield,… without seeing Park Hill flats. Unless you look off the wrong side, then you can see all the ones that are still derelict and haven’t been done up yet.

A great video exemplifying all that I vowed I wouldn’t create as an architect.

A nicely Meades-esque feel to this. Very well produced!

Ollie, Gotta love those old 16mm films with little to no fidelity in the soundtrack, like the one you opened with ----- precious. Is seems that packing people in so tight in housing blocks is not the best thing for the human mind. In the late 50's and early 60's "Atomic Ranch" was big over here. It still looks great today. Another fine watch from Bee Here Now, thanks for your time and hard work.......

I quite like the hallamshire hospital, it's extremely monumental, and the third tallest tower in Sheffield believe it or not. Because of its placement hallway up the hillside, pretty much anywhere you go in Sheffield you will see it in the distance, just a huge block

And it turned out that their so-called "new architecture" would become a worse solution than renovating the old houses that were torn down. Sheffield was by no means alone in this postwar ideology. Architecture aside, there is also a common theory that "a slum is made by the people who inhabit it". In other words, any place can be turned into a palace with the aid of money, effort and foresight.

'And here's a magistrates court that hates you...' Love it!

Modernist and brutal architecture doesn’t begin and end with British post war poor social housing. You can see beautiful modernist social housing in Scandinavia and you can see examples of beautiful and often grand modernist private apartment buildings all around the world,in Milan, Rio de Janeiro, Barcelona, New York. Don’t judge a whole era of architecture based on the very specific and reductive experience of the Uk with it

Brutalism, loved by the middle classes, hated by real working people.

I don't get why so many architects think that modern architecture is 'progress.' It's a great leap backward. Architecture has regressed. Beauty matters.

I'm from and live in Sheffield my self lovely to see this video I have heard the moor foot building might be coming down some time soon

Park Hill is such a wonderful building, can’t wait until the whole things renovated, phase 1 and 2 are stunning

Again really enjoyed the vid Ollie. Very interesting and so educational - only ever passed through Sheffield...

I don’t know how this video found me but I’m glad it did. Keep up the great work!

Fascinating presentation thanks xxx

My adopted hometown. Thanks for the coverage - very entertaining

This really is a great video, huge fan of your channel. Great work

I moved to Sheffield 12 years ago and I love it. It's not perfect by any means, but it's honest and is full of charm. Although it's a shame so many of the beautiful city centre buildings were lost due to WW2 bombing. The post war developments add to the cities unique architecture of the industrial cutlery works or steelwork structures, as well as victorian terraces built around the varied challenges of the cities topography. Sheffield also has so much to offer in terms of open and green spece to offset it's architecture. For example, It's the only UK city to include a national park within its boundary and it's officially the greenest city in Europe (based on trees per capita). It's very easy to forget you're in a large cosmopolitan city rather than a countryside village. Sheffield often gets unfairly compared to other local cities like Manchester or Leeds. These cities may have redeveloped further to add a fancy veneer to their city centres. But Sheffield is working to catch up and offers so much more that the others can't match for me.

An well made, very interesting video as always. Keep up the good work.

I absolutely love brutalist architecture. I think it started working its charms on you towards the end there!

Great video, enjoyed that! If you find yourself in Sheffield again make sure to visit the Moore St substation again after dark. You can also get a good view of it from Meersbrook Park. It gets all lit up with coloured lights and looks even better.

Alright, watching this waiting for tram in Fitzalan Square feels odd..

The Crucible got its partial facade reconstruction and now got its modernistic, pretty glass-panelled entrance. Park Hill Flats has undergone a major renovation and is now being "gentrified" with private housing. Blending with Modern architectural styles and aesthetics would be the future of Brutalist buildings. Only if different sectors are willing to contribute to this transformation, the image of a place and the wider city could be greatly improved. The city centre of Sheffield always has its charm and potential; unfortunately there is still a long way to compete with the giant Meadowhall just miles away.

Very interesting and a masterclass in essay writing. Thanks

Taking the train in from Elsecar in the 1990s I was struck by the vast expanses of concrete where factories once stood. There was a dormant station called Brightside that was marooned in the middle of it all. I wonder if it’s back in service and if the land has been developed since then.

I moved to Sheffield in 2003 and I am still here. 🤗🤗🤗

woah, that is Weird!! I'm stood outside the building at 0:16 as i clicked this video!

Another brilliant video. Your sense of humour is fantastic

Here in Sydney, Aust., there's quite a few buildings you could classify as Brutalist, but I like them, with the Sirius Building & the Seymour (theatre) Centre among my favorites! The High School I attended was a mix of original Edwardian buildings with high windows & even higher ceilings, and late '60s Brutalism, with a more tempered mid '60s admin/library block thrown in!

