A half-finished, 37-story skyscraper located in the heart of London's financial center, nicknamed the "Walkie-Talkie" for its shape has melted a black car parked nearby, City A.M. reported. The reflective exterior and curve of the building has also reportedly caused tiles to crack, carpets to burn and even left a van scorched.
Martin Lindsay parked his Jaguar on a nearby street only to return and discover the reflection from 20 Fenchurch Street had caused a beam of light so strong it warped parts of his car beyond repair.
Locals are now calling the skyscraper "Walkie-Scorchie" for obvious reasons and a recent temperature reading from a hotspot on the street caused by the building came in at 196.3 degrees Fahrenheit.
Now the building's developers have built a temporary black sun screen measuring 10 feet high by 13 feet long to help block unwanted rays from nearby shops.
"This solution should minimize the impact on the local area over the next two-to-three weeks, after which time the phenomenon is expected to have disappeared," the developers announced according to the Telegraph. "We are also continuing to evaluate longer-term solutions to ensure this issue does not recur in future."
A barber located across the street from the building told the British paper that the reflection of the sunlight started a small fire in his company doormat.
"We were working and just saw the smoke coming out of the carpet," Ali Akay told the Telegraph. "We tried to cut the fire down, there were customers in at the time and they were obviously not happy."
The building's architect Rafael Vinoly also designed the Vdara Hotel in Las Vegas which left guests with severe burn caused by a "death ray" of sunlight in September 2010.
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