Shard, London London A View On Cities > London > London Attractions > The Shard Loading... The Shard is a modern glass skyscraper in London. At the time of its completion in 2012 it was Europe's tallest building. The observatory on the 72nd floor offers some spectacular 360 degree views of the city. The Shard The tip of the Shard View from the Tower Bridge The skyscraper is situated in the London Bridge Quarter in Southwark, a neighborhood along the south bank of the river Thames. It is right near the heart of London and only the river separates it from the City of London . The area is full of history: a bridge was built here by the Romans around 50 AD and in 1836 London's first railway station opened here. Construction The idea to build a supertall skyscraper in the London Bridge Quarter was first mooted at the end of the twentieth century. The building would replace the Southwark Towers, a one hundred meters tall high-rise complex built in 1976.

The site seemed ideal: it is only a couple minutes' walk from London's financial center across the London Bridge and the site is right smack near the London Bridge Station, a transport hub connected to both the railway network and the underground. Plans for the new skyscraper were initially drawn up by the architectural firm of Broadway Malyan, and called for a circular 365 meters tall tower. These plans were soon scaled back and a new design was submitted, this time from the hands of the Italian architect Renzo Piano. The renowned architect designed a glass pyramid-shaped structure with a height of just over three hundred meters. The plans for the London Bridge Tower - as the building was initially called - caused an outcry from preservationists who considered the glass tower inappropriate for a historic neighborhood with mostly low-rise brick buildings. They claimed the tower would cut through the neighborhood like a shard of glass. The name 'shard' stuck and the developers even renamed the tower 'The Shard'. In 2008 the Southwark Towers were demolished and construction of the Shard started one year later. The tower topped out in 2012 and opened in early 2013.

The Building The base The Shard at night When it was completed the Shard held the title of Europe's tallest skyscraper with a height of almost 310 meters (1016 ft). Only a couple of months later it was narrowly surpassed in height by Moscow's Mercury City Tower. The Shard towers over the neighborhood and is visible from afar. The iconic skyscraper looks particularly spectacular at night when seen from across the river. The tapered tower has a glass facade consisting of some eleven thousand window panes. The seemingly unfinished spire is designed to act as a radiator to naturally dissipate excess heat, thus reducing the need for air-conditioning. The building is multifunctional, with offices and a hotel at the lower floors and residential apartments on the upper floors. Observation Deck The top floors of the Shard are home to the 'View from the Shard', an observation deck that offers visitors spectacular 360 degree views of the city. On a clear day you can see as far as sixty kilometers (approx. forty miles). At a height of 245 meters (804 ft), this is the highest public viewing gallery in London, almost twice as high as the London Eye .

The Shard: Europe’s Tallest Building Completed | Foreign Students News Home Blogs ForeignStudents's blog The Shard: Europe’s Tallest Building Completed The Shard: Europe’s Tallest Building Completed Submitted by Foreign Students on Thu 05/07/12 the shard London's latest landmark, the Shard, will play host to a laser show tonight to mark the building reaching its highest point. It is now officially the tallest building in London, and indeed in the whole of Europe, at 309m tall. Located by the River Thames at London Bridge, the Shard is quickly becoming one of London's most recognisable buildings. Over the last year it has been steadily growing taller, becoming more and more dominant in the London skyline. However, the building has split opinion; whilst many have praised the modern and sleek design, others have complained that it isn't in keeping with surrounding buildings and its height ruins views of the city. With the external work on it finally complete, an inauguration ceremony is taking place from around 10pm tonight. For the finale of the ceremony, 12 lasers and 30 search lights will beam out from the Shard across London, picking out famous landmarks throughout the city.

Locations such as the Gherkin, St Paul's Cathedral and Tower Bridge will all be marked, before the Shard itself is lit up from all sides. This light show is expected to start at around 10.10pm tonight, so if you're out and about in London around then, make sure you look up. A Costly View Though the exterior has been completed, the Shard will not be ready to officially open until 2013, as the interior is still far from finished. Once it does open, the building will be home to offices, residences, a luxury hotel and restaurants. It will also have a viewing gallery that will provide stunning views across the capital for the public. However, the recently announced admission prices have caused a bit of an uproar. It was revealed that an adult ticket to the platform (which will be the highest viewing point in London) will cost £24.95. Critics have said this seems very pricey for what is essentially the right to use an elevator, and indeed, it seems even more so when compared to the price of an adult ticket to the top of the Eiffel Tower at just 14 euros (about £11). Not all that Tall?

Although the Shard is Europe's tallest building, it is more than half a kilometre shorter than the tallest building in the world- Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Indeed, it is only the 59th tallest building in the world, and amazingly there are a total of 16 skyscrapers in Dubai alone that are taller than the Shard. What's more, its claim as the tallest building in Europe is also going to be short-lived, with the taller Mercury City Tower in Moscow set to be completed by the end of the year. Oh well, at least London can boast for now. Share with friends Articles - Building the Shard Article - Issue 52, September 2012 Building the Shard Download the article (686KB) London’s newest landmark, The Shard, now dominates the city’s skyline. Western Europe’s tallest building, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, is now complete with access to the public due in 2013. Ingenia spoke to John Parker, project director for structural engineers WSP, who outlined the engineering decisions made in building the enormous steel and glass structure.

The last piece of steel being lifted into place on The Shard’s spire in March 2012 © Mace/Sellar The Shard was conceived in 2000 by Renzo Piano at the behest of London-based entrepreneur Irvine Sellar, to be built on the land occupied by Southwark Towers, an office-block Sellar owned and wanted to replace. Like all London skyscrapers, The Shard quickly gained a nickname, which has since also become its formal name. The name ‘The Shard’ is derived from master architect Renzo Piano’s description of the development as a ‘shard of glass’ during planning stages. In late 2007, the uncertainty in global financial markets sparked concerns about getting The Shard’s construction started. The project was almost cancelled, but in January 2008, it was announced that a consortium of Qatari investors had paid £150 million to secure an 80% stake in the project. Building work started in 2009 and The Shard’s 95 storeys will eventually be home to a 200-bed 5-star hotel, three floors of restaurants, 10 residences, and a public viewing platform.

