The Shard has been in the news recently, a commercial property portrayed as the young (very high) upstart, overshadowing the venerable St Paul’s Cathedral.
The controversy comes as little surprise for those who have followed the occasionally buffeted ascent of 32 London Bridge.
The Shard was designed in 2000 by Renzo Piano, an Italian architect responsible for creating Paris’ Pompidou Centre. Approval took a further three years, following a planning inquiry where development plans were opposed by heritage groups.
In 2007, the impending financial crisis led to rumours that the project would be put on hold. Some funders were reported to be looking to sell their stake and building developers Mace upped the price by £85m, leaving plans for The Shard looking shaky.
In 2008, a Qatari cash injection of £150m reignited the project and, in March 2009, Mace began construction on this iconic commercial property.
Now, photos show a building close to completion. In 2012 it will reach 310 metres, its 72 floors and 15 further radiator floors in the roof making it the tallest building in the European Union and forty-fifth in the rankings of the tallest in the world.
There will be restaurants, a viewing gallery, residential apartments, a five-star Shangri-La Hotel and showers, presumably for the healthy types who will walk instead of taking the lift up to one of the twenty-five floors of office space in this monumental commercial property.
The Shard will not be alone. Further investment is coming via a second, smaller commercial property, initially projected to offer 600,000 sq ft of space in London Bridge Place. Nicknamed ‘The Baby Shard’, it will be situated next door, offering offices with floors of over 30,000 sq ft and incorporating a new entrance to London Bridge Station.
It seems that, in the year of the Olympics, The Shard is destined be a worthy record-breaker.
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