London City : Gherkin Double Take
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London | Architecture | Night Photography
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30 St Mary Axe, also known as the Gherkin and the Swiss Re Building, is a skyscraper in 's London main financial district, the City of London, completed in December 2003 and opened on 28 April 2004. It is 180 metres (591 ft) tall, with 40 floors. Its construction symbolised the start of a new high-rise construction boom in London.
The building was designed by Lord Foster, his then business partner Ken Shuttleworth[1] and Arup engineers, and was constructed by Skanska of Sweden in 2001–2004.
The building is on the former site of the Baltic Exchange building, the headquarters of a global marketplace for ship sales and shipping information. On 10 April 1992 the Provisional IRA detonated a bomb close to the Exchange, severely damaging the historic Exchange building and neighbouring structures.
The UK government's statutory adviser on the historic environment, English Heritage, and the City of London governing body, the City of London Corporation, were keen that any redevelopment must restore the building's old façade onto St Mary Axe. The Exchange Hall was a celebrated fixture of the ship trading company.
After English Heritage later discovered the damage was far more severe than previously thought, they stopped insisting on full restoration, albeit over the objections of the architectural conservationists who favoured reconstruction. Baltic Exchange sold the land to Trafalgar House in 1995.[9] Most of the remaining structures on the site were then carefully dismantled, the interior of Exchange Hall and the façade were preserved, hoping for a reconstruction of the building in the future.
In 1996 Trafalgar House submitted plans for the Millennium Tower, a 386 metres (1,266 ft) building with more than 140,000 m2 (1,500,000 sq ft) office space, apartments, shops, restaurants and gardens. This plan was dropped after objections for being totally out-of-scale with the City of London and anticipated disruption to flight paths for both City and Heathrow airports; the revised plan for a lower tower was accepted.
The gherkin name dates back to at least 1999, referring to that plan's highly unorthodox layout and appearance. Due to the current building's somewhat phallic appearance, other inventive names have also been used for the building, including the Erotic gherkin, the Towering Innuendo, and the Crystal Phallus
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30_St_Mary_Axe
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Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved
London City Gherkin Double Take
London City : Gherkin Double Take
TWITTER | WWW.DAVIDGUTIERREZ.CO.UK | SAATCHI ONLINE | YOUTUBE | FACEBOOK | REDBUBBLE
London | Architecture | Night Photography
==================================================================
30 St Mary Axe, also known as the Gherkin and the Swiss Re Building, is a skyscraper in 's London main financial district, the City of London, completed in December 2003 and opened on 28 April 2004. It is 180 metres (591 ft) tall, with 40 floors. Its construction symbolised the start of a new high-rise construction boom in London.
The building was designed by Lord Foster, his then business partner Ken Shuttleworth[1] and Arup engineers, and was constructed by Skanska of Sweden in 2001–2004.
The building is on the former site of the Baltic Exchange building, the headquarters of a global marketplace for ship sales and shipping information. On 10 April 1992 the Provisional IRA detonated a bomb close to the Exchange, severely damaging the historic Exchange building and neighbouring structures.
The UK government's statutory adviser on the historic environment, English Heritage, and the City of London governing body, the City of London Corporation, were keen that any redevelopment must restore the building's old façade onto St Mary Axe. The Exchange Hall was a celebrated fixture of the ship trading company.
After English Heritage later discovered the damage was far more severe than previously thought, they stopped insisting on full restoration, albeit over the objections of the architectural conservationists who favoured reconstruction. Baltic Exchange sold the land to Trafalgar House in 1995.[9] Most of the remaining structures on the site were then carefully dismantled, the interior of Exchange Hall and the façade were preserved, hoping for a reconstruction of the building in the future.
In 1996 Trafalgar House submitted plans for the Millennium Tower, a 386 metres (1,266 ft) building with more than 140,000 m2 (1,500,000 sq ft) office space, apartments, shops, restaurants and gardens. This plan was dropped after objections for being totally out-of-scale with the City of London and anticipated disruption to flight paths for both City and Heathrow airports; the revised plan for a lower tower was accepted.
The gherkin name dates back to at least 1999, referring to that plan's highly unorthodox layout and appearance. Due to the current building's somewhat phallic appearance, other inventive names have also been used for the building, including the Erotic gherkin, the Towering Innuendo, and the Crystal Phallus
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30_St_Mary_Axe
==================================================================
Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved
London City Gherkin Double Take