Shard London Bridge

Shard London Bridge (previously known as London Bridge Tower,^[4][5] and also known as the Shard of Glass,^[6][7] 32 London Bridge, and The Shard) is a skyscraper under construction in Southwark, London. When completed in May 2012, it will be the tallest building in the European Union and the 45th-tallest building in the world, standing 310 m (1,017 ft) tall. It will also be the second-tallest free-standing structure in the United Kingdom, after the 330 m (1,083 ft) Emley Moor transmitting station.

Shard London Bridge replaced Southwark Towers, a 24-storey office building constructed on the site in 1976. Renzo Piano, the building's architect, worked together with the architectural firm Broadway Malyan during the planning stage of the project. The tower will have 72 habitable floors, plus 15 further radiator floors in the roof. The building has been designed with an irregular triangular shape from the base to the top, and will be clad entirely in glass. A viewing gallery and open-air observation deck – the UK's highest – will be located on the 72nd floor.

Planning

The Shard was designed in 2000 by Renzo Piano, an Italian architect best known for creating Paris’ Pompidou Centre in collaboration with Britain’s Richard Rogers. That year, the London-based entrepreneur Irvine Sellar decided to redevelop Southwark Towers, a 1970s-era office block located next to London Bridge station, and flew to Berlin in March 2000 to meet Piano for lunch. According to Sellar, the architect spoke of his contempt for tall buildings during the meal, before flipping over the restaurant’s menu and sketching an iceberg-like sculpture emerging from the River Thames.^[8] He was inspired by the railway lines next to the site, the London spires depicted by the Venetian painter Canaletto, and the masts of bygone sailing ships.^[9]

In July 2002, then-Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott ordered a planning inquiry after the Shard development plans were opposed by local authorities and heritage bodies, including the Royal Parks Foundation and English Heritage.^[10][11] The inquiry took place in April and May 2003,^[12][13] and on 19 November, 2003, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister announced that construction had been approved.^[14] The government released a letter stating that:

"Mr Prescott would only approve skyscrapers of exceptional design. For a building of this size to be acceptable, the quality of its design is critical. He [Mr Prescott] is satisfied that the proposed tower is of the highest architectural quality."

The developers – CLS Holdings plc, Sellar Property Group, and CN Ltd (acting for the Halabi Family Trust) – secured an interim funding package of £196 million in September 2006 from the Nationwide Building Society and Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander. This enabled them to pay off costs incurred to date, and to buy out the Southwark Towers occupational lease from the tenants, PricewaterhouseCoopers.^[15] Vacant possession of the site was secured a year later, after PricewaterhouseCoopers completed the relocation of their operations.

In September 2007, preparations for the demolition of Southwark Towers began.^[16] However, later in the month, turbulence in the financial markets reportedly put the construction phase of the project in jeopardy,^[17] threatening to render the whole project an example of the Skyscraper Index. Later that month, it was reported that the Halabi Family Trust, one of the main backers of the project, had been forced to sell its stake.^[18]

In November 2007, building contractor Mace won the deal to build the Shard at a fixed price of no more than £350m. However, this price increased to almost £435m in October 2008.^[19]

In January 2008, it was announced that a consortium of Qatari investors had paid £150m to secure an 80% stake and take control of the project. The new owners promised to provide the first tranche of finance, allowing construction of the tower to begin. The consortium included Qatar National Bank, QInvest, Qatari Islamic Bank and the Qatari developer Barwa Real Estate. The deal involved a buyout of the Halabi and CLS Holdings stakes, and part of the Sellar Property stake.^[20] In April 2008, demolition of Southwark Towers was visibly under way, with scaffolding and white sheeting covering the building^[21] and by October, Southwark Towers had been substantially reduced in height, and was no longer visible on the skyline. The demolition of Southwark Towers was completed in early 2009, and site preparation began for the construction of the Shard.

In late February 2009, the construction contract with Mace was signed, allowing construction to begin in March.

Architecture

Renzo Piano, the project's architect, compared his design to "a shard of glass". He considered the slender, spire-like form of the tower a positive addition to the London skyline, believing that its presence would be far more delicate than opponents of the project alleged. He proposed a sophisticated use of glazing, with expressive façades of angled glass panes intended to reflect sunlight and the sky above, so that the appearance of the building will change according to the weather and seasons.^[22]

Following the collapse of the World Trade Center (WTC) in 2001, architects and structural engineers worldwide began re-evaluating the design of tall structures. The Shard’s early conceptual designs were among the first in the UK to be progressed following the publication of the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) report into the WTC collapse. The building was designed to maintain its stability under the most onerous conditions.^[23]

The completed Shard will contain premium office space, a hotel, luxury residences, retail space, restaurants, a 15-storey public viewing gallery, and a spa.^[24] A public viewing gallery will be located at the top of the tower, and is expected to draw over two million visitors a year. In addition, a shorter building, known as London Bridge Place, will be built nearby. This will replace the current London Bridge House, and the combined sites will create what will be known as the London Bridge Quarter.

In addition to the tower, there will be major improvements made to London Bridge Tube station and the surrounding area. As part of a Section 106 legal agreement, these improvements will include a new public concourse, as well as a public piazza, a museum, and local housing and regeneration programmes.^[25]

Planned floor configuration

Source:^[27]

Construction

2009

In February 2009, a mobile crane and a small piling rig appeared on site. In early March 2009, the crane began putting steel beams into the ground, as part of preparations for the core of the building. Full construction began on 16 March 2009. Demolition work on New London Bridge House started in May 2009, as part of the adjacent London Bridge Place project, which will accompany the Shard. The first steel work went into the Shard's piles on 27 April.

