The Shard Tower in London

[cybertect]

A little update from Friday, as you can see the glazing is coming on in leaps and bounds

 

[London_Calling]

Love the angle on the last shot in particular Rob, interesting senses of progressive scale.

It's starting to look broader than I thought!

 

[DJWrongspeed]

is this not the 'vulgar imperatives of capital' (I.Sinclair) , discuss.....

 

[Crispy]

I love the clarity of the reflections in those windows. They've specified some very nice glass indeed.

 

[kyser_soze]

Was at a wedding reception at The Swan @ The Globe on Saturday, and as we walked over the millenium bridge from St Pauls D) I was amazed at how tall the lift core is. Can't wait to see this finished.

 

[TitanSound]

Any idea why the glazing on the front overlaps the side of the building?

 

[Crispy]

Any idea why the glazing on the front overlaps the side of the building?

That's the design. It's not supposed to be a perfect spike or pyramid, but 8 seperate 'shards' resting against each other, overlapping or leaving gaps where they meet. The corners have opening windows onto 'winter garden' spaces. The overlapping facades protect these windows from strong winds. Here's a floor plan of one of the penthouses towards the top of the tower

 

[TitanSound]

Ahh I see. Ta muchly

 

[Crispy]

Was at a wedding reception at The Swan @ The Globe on Saturday, and as we walked over the millenium bridge from St Pauls D) I was amazed at how tall the lift core is. Can't wait to see this finished.

It's currently at about level 36 (mid-level piazza in the image below) and will be at least twice as tall when completed. People are going to be shocked I think, at just how tall this thing is.

And now bend your brain with

http://www.burjdubaiskyscraper.com/...ard-london-bridge-&-30st-mary-axe-diagram.jpg

how big the Burj Khalifa (neé Burj Dubai) is in comparison

 

[JWH]

I used to work around there. This is going to look great, I think.

Edit: blimey, I didn't realise it was that big though!

 

[skyscraper101]

Just awesome and cool

 

[g force]

Went past it this morning...not really liking it with the glazing. Okay it's only in places but the red bars look odd.

 

[teuchter]

Any idea why the glazing on the front overlaps the side of the building?

As Crispy says it's a formalist thing - a kind of similar game is employed on the other Piano building, in Covent Garden -

 

[teuchter]

Went past it this morning...not really liking it with the glazing. Okay it's only in places but the red bars look odd.

Looks like the red bars are roller blinds (?)

 

[TitanSound]

Okay it's only in places but the red bars look odd.

They be blinds.

 

[teuchter]

Apologies for the crappy image quality but this is from the other day -

This kind of illustrates how inefficient large towers are - look at the size of the concrete service core compared to the amount of actual usable office space around it at that level.

 

[paolo]

Well, thin towers yes.

Similarly, the Gherkin is daft inside. Small floors and - on one of the Swiss re: floors I visited - the most cramped deskspaces I've ever seen. They were almost bumping elbows.

But, upside for the staff, you can take your mates up to the bar at the top. Which is jaw dropping.

Something tall with a good side floorplate would probably be an ugly monster (and perhaps structurally impractical) so we for tall we get skinnier and prettier. Not good for trading floors, but fine for hotels and apartments and small prestige businesses.

 

[cybertect]

They be blinds.

Strictly speaking, they're the blind boxes that the blinds roll up into. My sources tell me that the blinds themselves will be light grey.

 

[cybertect]

A few shots of progress to this week.

 

[paolo]

Fab pictures as ever CT... It's looking awesome.

 

[teuchter]

I think it's fair to say it's going to be quite large.

 

[PacificOcean]

Fantastic. I love skyscrapers - it doesn't look that big though, despite Crispy's diagrams.

Who's using it? Do we know? Is it just random office space or is it going to be some HQ for an evil conglomerate?

 

[PacificOcean]

* rustles anorak*

That building in the front of that picture used to be the entrance for London Bridge Underground station.

 

[cybertect]

Aha.

That probably explains why it's used by the Jubilee Line Management Team now, according to the sign they've got outside.

 

[cybertect]

Who's using it? Do we know? Is it just random office space or is it going to be some HQ for an evil conglomerate?

Mixed use: three hotels, speculative office space, a number of floors of apartments and two public viewing galleries IIRC.

TfL were going to be taking five floors of offices, but they've pulled out of the deal recently.

 

[paolo]

From what I read, TFL didn't so much pull out, they were paid to - the developers realised they could now get far higher rents, so paid TFL big wedge to tear up the agreement.

 

[PacificOcean]

Maybe with the money they can finally finish Brixton station?

Or do the "upgrade" works on the new section of the Jubilee line (why didn't they do it properly in the first place?).

Or fix the leaky roof at the Met/Hammersmith & City line at Liverpool Street?

Or........

 

[cybertect]

The slipform rig building the concrete core has been re-jigged to slim it down and has taken off again in the last day or so.

Caught some nice sunlight with my new iPhone this evening

 

[paolo]

Loving the updates Mr 'tect.

I walked past last week, and stopped to look up. I mentally converged the angled sides, to make a point in the sky... and though OMFG. I reckon the distorted perspective effect will make it look stratospheric, when viewed close up. Can't wait to see it reach for the skies as time goes on.

 

[teuchter]

yeah, trying to judge where the angled sides will meet gives a pretty good impression of how big it's going to be.