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.
renzo piano (62 articles)
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helo
very good thanks
Great work! Renzo, my respect to you!!!
Very neat light show! It reminds me a bit of the Luxor, with its pyramid top.
I think the Shard is gorgeous. It is perfect for London because of the contrast and the dynamic futuristic shape, ethereal and soaring to the sky… Renzo Piano you are a star.
Very good.
What happened? The concept is beautiful. Fractured glass. Organic. A little terrifiing. Cutting edge. The implemetation is a square office tower with slanting sides. Unfortunate.
a nice plaace for office
shard is a british dream و Beautiful and Magnificent. شارد يك روياي انگليسيست ، زيبا و با شكوه
Beautiful sketches!
Magnificent!
I love Renzo Piano’s work. Fits great into the London city scape, and unlike Norman Foster’s city hall and Gherkin, this building really starts putting London on the map as a skyscraper city to be reckoned with. I wonder if London’s height and line of sight regulations for historic structures have been altered, since this is on the opposite side of the Thames.
BTW, I love London’s love-hate relationship with contemporary architecture. I mean how many cities name their buildings with such playful names like the ‘gherkin’, ‘pickle’, ‘shard’, ‘eye’? Even the Big Ben lol. The only other city would be Barcelona with the NSFW name I would give the Agbar Tower. =P