Visually, The Shard’s most striking features are its 310m height and the glass which forms its sloping walls and gives the structure its name. Less obvious but equally impressive is the use of the latest structural engineering tools and techniques to optimise every aspect of the structure, from the foundations to the shard tips. One of the most impressive innovations was the bold and imaginative use of ‘top-down’ construction which allowed the first 23 storeys of the concrete core and much of the surrounding tower to be built before the basement beneath it had been fully excavated. Top-down is not an innovation in itself: it was used to build the new parliamentary office building, Portcullis House, in Westminster in the 1990s while excavating for the Jubilee line Underground station beneath. But using the technique for the core of a very tall building was a world first. By cutting three months off the construction programme, carried out by Mace, it enabled substantial savings to be made and kept the cost down to under £450 million. NARROW MARGINS This super-tall building has been developed within a confined site area.

Sandwiched between London Bridge station and Guy’s Hospital, a 24-storey 1970s concrete-framed office block had to be removed piece-by-piece before construction work could start. Structural engineers calculated that this removal of 25,000 tonnes of concrete and glass could cause the ground to ‘relax’, with the potential to cause movement to nearby structures. A finite element analysis of the soil and soil-structure interaction was performed to assess the heave and settlement effects during demolition and subsequent construction. These revealed a zone of influence extending about 70 m outside the perimeter, and an extensive monitoring system was put in place. At the demolition stage, there was less than 5 mm movement measured of the adjacent Jubilee line tunnel and there was no more than 12 mm during the whole course of the project. Unlike the building it replaced, The Shard occupies virtually every square metre of the site, with no surrounding space for storage. Pre-planning was an essential requisite throughout the four-year build in this built-up commuter area.

The old building’s large concrete under-reamed piles, for example, were not deep enough to use on the new building, and were too difficult to remove or to drill through – both in terms of time and cost of jackhammering out all the concrete. The answer was to arrange the new piles in a pattern which avoided the old. With the demolition over, a perimeter wall was created round the edge of the site by sinking interlinked secant piles – closely-spaced bored piles used to form a retaining wall. The ground floor slab was then cast, with a hole left for the core to pass through, in order to act as a prop for the wall ahead of excavation beneath. The Shard is a hybrid structure: concrete in the basement, steel to level 40, concrete again to level 69 and finally a steel ‘spire’ at the top © WSP SHARD CONCEPT The Shard is an unusual mixture of concrete and steel, a tiered wedding cake of a building with a concrete basement, structural steel from ground to level 40, concrete from levels 41 to 69, and steel again from there to the top at level 95.

The whole structure is given stability by a massive concrete core that is placed in the middle of the building. This design solution was driven by the intended use of The Shard, but its side effects have been to improve the dynamics of the building, save money and add lettable space – see Controlling the sway. The lower floors of the structure will be offices, with spans of up to 15 m from perimeter to core. Structural steel columns and beams were the optimal solution for these floors, with plenty of space between the deep beams for the extensive services required. In the upper part of the building, the use changes to hotel and residential accommodation, where fewer ceiling-mounted services are required and where acoustic separation of the floors becomes much more important. The tapering of the building here means that the maximum span at this height is down to 9 m. Concrete columns and post-tensioned concrete flat slabs were the best solution on these floors. And then by reducing the storey height in this section from 3.75 m to 3.1 m it was possible to include two extra floors – an important consideration since the overall height was limited by the Civil Aviation Authority.

EXCAVATING WHILE BUILDING With the perimeter wall built and the ground floor slab cast, concrete piles were sunk to support the building, the largest piles being underneath the core and extended down as far as 53 m. Massive steel plunge columns were then embedded in the top of the piles, rising up to above B2 level. The building (and particularly, the core) could then start to rise upwards, supported on the plunge columns, while excavation of the basement proceeded underneath. With excavation complete, the B3 basement slab, the bottom of the building, was ready to be cast. Here, the engineers worked hard to design the slab to be as thin as possible, both to save unnecessary excavation and to avoid the complications of deepening the secant pile walls. The result was a remarkably thin slab by comparison with similar sized buildings elsewhere in the world. Nevertheless, at 3 m thick under the core with four layers of reinforcement in each direction, this was a massive slab, requiring the UK’s largest ever continuous concrete pour: three concrete pumps placed 700 truckloads over 36 hours, a total of 5,500 m3.

The concrete used ground-granulated blast furnace slag – a byproduct of steelmaking – as a substitute for 70% of the Portland cement. The slag has a much lower carbon footprint, eliminating 700 tonnes of CO2emissions in the base slab alone while at the same time giving off less heat as it cures. Even so, the temperature of the base slab reached more than 60°C during curing. With the base slab in place, the missing section of the core walls between the bottom of the core and the B3 slab could be cast. By the time that the core was at last resting on its final foundations, the building above had risen 23 storeys. 3D modelling showing how on certain levels of The Shard the perimeter columns kink and the floor plates have to resist lateral forces © WSP BUILDING UPWARDS Slip-forming the core – pouring the concrete almost continuously while sliding the formwork continuously up the building – has now become a conventional technique; in The Shard’s case this was done at the rate of 3 m a day.

For the tricky task of steering the slip-form to achieve an accuracy of ±25 mm in the position of the core, the contractors tried both GPS and more conventional laser guidance. To most people’s surprise, the GPS produced more consistent results. Buildings usually have some form of symmetry or regularity which can aid design and construction. By contrast, The Shard is an irregular pyramid with highly complex geometry, governed largely by the irregular shape of the site. The tower has 18 facets – a combination of large planes of glass and narrow re-entrant ‘fractures’ in between – together with a 19-storey extension, or ‘backpack’, attached to the eastern side. And because The Shard tapers as it rises, every floor plate is different. This presented plenty of design challenges requiring rigorous analysis and extensive use of 3D modelling. Up to level 40, the structure has steel columns and steel beams supporting composite steel floors consisting of steel plate with a 130 mm layer of concrete on top. From level 41, concrete columns support post-tensioned concrete floors just 200 mm thick.