Five cranes were used to build the Shard, with four of them 'jumping' with the tower as it rose. Crane 1 was erected on 20 September 2009 and Crane 2 was erected at the beginning of October. By 20 October 2009, steel beams began appearing on site, with concrete being poured at the northern part of the site, ready for Crane 3.

2010

By March 2010, the concrete core was rising steadily at approximately 3 metres (9.8 ft) a day.^[28] After a pause in March–April 2010, it continued rising, reaching the 33rd floor in mid-June, almost level with the top of Guy's Hospital, which stands at 143 metres (469 ft). The first glass panel was installed on 25 May 2010.^[29] On 27 July 2010, the core stopped rising, having reached the 38th floor, and was reconfigured for further construction.^[30]

By mid-November 2010, the third core had reached the 68th floor (rising approximately 235 metres), with the tower's steel reaching the 40th floor and cladding enveloping a third of the building. In late November, it passed the 235 metres (771 ft) mark, ending One Canada Square's 18-year reign as Britain's tallest building.^[31][32]

2011

The Shard's concrete core topped out at the 72nd floor in early 2011, standing at 245 metres (804 ft). The early part of January 2011 saw the installation of hydraulic screens, which were used to form the concrete floors of the hotel and apartment section of the tower, and rose with the floors up to the 69th floor. On 25 January 2011, the concrete pumps began pouring the first concrete floor at the 41st floor. By the end of February 2011, concrete flooring had risen to the 46th floor, with a new floor being poured on average every week. The cladding of the structure also progressed, mainly on the tower's "backpack".

August 2011 saw steady progress in construction, with cladding enveloping more than half the building's exterior. Pouring of the concrete floors reached the 67th floor, and progression on the tower's cladding reached the 58th floor. By mid-August, the core box had been removed. By September 19, 2011, the tower's steel was approaching the height of the completed core, reaching almost 244 metres (801 ft).^[33] On September 24, a final crane – the tallest ever built in Britain – was erected to install the skyscraper's upper spire.^[34] The spire was pre-fabricated and pre-assembled based upon 3D models, and underwent a "test run" in Yorkshire before being lifted onto the building itself.^[35]

Timeline of floor construction

Below is a complete list of the dates for when each floor became visible under the concrete core box. Also listed are the intervals during which the core was reconfigured.^[36]

- - -

Construction gallery

Height

The Shard was announced with the hope that it would be the tallest building in Europe, surpassing Frankfurt's Commerzbank Tower, which at 259 m (850 ft) had held the record since 1997. The Commerzbank has since been surpassed in height by three Moscow skyscrapers, Triumph-Palace, Naberezhnaya Tower, and The City of Capitals, all of which will in turn be surpassed by the Shard tower. However, in 2005, construction started on a skyscraper in Moscow that will rise higher than the Shard, the Mercury City Tower.^[37] The Federation Tower East, under construction, was intended to be higher than the Shard but has now been put on hold. Nevertheless, if it is completed on schedule the Shard London Bridge will become the tallest building in the European Union. It may eventually be surpassed by the Hermitage Plaza building (323 metres) planned for La Défense in Paris.

Another London skyscraper under construction, the Bishopsgate Tower, was originally proposed to exceed the height of the Shard by one metre. However, because of concerns from the Civil Aviation Authority, the height of the Bishopsgate Tower was later reduced to 288 m.

Records

Project management

Turner & Townsend was designated the project manager for the London Bridge Quarter development. Its involvement covers the Shard and London Bridge Place, and also includes the infrastructure works around London Bridge rail and bus stations.^[38]

Landscape architecture

Townshend Landscape Architects Ltd has been contracted to landscape the entire site of London Bridge quarter. The design hopes to marry the multi-level site into a usable and functional area incorporating rail services, bus links and a taxi rank in a safe, pedestrian-friendly area.

See also

• 30 St Mary Axe
• Beetham Tower
• List of tallest buildings and structures in London
• List of tallest buildings and structures in the United Kingdom
• List of tallest buildings in the European Union
• List of tallest buildings in Europe

References

Bibliography

• Powell, Kenneth; "New London Architecture", (2001, Hugh Merell, London), pp. 218–219.

External links

• Official website
• Shard London Bridge on Twitter
• London Bridge Quarter website
• The Place, a concurrent adjacent development
• Overview of London Bridge Tower Project by Cliff L'Aimable
• Discussions on the tower, with regular news updates
• 'Shard of glass' set to join London skyline (The Guardian, 19 November 2003)
• London Bridge Tower Design concept of the Shard London Bridge Tower.
• Official page on the Shangri-La website, the hotel tenants
• Public comments on the tower
• Article describing the demolition and the tower's construction (Building.co.uk, 7 September 2007)
• The London Bridge BID Company
• WSP UK's dedicated page. WSP provides structural engineering services to the Shard of Glass project.
• James Sellar, CEO of Sellar discusses the The Shard of Glass at New London Architecture, 2010(Video)
• Daily Telegraph article
• General information, timeline and a gallery of pictures relating to the Shard
• Shardcam – live webcam image
• Computer generated virtual panorama
• Article on pumping water through the building
• Article on the design and construction of the building