The Shard Tower in London

[cybertect]

update from yesterday lunch time:

The first bits of external structural steel went up on Tuesday (the pair of white painted columns). Large chunks of the ground floor slab have been cast.

The diggers are getting busy in the hole, exposing the plunge columns and creating the basement.

I've created a photo gallery for The Shard on my site, so if you're into construction porn, there's a bunch more pictures there.

 

[TitanSound]

Blimey, that thing is flying up. The last time I was there (about 3-4 weeks ago) they had just finished the piling!

 

[cybertect]

I think Shunt is a unique art space. We will be losing that. And replacing it with someone not in the tiniest bit unique.

They knew it was coming when they moved in and have had a pretty good run...

Shunt plans to relocate to new London Bridge venue

The Stage, Tuesday 10 November 2009

[Shunt co-founder] Rosenberg said: “When we first moved in [to the vaults], we thought it was going to be only for a year or so. Thanks to the generosity of Network Rail we have been able to stay there for this amount of time. We always knew that our time was limited in London Bridge Station.

“It [the new site] will probably be a very different space. The key part of the project is for a night time arts space where there is a variety of work being shown across arts forms, including live music, film, installation and performance, which will support artists trying out new work. It will still be a place of experimentation.”

Earlier this year, Shunt took over a former cigar warehouse in London Bridge, which it has been given permission to occupy until January 2011. The space is being used to stage its new show Money - a modern take of Emile Zola’s L’Argent - which is to extend its run by three months to March 2010.

The company is also one of two bidders vying to be the cultural resident in a 8,000 sqm space within the proposed One Tower Bridge scheme - a development of 374 riverside homes near Tower Bridge.

 

[cybertect]

Blimey, that thing is flying up. The last time I was there (about 3-4 weeks ago) they had just finished the piling!

It's moved on quite a bit more in the last three weeks. Ground level slabs have been cast. Basement excavation looks to be nearly complete, the reinforcement for the core is being installed and more of the structural steelwork round the outside has been erected.

 

[kyser_soze]

You should start doing little notes over these pics, cybertect.

I assume that the collection of girders and reinforcement strips are the life core surround?

I'm impressed that they're storing everything in the basement area too...good pics again mate

 

[little_legs]

i live nearby and when i passed the site this morning i had a nasty thing occuring to me: do i live next to the potential terrorist target?

 

[quimcunx]

Are you like the can can version of little voice, little legs?


And I doubt it. Canary Wharf is more likely.

 

[little_legs]

Are you like the can can version of little voice, little legs?


And I doubt it. Canary Wharf is more likely.

just being paranoid i guess.

 

[kyser_soze]

i live nearby and when i passed the site this morning i had a nasty thing occuring to me: do i live next to the potential terrorist target?

Yes, you live near London Bridge, which has a bridge and a transport hub nearby, so you already live next to a potential terrorist target. It was a target before the Shard was even a gleam in a developers eye. If you're young enough to not really remember the IRA, arguably it was a target before you were born!.

 

[Crispy]

Once they get construction out of the ground, it'll really shoot up. The current stuff is all complex as they do core and basement works in the same space. It'll be well on the horizon by year's end.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

I used to hate tall buildings unthinkingly, cos so many old council tower blocks were dead ugly.

Then I went to China and while most of the old-school housing blocks that dominate the country are pretty minging, the actual proper skyscrapers like they've got in their city centres rock.

My wife said when she came to London that she couldn't believe there weren't any tall buildings, she was in like Leicester Square and stuff and saying that it was like a country village

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

But yeah the shard is blatantly going to look well amazing.

 

[IMR]

I think it will look ugly and aggressive and sincerely hope something goes wrong during the construction so it can't be completed.

 

[TitanSound]

I think it will look ugly and aggressive and sincerely hope something goes wrong during the construction so it can't be completed.

There's always one

 

[kyser_soze]

Think I might have to get myself to Ldn Bridge. Check out the groovy cover over the top of works:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=51609001&postcount=8470

 

[Crispy]

that core is rising so fast

 

[London_Calling]

Some more from the Londonist yesterday:

http://londonist.com/2010/02/in_pictures_the_shard_risesdamnably.php

 

[kyser_soze]

That last overhead shot - fuck me it has gone up quickly!

 

[ChrisFilter]

Yeah, I noticed the other day that it was shooting up.

Everything looks rusty, mind.

 

[London_Calling]

They're saying the core is growing by 3 metres a day.

 

[hipipol]

They're saying the core is growing by 3 metres a day.

Faster than a Triffids lash!!! - common expression round these parts, then some o these blind buggers have a strange way with the language, an no mishtake Guvnor, oo arrr, Jim Ladd me 'earties.......

 

[Crispy]

It grows in fits and starts tbf. I think 3m/day is as fast as it can go, but it often pauses.

 

[cybertect]

It's peeking into view over Tooley Street this evening.

 

[London_Calling]

I wandered down there last night - a good high-level viewing area from the concourse outside London Bridge Station across to St Thomas Street, you can look down on the whole site fromt here.

Also spoke to a couple of the guys on the gates, they said the site went to 24 hour working 3 weeks or so ago. I did ask how many cement lorries arrive each day, I don't think they really knew but said maybe over 100 - that would be about two each hour through the two main entrances.

Seemed all very organised and efficient. Didn't realise it literally abuts the concourse at the station.

 

[Crispy]

There's a marshalling yard further east somewhere, where all the materials arrive, then it's sent out in precise parcels throughout the day as the work schedule requires. Apart from the engineering and design success of uilding such a tall tower on such a constrained site, the logistics of building the damn thing are very impressive.

 

[London_Calling]

The marshalling yard makes a lot of sense.

Also, on the train coming up the jobbie at the Elephant looks pretty dramatic from way south. Still looks like it belongs in Gotham City to me.

 

[Crispy]

Can't wait till it gets its turbines

 

[teuchter]

Turbines?

 

[teuchter]

Also I got mildly excited by the mention of a marshalling yard because I initially read it to mean everything was coming in by rail. But now I realise you probably just mean a compound with lorries coming in and out.

 

[Crispy]

Turbines?

Strata, the one by E&C will have wind turbines

And yeah, they wanted to bring materials in for Shard by rail but there just wasn't the space or money for new goods yard sidings