With fewer ceiling-mounted services needed in the hotel and residential sections, the storey height could be lowered with most of the services confined to the edge of the floor plate. The top section, the spire, reverts to steel with composite steel floors – see Preassembling the spire. The tapering of the building creates a series of challenges for the design of the perimeter columns, both to ensure effective transfer of loads and to avoid unsightly detailing. By and large, these perimeter columns slope with the face of the building, but in places they ‘kink’ towards the vertical, creating horizontal forces that have to be transferred back to the central core through the floors. The perimeter columns are designed so that their weight, size and spacing reduce with the height of the building, adding to the effect of an increasingly delicate structure tapering into the sky: spacing varies from 6 m at the base to 3 m in the hotel section to 1.5 m in the spire. Where the changes occur, transfer structures are needed and these have been ‘hidden’ in the façade.

To avoid deep beams round the perimeter, loads were transferred using three-storey deep vierendeel trusses (frames with fixed joints that are capable of transferring and resisting bending pressures). Mace, the construction company building The Shard, aimed for continuous improvement in safety through the project. Risks were highlighted on design drawings and details were amended so that these areas were safer to construct. The edge beam in the steel levels, for example, was fabricated with floor decking, edge trim, façade brackets and edge protection already in place so that less work was needed at height in this hazardous area. An ‘empty pockets’ policy was introduced to reduce the risk of falling objects. Throughout the build there were no major incidents, but the minor incidents were investigated thoroughly in order to learn lessons and prevent recurrence. The ‘shards’ are triple-glazed, with a naturally ventilated cavity between the external glazing and the double-glazed units on the inside. Solar gain is reduced by blinds within the cavity, which are driven down automatically when necessary by the building maintenance system. The outside windows are cleaned via building maintenance units at levels 29, 75 and 87 – nine in all.

These units have multi-jointed arms that can reach around the building and lower cradles to all parts of the façade. Construction of The Shard hit its first target of ‘visual completion’ in time for the London Olympics, and now fit-out is continuing, including completion of the tower’s 44 lifts, some double-decked and some stacked over each other to serve just part of the tower. The three-storey-high viewing gallery on levels 69 to 71 will open next February, followed soon after by the five-star, 200-plus bedroom Shangri-La hotel. Then all that is needed are tenants to occupy the offices, and owners to be found for the spectacular apartments at the top of The Shard. CONTROLLING THE SWAY All tall buildings move in the wind, and gusts of 100 mph have been recorded near the top of The Shard. What the occupiers will notice is not the movement itself – in The Shard’s case, up to around 300-400 mm at the top – but the horizontal acceleration as the building sways back and forth, and this was particularly important in the hotel and residential section.

A limit of just 0.15 m/s2at level 65 was placed on the design, and achieving this required a combination of damping the oscillations (provided, conveniently, by the heavy concrete section between levels 41 to 69) and increasing stiffness. The stiffness was increased by WSP with a ‘hat truss’ at level66. This uses outrigger struts rising diagonally from the perimeter columns to the central core, with the sole purpose of reducing the lateral acceleration. But tightening the bolts on the truss had to be left until near the end of The Shard’s construction. This was because buildings shorten during construction – through foundation settlement, elastic compression of materials and (with concrete) shrinkage and creep. For a building up to around 15 storeys, the effects are negligible but with The Shard they are substantial, and they vary across the building: the perimeter columns have shortened much more than the core. This meant many additional deflection calculations for various stages of construction using ETABS structural analysis software, and considerable extra complications in construction: floors, for example, had to be built slightly off the horizontal so that they would settle into the correct position.

And only once the building was complete and most of the shortening had taken place could the hat trusses be finally fixed. REACHING NEW HEIGHTS Getting workers and materials up to the top of The Shard during construction, without delaying the high-speed programme and in all kinds of weather, was particularly challenging for the design and construction team, and prompted some unique solutions. Gaining access to the lower floors was relatively straightforward with four tower cranes round the edges of the site doing most of the heavy lifting. When the building reached 162 m, the cranes had come to the limit of their reach and new cranes were called for. First, a tower crane was attached to the rig that rose steadily up the building with the slip form – the moving formwork. This is believed to be the first time the technique of attaching a crane to the slip form has ever been tried outside North Korea, where it failed due to the difficulties of keeping the crane stable. Here, stability was successfully achieved by extending the lower section of the tower crane down into one of the already-cast lift shafts where guide rails kept it vertical. For the top section of the building, the central crane would have been in the way.

So a new tower crane was erected outside the building envelope, cantilevering off the concrete core – the first time such a technique had been used outside the US, and at 317 m, the UK’s highest ever crane. This made a dramatic sight on the London skyline, as the tapering building moved further away from the crane as it progressed upwards (see diagram) With the external construction complete, there came the inevitable conundrum: no crane can lower itself to the ground. A ‘recovery crane’ was erected by the cantilevered tower crane, which was then dismantled and lowered by the recovery crane. Then a smaller, spider crane was taken up the jump-lift in pieces, assembled, and taken down the same way after lowering the recovery crane in pieces. PREASSEMBLING THE SPIRE At the top of The Shard sits the steel and glass spire. Containing just 530 tonnes of The Shard’s total weight of 12,500 tonnes of structural steel, it is light compared with the remainder of the building, but at 60 m and 23 storeys high, it is a significant building in its own right.

In addition, It had to be assembled 300 m up in the air, over the top of the highest point of the concrete core, where winds can reach speeds of 100mph. This was never going to be easy, and there were concerns about how to construct it safely and without delays. The architect recognised that the spire would be the focal point of the whole building and so he wanted it as perfect as possible. The solution was to minimise work at height by pre-assembling the spire in modules, in a two-stage process. First the steelwork, with flooring added, was built in segments up to 3 m wide, just small enough to fit on 3 m-wide trailers for transport to site. Once on site, segments were bolted together to get as close as possible to the 7.5 tonne limit of the tower crane, thus reducing the number of crane lifts from 800 to only around 100. And to be sure that it could all be done ‘right first time’, it was decided first to do a dry-run of the process, assembling the whole spire in three-storey sections in steelwork contractor Severfield Rowan’s Yorkshire works.