A really great video - thank you

This was good timing, just went to Sheffield for the first time this weekend. The building on Moore Street definitely stuck in my memory!

Great video. I have a great affection for the city and some of these buildings. I am glad they were spared the wrecking ball.

Great presentation.

I remember first going to Sheffield and thinking it's one of the ugliest cities in the country. Truly brutalist, but over time it's started to feel unique... Fascinating. Old ugly architecture has weirdly become interesting and even likeable because of its ugly exterior (like pugs).

Mate, just got to say I'm lovin' your films, grew up in Irlam, grown up life in Chorlton, worked in Oldham and now in Mallorca for 5 years! Keep it up sunshine, you make me smile. Big Love x

Surprised no talk of Gleadless Valley. Some interesting architecture over there

A lot of these towers and large blocks of flats all over the UK were built by the same company. In a nutshell, they built them as cheaply as possible. In the US & Canada, during the 60's and 70's, they built high rise apartment buildings which were actually good, well designed and good quality. In the UK, the towers the same heights were horrible places to live. I don't like it when they give protection to some of these concrete monstrosities. Park Hill and other places like it should be leveled.

Spent many a happy day or two at the Crucible watching all the Snooker stars ..Alex Higgins ..Steve Davis ..Jimmy White ..Cliff Thorburn..

Do you recall the building of the Tyrell Coropration? That was similarly an Aztec design like 10:29

Love the Park Hill Flats simply because the architecture is beautiful in a brutal way, and it was, and is, the bane of Thatcherites who see it as a symbol of public housing.

I've been inside the Moore Street substation and I can tell you that its mostly empty, just one masive concrete room with no internal walls and no windows.

The punk rock of architecture is a great description. I don't really like brutalism but as a punk fan I'm now a bit conflicted

If you like Park Hill, or just find it interesting, you should come and visit the Barri Gaudí in Reus, Catalonia

"A joke shared between two shy people..." Intriguing. Will we have to wait for the autobiography?

Brutalist buildings imposed by brutal capitalist regimes. The Moorfoot building blocked out the sky views from the Moor ,imported many workers from London,and did little for local employment opportunities. It still does nothing for Sheffield.. Park Hill flats have essentially been privatised and the residents been shoved further up the hill by Norfolk park ,making access to city centre shops more difficult and expensive. The middle class have taken over Park Hill and all that remains of the former community are a few plaintive poems at the edges.

The paternoster in the arts tower was not fun on Monday morning with a hangover

The Park Hill Flats embody beautiful ideals in a brutal form (social democracy, solidarity, the public good). Neoliberal architecture might be appealing in a superficial way but have ugly ideals (destroying the commons, the naked pursuit of profit, the commodification of human needs, etc).

Great video, when did you film this?? I live in Sheffield and I’ve never seen less traffic and no people like on your footage.

I think brutalist architecture is quite cool. What I don't like is the car-centric infrastructure they built at that time where pedestrians are forced onto concrete overpasses or underpasses.

Brilliant video. Brutalism architecture is bold, it might not be aesthetically pretty, but it gets your attention It's thought provoking, and that can only be a good thing. Most modern buildings quite frankly look identical, with a constant obsession with glass. Infact most modern euro cities are looking shockingly similar, its blandness its only constant. Keep up the good work fella 👍

Brilliant video

in my final year at sheffield uni, gonna miss this weird ol' city

There was also kelvin flats which stretched along langset road. Not dissimilar to park hill. I think gone in mid 90s

There certainly are some buildings of strange architecture in the city, Ollie. It's quite a few years since I've been in the city, but I never realised how many unusual ones there are. I never thought that those apartments blocks behind the railway station would have been refurbished. Anyhow, this is an interesting production, and so, thank you.

Years of labour council have destroyed that city! Such a shame.

Having my morning coffee in NZ, and Twitter said "just look at this, look!" I guess Richard Hawley bought me here. Ok, ok, next visit I'll finally come to Sheffield.

I think brutalism could be interesting in a more broad application if it was accompanied by modern urban planning practices, it seem that the examples of brutalism people find most offensive have a lot to do with their disregard for the existing city design and building scale, that was common in the post war era.

Cracking video mate. I quite like some of those Brutalist buildings to be honest 😂 Although some of those balconies on the flats looked abit dodgy 😢 And as for that Substation!....😅

I love the winter garden

Ah Park Hill… Giving criminals a watchtower with a view so good that no raid would ever find anything.

Love Sheffield, great people and great city. Sadly done dirty by god aweful local government and miopic at best strategy.

Honestly my favourite city ever ❤ Not because it’s perfect, far from it, but because it’s human 🇬🇧

Yes we had paternoster in the Chemistry block at Salford University. So quick convenient to use. Sad when they shut them down and then knocked the building down.