renzo piano: the shard in london opens to public

‘the shard’ by renzo piano, london, england with view towards canary wharf image © sellar

formally named ‘the london bridge tower’, but now commonly referred to as ‘the shard’ by italian architect renzo piano has been complete since the summer of 2012 and officially opens to the public on february 1, 2013. currently considered the tallest building in western europe, the needle-point structure stands 309.6 meters above the new london bridge quarter in the south bank district and is home to a number of programs including office space, restaurants, 5-star shangri-la hotel and residences.

situated at the top on floors 68, 69 and 72 are platforms, with the one on the uppermost level standing at twice the height of any other viewing deck in london offering panoramic lookouts of 64 km (40 miles). here, at the highest public level, 244m above ground – accessed by elevators travelling approximately 6 meters per second – one will experience the structural pieces of the glass that form the top of ‘the shard’ and disappear into the sky. a centerpiece to the 2 million square meter development, the 72-storey mixed-use tower was inaugurated with a nighttime light show, which combined 12 lasers and 30 searchlights to celebrate the skyline’s newest addition.

read more about ‘the shard’ and see images of the construction phase on designboom here.

‘the shard’ is located within the london bridge quarter image © sellar

view from tower bridge image © sellar

‘the shard’ along the london skylineimage © sellar

light show inauguration image © sellar

view from millennium bridge image © michel denancé

panorama image © michel denancé

image © sellar

the facadeimage © sellar

office entrance image © sellar

winter garden image © sellar

restaurant image © sellar

viewing gallery image © sellar

spire image © sellar

the 360 degree views from ‘the shard’ lookout decksimage © sellar

site image © renzo piano building workshop

site image © renzo piano building workshop

site plan image © renzo piano building workshop

top detail section image © renzo piano building workshop

renzo piano’s sketch image © renzo piano building workshop

section image © renzo piano building workshop

mid level piazza image © renzo piano building workshop

renzo piano’s sketch image © renzo piano building workshop

project info:

country +start/end date: london (uk), 2000 -2012 client: sellar property group destination of use: offices, residential, hotel, restaurant, café, commercial total floor area: 126.712 sqm (gross); 83.104 sqm (net) height: 306m / 72 public floors / 87 total gross floor area: 126,712 m² / 1,374,692 sqft offices: levels 4-28 : 55,277 m² / 595,000 sqft restaurant: levels 31-33 : 2,608 m² / 28,073 sqft hotel: levels 34-52 : 17,562 m² / 189,037 sqft – 200 rooms leased to shangri-la hotels residential: levels 53-65 : 5,788 m² / 62,302 sqft – 10 apartments viewing gallery: levels 68-72 : 1,391 m²/14,973 sqft car parking: 48 spaces in car stacking machine lifts: 44 lifts + 8 escalators staircases: 306 flights gross floor area: 31.4 acres the piece: glass panels how many pieces: 11.000

joint owner: state of qatar joint owner: sellar property group funding: qatar national bank developer: sellar property group
 architect: renzo piano building workshop
 principal contractor: mace
 project manager: turner & townsend
 quantity surveyor: davis langdon structural engineer: wsp cantor seinuk
 services engineer (the shard): ove arup and partners services engineer (the place): wsp buildings commercial agents (the shard): knight frank, jones lang lasalle commercial agents (the place): cbre, colliers international

*we have updated this article originally published on july 6th, 2012 with additional images and info.