This enabled any risks or difficulties to be identified before final assembly, and also allowed the architect to make adjustments to the appearance, for example by improving the quality of the welding where the finish would be visible. The modularisation and test erection paid off, as crane lifts for the highest levels were severely restricted by high winds during the build phase. BIOGRAPHY John Parker is a Technical Director for WSP’s London structures team. He has worked on Hungerford Bridge, the Jubilee Line Extension and London Bridge station projects as well as The Shard. He is particularly interested in enhancing architecture through expressed structural engineering. The Tallest Tower - Building The Shard - Channel 4 - YouTube The Tallest Tower - Building The Shard - Channel 4 Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.

Published on Jun 9, 2012 Channel 4 - The Tallest Tower Building The Shard - This programme is amazing - Shard London Bridge or The Shard (formerly known as London Bridge Tower[4][5] or the Shard of Glass)[6][7] is a skyscraper in Southwark, London. Standing almost 310 metres (1,020 ft) tall, it is the tallest building in the European Union. It is also the second-tallest free-standing structure in the United Kingdom, after the 330-metre (1,083 ft) concrete tower at the Emley Moor transmitting station. The Shard replaced Southwark Towers, a 24-storey office building constructed on the site in 1975. Renzo Piano, the Shard's architect, worked with the architectural firm Broadway Malyan during the planning stage. The tower has 72 habitable floors, with a viewing gallery and open-air observation deck -- the UK's highest -- on the 72nd floor.[8] It was designed with an irregular pyramidal shape from the base to the top, and is clad entirely in glass.

Shard London Bridge's structure was completed in April 2012, and it will open to the public on 5 July 2012 Category The Shard - The Skyscraper Center The Shard 244.3 m / 802 ft Height: To Tip 306 m / 1,004 ft Severfield About The Shard The iconic tower has redefined the London skyline and is already an international symbol for London. A mixed-use “vertical city,” it offers more than 55,000 square meters of office space on 25 floors, three floors of restaurants, a 17-story hotel, 13 floors of apartments and a triple-height viewing gallery, as well as an open-air viewing floor on level 72. It is crowned with a steel-framed pinnacle and clad with shards of glass designed to blend into the sky. Standing next to London Bridge Station, one of London’s busiest transport hubs, at the heart of London Bridge Quarter, London’s newest commercial quarter, the Shard is a key part of the regeneration of London’s South Bank.

The name “The Shard” is derived from the architect’s description of the development as a “shard of glass” during planning stages. Its design was influenced by the irregular nature of the site. The tapered form of the building provides efficient and economic floor design, with optimally sized floor plates conducive to its function as a multi-use development. Thus, offices on the lower floor make use of large open plan spaces with minimal structural intrusion, while the upper floors suit the uses of the hotel rooms and apartments, which require smaller floor plates. Moving further up into the spire, steel beams and columns with elegantly detailed connections help create an aesthetic, open space for the public to appreciate the views. Matching the structure to the different uses allowed efficient use of materials, reducing both cost and the amount of embodied carbon on the project. It also maximized the net lettable area for the client. Delivering Europe’s tallest tower in record time drove structural engineers and contractors to rethink the basic principles of construction and use new techniques to go higher and faster than had been conducted in the UK previously.

To overcome the challenges of building a skyscraper safely in central London, adjacent to a major transport hub, the team delivered a number of firsts: the first core to be built by top-down construction, the UK’s largest concrete pour, the first use of jump-lift construction, the first inclined hoist in the world, and the first crane to be supported on a slipform. A specially designed laster-guided drilling rig was used to surgically place pilings among Victorian-era underground utilities and ancient archaelogical finds. Top-down construction allowed the first 23 stories of the concrete core and much of the surrounding tower to be built before the basement had been fully excavated. This technique was a world first and saved four months on the complex program. The distinct tapering form is achieved in five structural parts. From basement level three to the 72nd floor there is a reinforced concrete core. The first 40 floors are a composite steel frame, while a post-tension concrete frame runs up to level 60, with a traditional reinforced concrete frame taking the project to level 72. The spire, to level 87, is made of steel. The mixture of concrete and steel increased the efficiency of the structure.

The design negated the need for expensive tuned mass dampers by building the hotel and apartment levels in concrete, sandwiched between the steel office floors and spire. Post-tensioned concrete was more suitable for the smaller spans higher up the building and saved 550 millimeters per floor. The concrete also provided structural damping, thus saving money and weight and releasing a further two floors as lettable space. In addition, fabricated uniform-depth steel beams acting compositely with the concrete floor slabs optimized the space in the ceilings for services. The Shard is intended to regenerate and energize South London. The development promotes sustainable travel by including only 48 car parking spaces and features a major refurbishment of the adjacent London Bridge station, which handles 54 million passengers a day.

CTBUH Initiatives Inaugural Japan Symposium Rises to the Occasion in Tokyo 22 May 2015, Tokyo – Event Report CTBUH held its inaugural Japan Symposium at the Academy Hills lecture hall of the Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills, bringing together leading experts CTBUH Releases Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2013 Dec 2013 – CTBUH Journal Paper By all appearances, the small increase in the total number of tall-building completions from 2012 into 2013 is indicative of a return to the prevalent trend of increasing completions each year over… CTBUH Releases Study on the Past, Present and Future of the European Skyscraper Jun 2013 – CTBUH Journal Paper There are currently 109 skyscrapers over 150 meters in Europe. This number is set to jump to 161 by the end of 2015, meaning that there are more than 50 projects in advanced stages of construction. London Report: Bucking a Western Trend?

