Its A Tall As The Eiffel Tower & Being Built In London...
Discussion
The weather was nice last weekend so I thought I would take some pictures of the Shard and other buildings on my way to work. I wanted to show not only the Shard, but also some of the newer skyscrapers currently under construction in the City, to which our attention must necessarily turn as the Shard completes...I also wanted to show some of the recently completed buildings and some "greatest hits" from the past that help put the newer buildings into context.
The Shard's exterior is almost complete. You get a good view from platform 6 at London Bridge Station:
View from London Bridge bus stand (which is being rebuilt along with the rest of the station):
This is the very top. I presume it is incomplete and a further section remains to be installed, to cap off the structure, but I am not sure:
I confess to having mixed feelings about the Shard. Initially I was sold, and there are certainly moments when it looks wonderful, but when I look at it now I can't help thinking that it looks rather drab. Maybe I've just seen too much of it; a case of familiarity breeding contempt. Maybe it just needs a good clean, and will look great when it is gleaming.
Next to the Shard there is another new building called The Place, which will comprise offices, shops etc. It will be smaller than the Shard, but there will be a clear family resemblance. Here is what it currently looks like:
Going over London Bridge you see a new core rising up. This is going to be the "Walkie Talkie". In the background you can see the Heron Tower and the top of the Natwest Tower. We will see these two again later:
The Walkie Talkie will be characterised by the fact that the building gets bigger as you go up; the perfect antidote to the Shard
It will not be as tall as the Shard, but to my mind the design holds more promise. The core is almost complete and as you can see the steelwork is starting to go up:
Here you can clearly see the steelwork bowing outwards, giving you some idea of the final shape. Compare the angle of the steelwork to the angle of the (vertical) building in the background:
Advertising board. Perhaps a subtle dig at the Shard:
Walking a bit further and down Leadenhall Street you come to the Lloyds building. This was completed in the early 80s and is considered a masterpiece of architecture. All of the building services (lifts, pipework, air con...) are on the outside rather than the inside - hence its alternative name of "the inside out building". All PHers should appreciate objects where the engineering is proudly on display.
The original "inside out building" was the Pompidou Centre in France. That building was designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers. Rogers went on to design the Lloyds building and Piano went on to design the Shard.
Turn around and you are in front of the building site for the "Cheese Grater". Imagine a right-angled triangle with one of the sides making up the right angle shorter than the other. Now place the triangle with the shortest side on the ground, and extrude it along the ground. That is what this building will look like. In this picture you can clearly see the beginning of the sloping front face:
Here is the rear of the building site. Note that there does not appear to be any visible core. This makes me wonder how the building will be held together. One of the workmen told me that the yellow girders essentially take the place of the core, but he did not elaborate.
Moving further, I am sure everyone remembers the Gherkin. Some recent demolition work on Bishopsgate provides a new view of it:
The bottom of the building is less frequently seen. The triangular faceted design continues all the way to the bottom and is finished in a series of points embedded into the ground, giving the impression of an eggshell-like exterior:
As you go further up, the panel shapes change from equilateral triangles to skew triangles, which allow the sides to curve outwards and then converge at the top. On a clear day this makes for some lovely reflections:
The Gherkin was designed by Ken Shuttleworth, who is now designing the new UBS headquarters at 5 Broadgate (next to Liverpool Street station). 5 Broadgate will be a slightly different take on a modern office building, and it is worth Googling it if you are interested in stuff like this. There is nothing interesting on the building site yet, but that should change by the end of this year
A bit further down we have the Heron Tower, which was completed last year. I love the juxtaposition of classical and modern architecture that exists in the City of London:
From London Wall:
Finally, a golden oldie. The Natwest Tower was built in the 80s and is one of my favourite buildings in the City. In my opinion none of the newer contenders can match its brooding, majesterial presence. Whereas modern skyscrapers are all about light and transparency, the Natwest Tower's use of dark and opaque materials gives a sense of mystery as to what might be inside:
The design appears (to me) to be Art Deco influenced, with its combination of black cladding and metallic highlights suggesting the onyx and chrome of that era. It can no longer win the battle of superlatives; it isn't the biggest, or tallest, or greenest, or newest. But I would wager that it will be still standing long after the Shard is torn down.
The Shard's exterior is almost complete. You get a good view from platform 6 at London Bridge Station:
View from London Bridge bus stand (which is being rebuilt along with the rest of the station):
This is the very top. I presume it is incomplete and a further section remains to be installed, to cap off the structure, but I am not sure:
I confess to having mixed feelings about the Shard. Initially I was sold, and there are certainly moments when it looks wonderful, but when I look at it now I can't help thinking that it looks rather drab. Maybe I've just seen too much of it; a case of familiarity breeding contempt. Maybe it just needs a good clean, and will look great when it is gleaming.