Jul 2011, London – Tour Report Executive Director Antony Wood visited the UK in July for the inaugural meeting of a future CTBUH UK Chapter and other endeavors. Shard London Bridge Visit 23 Jan 2011, London – Tour Report While in London, CTBUH’s Jan Klerks took the opportunity to visit the city's future tallest building; the Shard London Bridge, currently rising next to London Bridge Station.

Global News The Shard is Nearly 70 Percent Leased with Some of the Highest Rents in London 27 Aug 2015 A letting at The Shard in London has broken price records for the South Bank and the City, as a German IT company has struck a deal to take the entire 26th floor of the… Rooms with a (Raunchy) View from London’s Shard 13 May 2014 Visitors to London’s Shangri-La Hotel at The Shard may be impressed initially with the ceiling-to-floor glass walls that offer unparalleled sweeping views of the city,… Think Tank Predicts 236 Skyscrapers Will Sprout in London 13 Mar 2014 A recent study by New London Architecture (NLA) found that 236 towers over 20 stories tall are already proposed, approved, or under construction in London, with the… Shard's Shangri-la Hotel Sets Opening Date 10 Feb 2014 The long wait for the opening of the Shangri-la hotel, located within The Shard, will end this spring when the Hong-Kong-based group opens its third European luxury hotel… Shard Hosts Top Dining Hot-Spot, Remains

 Largely Vacant Below 28 Jan 2014 Three restaurants with sky-high views in the Shard were listed as the most visited in London, despite the lack of occupants in the rest of the building.

However, the… Shard Architect to Build Neighboring Residential Tower 16 Jan 2014 A new Renzo Piano-designed tower is joining the London Bridge Quarter neighborhood; less than a year after the completion of The Shard. The "new" 27-story tower will be a… Pritzker-winning Architect Designs Paris Courthouse Tower 14 Oct 2013 Renzo Piano Building Workshop has unveiled the design of the Paris Courthouse, a multi-story tower comprised of four volumes. The Palais de Justice, located in the Clichy… Iconic Buildings Become Pawns in Skyline Chess 28 Aug 2013 Iconic London architecture becomes kings, queens and pawns in Skyline Chess Set, by Ian Flood & Chriss Prosser. Famous and cherished structures of the city, including The… Greenpeace Makes an Icy Statement on The Shard 11 Jul 2013 Six women attempted to climb London's Shard this morning, Thursday, July 11, in protest over Arctic oil drilling.

The six activists evaded security guards at 4 AM, London… London Media Joins the Skyscraper Debate 11 Jun 2013 As the tall building community comes to London for the CTBUH 2013 London Conference, media sources in the city are examining the legacy of the tall building in the… Shard Secures First Office Tenant 3 May 2013 Financial advisory and investment banking firm Duff & Phelps has signed a contract to lease about 20,000 square feet (1,806 square meters) of office space in the Shard.… The Guardian's Readers Celebrate Tall Buildings 22 Apr 2013 As part of the Guardian's "Assignment of the Week" photography initiative, readers are encouraged to submit photos of tall buildings around the world.

The theme was… Renzo Piano Discusses The Shard 19 Feb 2013 BBC journalist Sarah Montague spoke to the designer of London's recently completed Shard as part of her show, 'Hardtalk.' The episode features Italian architect Renzo… The Shard Celebrates Foggy Opening Day 4 Feb 2013 London's Shard officially acquired the title of Europe's tallest skyscraper with the opening of the viewing platform on February 1. Designed by Italian Pritzker Prize-… Tickets for First Access to Shard Viewing Area Sold Out 11 Jan 2013 Tickets for the first two days of access to the Shard's viewing floor have sold out, despite a GBP24.95 price tag. The first visitors will be taken to the viewing area on… Videos Videos Related to The Shard Videos Related to The Shard Europe's Tallest: The Shard 27 Oct 2015 – Presentation at CTBUH 2015 New York Conference; Irvine Sellar, Sellar Property London is considered one of the world’s safest harbors for investment capital.

However, it has also been one of the lightning rods in the rapidly developing debate over… 2015 New York Conference - Plenary 2 - Q&A 27 Oct 2015 – Presentation at CTBUH 2015 New York Conference; Panel Questions & Answers H.E. Abdulrahman Al-Shaikh, MOMRA; Mounib Hammoud, Jeddah Economic Company; Irvine Sellar, Sellar Property Group; and Sorapoj Techakraisri, PACE Development, answer… Interview: Irvine Sellar 27 Oct 2015 – 2015 New York Conference Interviews; Irvine Sellar, Sellar Property Irvine Sellar of Sellar Property is interviewed by Chris Bentley during the 2015 CTBUH New York Conference at the Grand Hyatt New York. Irvine discusses the design in the… Blades of Steel: Understanding the Limits of Metal Façade Design 16 Sep 2014 – Presentation at CTBUH 2014 Shanghai Conference; Patrick Loughran, Goettsch Partners Metal claddings frequently skin our tall buildings.

They provide the texture and shine that help distinguish one glass tower from the next. Like the fabric on a well-… Best Tall Building Europe: The Shard: Building Europe’s Tallest 7 Nov 2013 – CTBUH "12th Annual Awards"; Bill Price, WSP; Dave Elder, Mace The winner of the Best Tall Building Europe award, The Shard is both heroic on the skyline and beautifully executed at the scale of the pedestrian, and clearly… CTBUH 12th Annual Awards Dinner 7 Nov 2013 – CTBUH "12th Annual Awards"; Dinner 2013 The 12th Annual Awards Ceremony & Dinner was held in Mies van der Rohe's iconic Crown Hall, on the Illinois Institute of Technology campus, Chicago. The 2013 "Best Tall… Interview: The Shard 7 Nov 2013 – 2013 Awards Ceremony/Symposium Interviews; Bill Price, WSP; Dave Elder, Mace Dave Elder and Bill Price discuss The Shard, the Best Tall Building Europe Winner.