Next to the Shard there is another new building called The Place, which will comprise offices, shops etc. It will be smaller than the Shard, but there will be a clear family resemblance. Here is what it currently looks like:
Going over London Bridge you see a new core rising up. This is going to be the "Walkie Talkie". In the background you can see the Heron Tower and the top of the Natwest Tower. We will see these two again later:
The Walkie Talkie will be characterised by the fact that the building gets bigger as you go up; the perfect antidote to the Shard
It will not be as tall as the Shard, but to my mind the design holds more promise. The core is almost complete and as you can see the steelwork is starting to go up:Here you can clearly see the steelwork bowing outwards, giving you some idea of the final shape. Compare the angle of the steelwork to the angle of the (vertical) building in the background:
Advertising board. Perhaps a subtle dig at the Shard:
Walking a bit further and down Leadenhall Street you come to the Lloyds building. This was completed in the early 80s and is considered a masterpiece of architecture. All of the building services (lifts, pipework, air con...) are on the outside rather than the inside - hence its alternative name of "the inside out building". All PHers should appreciate objects where the engineering is proudly on display.
The original "inside out building" was the Pompidou Centre in France. That building was designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers. Rogers went on to design the Lloyds building and Piano went on to design the Shard.
Turn around and you are in front of the building site for the "Cheese Grater". Imagine a right-angled triangle with one of the sides making up the right angle shorter than the other. Now place the triangle with the shortest side on the ground, and extrude it along the ground. That is what this building will look like. In this picture you can clearly see the beginning of the sloping front face:
Here is the rear of the building site. Note that there does not appear to be any visible core. This makes me wonder how the building will be held together. One of the workmen told me that the yellow girders essentially take the place of the core, but he did not elaborate.
Moving further, I am sure everyone remembers the Gherkin. Some recent demolition work on Bishopsgate provides a new view of it:
The bottom of the building is less frequently seen. The triangular faceted design continues all the way to the bottom and is finished in a series of points embedded into the ground, giving the impression of an eggshell-like exterior:
As you go further up, the panel shapes change from equilateral triangles to skew triangles, which allow the sides to curve outwards and then converge at the top. On a clear day this makes for some lovely reflections:
The Gherkin was designed by Ken Shuttleworth, who is now designing the new UBS headquarters at 5 Broadgate (next to Liverpool Street station). 5 Broadgate will be a slightly different take on a modern office building, and it is worth Googling it if you are interested in stuff like this. There is nothing interesting on the building site yet, but that should change by the end of this year
A bit further down we have the Heron Tower, which was completed last year. I love the juxtaposition of classical and modern architecture that exists in the City of London:
From London Wall:
Finally, a golden oldie. The Natwest Tower was built in the 80s and is one of my favourite buildings in the City. In my opinion none of the newer contenders can match its brooding, majesterial presence. Whereas modern skyscrapers are all about light and transparency, the Natwest Tower's use of dark and opaque materials gives a sense of mystery as to what might be inside:
The design appears (to me) to be Art Deco influenced, with its combination of black cladding and metallic highlights suggesting the onyx and chrome of that era. It can no longer win the battle of superlatives; it isn't the biggest, or tallest, or greenest, or newest. But I would wager that it will be still standing long after the Shard is torn down.
mrmarcus said:
Vipers said:
I wonder if they used lift technology used in the Petronas towers in KL.
Lifts were designed to be sort of joined one above the other, if you worked on an even numbered floor, you got in the bottom lift when you came in the front door, if you worked on an odd numbered floor, you went up one floor on an escalator to the first floor, and got in that lift.
When the lift went up, iit stoped at an even and odd numbered floor simultanously. This was to speed the time to get folk to the floors.
Yip, shard has a few double deckers!Lifts were designed to be sort of joined one above the other, if you worked on an even numbered floor, you got in the bottom lift when you came in the front door, if you worked on an odd numbered floor, you went up one floor on an escalator to the first floor, and got in that lift.
When the lift went up, iit stoped at an even and odd numbered floor simultanously. This was to speed the time to get folk to the floors.
d.NightRunner said:
Very slow for tall buildings, if they dont,stop, do they meet current elf n' safety these days!AmitG said:
This is the very top. I presume it is incomplete and a further section remains to be installed, to cap off the structure, but I am not sure:
You presume wrong, the top is finished, that's how it is meant to look. Otherwise it wouldn't be a 'shard', just a very tall thin pyramid.Personally I thing the top looks terrible, but then who am I to comment?
shakotan said:
You presume wrong, the top is finished, that's how it is meant to look. Otherwise it wouldn't be a 'shard', just a very tall thin pyramid.
Personally I thing the top looks terrible, but then who am I to comment?
The top looks like there was a dispute with the builders over the final stage payment so they packed up tools and left the site, it looks awful in my opinion.Personally I thing the top looks terrible, but then who am I to comment?
GWC said:
shakotan said:
You presume wrong, the top is finished, that's how it is meant to look. Otherwise it wouldn't be a 'shard', just a very tall thin pyramid.
Personally I thing the top looks terrible, but then who am I to comment?
The top looks like there was a dispute with the builders over the final stage payment so they packed up tools and left the site, it looks awful in my opinion.Personally I thing the top looks terrible, but then who am I to comment?
Don't like it. It looks unfinished.
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