They discuss the lengthy process of designing the building and then getting it through… Interview: The Shard 12 Jun 2013 – 2013 London Conference Interviews; Irvine Sellar, Sellar Property Irvine Sellar of Sellar Property is interviewed by Jeff Herzer during the 2013 CTBUH London Conference at The Brewery, London. Irvine talks about the process of getting… Interview: Heritage and Future of London Tall Buildings 11 Jun 2013 – 2013 London Conference Interviews; Kamran Moazami, WSP Kamran Moazami of WSP Group is interviewed by Jeff Herzer during the 2013 CTBUH London Conference at The Brewery, London. Kamran discusses the history of the high-rise in… Interview: Integration of Tall Buildings 11 Jun 2013 – 2013 London Conference Interviews; Sir Terry Farrell, Farrells; Stephan Krummeck, Farrells Sir Terry Farrell & Stephan Krummeck of Farrells are interviewed by Jeff Herzer during the 2013 CTBUH London Conference at The Brewery, London.

Terry and Stephan talk… Reaching New Heights: The Shard 11 Jun 2013 – Presentation at CTBUH 2013 London Conference; Irvine Sellar, Sellar Property There was perhaps no better example of a tall building that encapsulates the overall conference theme than The Shard. Subject to numerous planning enquiries and great… Interview: BREEAM and LEED 21 Sep 2012 – 2012 Shanghai Congress Interviews; Steve Watts, Davis Langdon Steve Watts of AECOM Davis Langdon is interviewed by Jeff Herzer during the 2012 CTBUH Shanghai Congress at the Jin Mao, Shanghai.

Steve discusses the value of different… Effective & Sustainable Tall Buildings: A Blueprint for the Future 19 Sep 2012 – Presentation at CTBUH 2012 9th World Congress, Shanghai; Steve Watts, Davis Langdon; Judit Kimpian, Aedas This presentation discussed the “Future Office” study focusing on the principle of exploring simultaneously the environmental, social, and economic sustainability of a… Interview: Marketing of Tall Buildings 19 Sep 2012 – 2012 Shanghai Congress Interviews; William Murray, Wordsearch William Murray of Wordsearch is interviewed by Jeff Herzer during the 2012 CTBUH Shanghai Congress at the Jin Mao, Shanghai. William discusses the marketing of tall… Selling Tall: The Branding and Marketing of Tall Buildings 19 Sep 2012 – Presentation at CTBUH 2012 9th World Congress, Shanghai; William Murray Wordsearch Tall buildings are important brands – creating both value and recognition for the cities and countries that create them.

We have a duty to ensure that the messaging,… The Other Side of Tall Buildings: The Urban Habitat Feb 2016 – CTBUH Journal, 2016 Issue I; Daniel Safarik, CTBUH A growing number of tall buildings recognized by the CTBUH, through its international awards programs and research, are noteworthy not so much because of their sheer… Developing an Icon – The Story of the Shard 26 Oct 2015 – Global Interchanges: Resurgence of the Skyscraper City; Irvine Sellar, Sellar Property Group London is considered one of the world’s safest harbors for investment capital.

However, it has also been one of the lightning rods in the rapidly developing debate over… Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2013 Dec 2013 – CTBUH Journal, 2014 Issue I; Daniel Safarik, Antony Wood, Marty Carver & Marshall Gerometta, CTBUH By all appearances, the small increase in the total number of tall-building completions from 2012 into 2013 is indicative of a return to the prevalent trend of increasing… From “Dry and Safe” to “Tall and Sharp” / Owning an Icon Jun 2013 – Irvine Sellar, Sellar Property; Kent Gardner, Evans Randall The owners of two of London’s most significant skyscrapers, Irvine Sellar of the Shard and Kent Gardner of the Gherkin, spoke with CTBUH about the challenges and rewards… Tall Buildings in Numbers: The Past, Present and Future of the European Skyscraper Jun 2013 – CTBUH Journal, 2013 Issue II; CTBUH Research There are currently 109 skyscrapers over 150 meters in Europe.

This number is set to jump to 161 by the end of 2015, meaning that there are more than 50 projects in… Engineering Tall in Historic Cities: The Shard May 2013 – CTBUH Journal, 2013 Issue II; Kamran Moazami & Ron Slade, WSP Can historic cities preserve their character and identity while embracing the modern tall building phenomenon? Two engineering-team leaders behind the Shard discuss the… The Shard, London, UK 13 Jan 2013 – Corporate Publication As the tallest skyscraper in Western Europe, The Shard takes its name from the four shards of the doubleglazed glass façade set at various angles, towering more than 20m… Sustainability and the Tall Building: Recent Developments and Future Trends Jan 2010 – AIA Illinois Central Symposium; Mir M. Ali & Paul Armstrong, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign As a major energy consumer, the tall building does not ordinarily conjure images of sustainable design.

But a new generation of tall buildings is incorporating new… Steel-Concrete-Steel: Unique Hybrids at London Tallest Mar 2008 – CTBUH 2008 8th World Congress, Dubai; Kamran Moazami, John Parker & Rodolfo Giannini, WSP Cantor Seinuk This paper presents the structural engineering design approach used to create the iconic tower named the ‘Shard at London Bridge’ (Architect: Renzo Piano Building… The Shard - The World Federation of Great Towers The Shard Website The Shard will become Western Europe’s tallest building when completed in May 2012. Designed by world renowned architect Renzo Piano, and standing at an inspiring 310 meters (1,016 feet), it will be an iconic and positive addition to the London skyline and a truly landmark project. Inspired by the spires of London’s churches and the top sails of the ships that used to moor on the Thames, the Shard is an elegant slim glass spire with individual ‘‘shards’’ that make up the outer skin. The use of sophisticated glazing and angled panes reflect the light as the sun moves, creating an elegant presence on the skyline.

Located at London Bridge Quarter, replacing the 28 year old Southwark Tower, the scheme has been conceived by Renzo Piano as a mixed use ‘‘vertical city’’ that includes a public piazza, world class office space, an exclusive collection of residential apartments which will be the highest in the UK, the 5-star Shangri-La Hotel with spa and pool and international restaurants and viewing galleries offering unprecedented 360 degree views of London. Unlike other skyscrapers in London the Shard has a mix of elements to encourage public interaction, combining both public and private space in one energetic community. It is expected to become a new focal point in the capital and to be adopted enthusiastically by Londoners. The Place, also designed by Renzo Piano, sits alongside the Shard and benefits from a stunning roof terrace. At 17 floors, it offers an impressive 600,000 sq ft of office space making it a perfect corporate headquarters. London Bridge Quarter integrates these two landmark buildings into one master planned project that will transform and upgrade London Bridge station to the highest standards of transport design, connecting seamlessly to new public realm to transform the public space outside London Bridge Station into a dynamic commercial and mixed use area.

London Bridge Quarter is a development by Sellar on behalf of LBQ Ltd, a joint venture between Sellar Property Group and the State of Qatar. FACTS AND STATISTICS The World Federation of Great Towers PO Box 11278 The Vision | The Shard The Vision The Vision The story Irvine Sellar, The Shard’s developer and joint owner, had an ambitious vision to create an architecturally striking vertical city incorporating retail, offices, hotel, apartments, restaurants and a public viewing gallery. His idea was to build a diverse vibrant community, and provide multiple areas within which the public could experience the building and its magnificent views. And all of this astride one of London’s major transport hubs. Sellar acquired Southwark Towers, occupied by PwC, as an investment in November 1998. When the UK government shortly afterwards began encouraging high-density developments close to transport hubs, Sellar set about planning a world-class building that would capture people’s imagination.

He arranged lunch in Berlin with award-winning architect Renzo Piano and, Sellar says, the architect’s initial reaction was far from encouraging: “Renzo said: ‘You know, I hate tall buildings – they are arrogant, aggressive, like fortresses.’ I thought it was going to be a short lunch. “But there was something about the energy of the railway lines and the beauty of the Thames that appealed to him. So Renzo turned over his menu and started to sketch. What he drew in a matter of seconds bears a remarkable resemblance to The Shard today.“ Having seen the sketch, Sellar told Piano that if he would sign it and sign up, then he would build The Shard. Piano wrote: “To Irvine from Renzo, May 2000 Berlin” – and The Shard journey was under way. Some challenging years followed, during which the project overcame a lengthy planning process and a high-profile public inquiry, only for investment to slip away following the global economic crash. But The Shard’s future was assured in 2008 when the State of Qatar came on board as a partner who shared Sellar’s vision. The construction phase was exhilarating and testing in equal measure.

The team overcame sub-zero temperatures, gale force winds and the Thames breaking through the protective dam. Pioneering engineering methods were used, such as top-down construction, where foundations are dug while the core is built up – a first for the UK. Over one 36-hour period – employing 700 lorry-loads, one every three minutes – the team poured 5,400 cubic metres of concrete. The years of hard work and ingenuity came to fruition in 2012, when The Shard was completed and officially opened by the Prime Minister of Qatar. Since then, its restaurants, hotel and viewing gallery have opened to the public and tenants have begun to move into its offices. “The vision for The Shard was to create an architecturally striking vertical city incorporating retail, offices, hotel, apartments, restaurants and a public viewing gallery.” The Shard developer and joint owner Irvine Sellar Today, The Shard is a living, dynamic building, full of energy. Its sits proudly next to its stunning sister building, The News Building, now headquarters to News UK and illustrious titles and media brands: The Times, HarperCollins, Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal.

These two Renzo-designed buildings will be occupied by 12,500 people and are already establishing a new vibrant community - London Bridge Quarter. The finished building remained true to the original vision of a “Vertical City” with multiple and different occupiers, many of which will operate 24 hours a day, including hotel, education, medical, tourist attraction, residential, retail, restaurant, and offices. The Shard’s proximity to London Bridge Station, which itself is being transformed into a 21st-century transport hub used by 75 million people a year, means travelling to it is a smooth experience for occupiers and visitors alike. On 5 July 2012 The Shard was formally inaugurated by His Excellency Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassem Bin Jabor Al Thani, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Qatar, and HRH the Duke of York KG, in an event that marked the physical completion of the exterior of the building and represented the culmination of a 12-year journey to build a significant new landmark on the London skyline. The inauguration was also marked by a spectacular light and laser show that illuminated the building.

“Standing at almost 310 metres, The Shard will be one of the tallest buildings in Western Europe. For me however, the height of The Shard is only secondary. What is special is the solid and continuing relationship between two nations - Qatar and Britain - which has been an important factor in completing this project.” His Excellency Sheikh Abdullah Bin Saoud Al Thani Governor of Qatar Central Bank Architecture Taking inspiration from the spires of London churches and the masts of tall ships depicted by the 18th-century Venetian painter Canaletto, Renzo Piano designed The Shard as a spire-like sculpture emerging from the River Thames. The slender pyramidal form was tuned to the mix of uses that the building contains; offices making use of the large floor plates on levels 4-28, and directly connected to the busy transport hub at ground level. Immediately above are three floors of restaurants and bars. The hotel occupies the central section of the building, with the residences above, where the building is slender enough for apartments to have views on all sides. The final floors accommodate the UK's highest public viewing galleries, 240m above street level.

The spectacular glass and steel spire at 95 storeys (310m) high forms its summit, tapering off and disappearing into the sky - a particularly important detail for Piano given the building’s prominence on the London skyline. Eight sloping glass facades, the "shards", define the shape and visual quality of the tower, fragmenting the scale of the building and reflecting the light in unpredictable ways. Opening vents in the gaps or “fractures” between the shards, provide natural ventilation to winter gardens. Fundamental to Piano’s vision of the building was the idea of lightness and transparency. For all its height, The Shard would be an elegant spire in contrast to the bulky high-rises of the past. Realizing this idea meant using glass in a highly innovative way. Piano’s sophisticated use of extra white glass, with these expressive façades gives the tower a lightness and a sensitivity to the changing sky around it, The Shard’s colour and mood are constantly changing according to the weather and seasons. It required a particular technical solution to ensure the facade’s performance in terms of controlling light and heat. A double-skin, naturally ventilated facade with internal blinds that respond automatically to changes in light levels was developed.

Outstanding architecture is why a million people visited The Shard’s viewing platform in its first year; why up to six thousand people a day visit The Shard’s restaurants and bars; why tens of thousands are expected to visit the Shangri-La hotel; why its office occupiers are reporting substantial uplift in new business since moving in; and why Londoners, especially, embrace this magnificent building. What the experts think Architect Richard Rogers “The Shard is the most beautiful addition to the London skyline.

Its beauty is in part due to the ever-changing play of light across the facades of the building.” Architecture Foundation director Sarah Ichioka "It soars solo, scaleless, elegantly free from the confines of context.” Peter Rees, City of London Chief Planning Officer "The Shard is architecturally cultured and a great addition to the London skyline." Boris Johnson, Mayor of London “If Christopher Wren had access to glass and steel, do you not think he would have built something as tall as The Shard?” Architect Amanda Levete “Its height and relationship to the city is daring and awe-inspiring, respectful of both historical neighbours and contemporaries without yielding its confidence and command of the cityscape.” Timeline 1999: After a government white paper encourages the development of tall buildings at major transport hubs, Irvine Sellar decides to redevelop Southwark Towers, a 1970s office complex he had acquired, and which was occupied by PwC. 2000: Sellar meets Renzo Piano in Berlin and asks him to create a 'vertical city' on the Southwark Towers site - a place where people would work, live, visit and enjoy themselves.

They agreed it was fundamental to have public access to the building - something that would be unusual for a tall structure in London. 2003: Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott announces he is satisfied with the architectural quality of the proposed building and that construction can go ahead 2007: Developers buy the occupational lease from PwC and preparations are made for demolition of Southwark Towers 2008: After the financial crisis causes problems for the project, a consortium of Qatari investors steps in to provide funds and work to demolish the Southwark Towers begins in April 2009: Demolition of the existing site is completed and construction starts in March 2010: As construction continues, the concrete core of the building rises steadily by approximately three metres a day until in November, it becomes Britain’s tallest building, replacing One Canada Square in Canary Wharf. 2011: The core is topped out in early 2011 and as work continues, by late December 2011, the Shard overtakes the Commerzbank Tower in Frankfurt to becomes the tallest building in the European Union.

2012: On March 30, the 66-metre spire was winched into place, bringing the tower to its full height. The building is inaugurated in July by the Prime Minister of Qatar, Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, in a ceremony attended by Prince Andrew, Duke of York. 2013: The viewing platform is officially opened by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, on 1 February. The Shard's restaurants and bars - Hutong, Oblix and Aqua Shard - open over the summer, at the same time as the first office tenant, Duff & Phelps, moves into the building. In November, Her Majesty the Queen and HRH Prince Phillip visit The Shard. 2014: In February, The View from The Shard reported one million people visited the attraction in its first year. More office tenants move into The Shard, including Mathys & Squire, Foresight and South Hook Gas. The Shangri-La Hotel opens in May to critical acclaim. In June, The Shard announces another three office tenants have leased space, while later in the year Al Jazeera (September) and Warwick Business School (November) move in.

2015: Valentine’s Day 2015 at The View from The Shard saw a record day of sales with 6161 visitors, pouring 2,414 glasses of champagne and a marriage proposal on average every 30 minutes. The year also saw 10 new tenants welcomed into the vertical city including The Office Group (TOG), global recruiter Robert Half and business consultancy Protiviti, who leased 20,200 sq ft of office space on Level 10, with io oil & gas consulting; Leonteq, software giant Sage, International law firm Greenberg Traurig Maher (GTM), Khazanah Europe Investments Ltd (KEIL), Medical Protection Society and Sapphire Systems. The broad range of business sectors that now occupy the building range across 14 sectors. London Skyscraper Takes Title of Tallest Building in Europe | TIME.com London Skyscraper Takes Title of Tallest Building in Europe The 1,016-foot skyscraper is the tallest building in Europe, for now. Send to Kindle REUTERS/Olivia Harris A laser and searchlight show marks the completion of the exterior of the Shard building in central London July 5, 2012.

The 1,016-foot building is the tallest in western Europe. Related Follow @TIMENewsfeed London’s skyline got a new look last week when the tallest building in Europe was officially unveiled and feted with a laser light show. The skyscraper, known as The Shard, is a 1,016-foot pyramid that towers the mostly low-lying city — a fact that has displeased many of its neighbors. Designed by architect Renzo Piano, The Shard is London’s tallest building by far, looming roughly 246 feet higher than One Canada Square — now formerly the tallest tower in London. While The Shard also holds the title of tallest building in Europe, its reign will be short-lived. The Mercury City Tower in Moscow is expected to be completed later this year. If all goes as planned, the Mercury City Tower will measure 1,089 ft, beating the Shard by 73 feet.

(MORE: TIME Olympics Blog: London Calling ) At the unveiling ceremony, Prince Andrew said the building was a “huge new boost,” according to the BBC , adding, “I’m sure that we would all be extremely glad if this could be repeated in a number of other areas across the U.K.” Prince Andrew was joined at the celebration by the Qatari prime minister, Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani. The Shard was funded — and is partly owned — by the country of Qatar National Bank, a fact that also irked the neighbors. “We have this massive pyramid slapped down here as a monument to the munificence of the Emirate of Qatar,” said Russell Gray, a spokesman for a neighborhood group, who was also unhappy about the $40 per person entrance fee for the building’s viewing platform. The city’s politicians saw it differently, though. “It brought 10,000 jobs to one of the most run down and deprived areas of London but unlike a lot of the other tall buildings, Londoners will have access to this one,” Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone told the BBC . The skyscraper, he added, “will define London and it’s our equivalent to the Empire State building.”

Question: What city's tallest building is "The Shard", completed in 2012?
Answer: London