The Shard: bigger by little, each day

Maybe one day, most Londoners won't even give the Shard a second glance. But, for now, Europe's tallest building grows difficult to ignore. 

   Architect Renzo Piano describes his creation as "a city in the sky". 

  Fellow architect Ptolemy Reid describes it "as more interesting in construction". 

Prince Charles dismissively slurs the Shard as an oversized salt cellar. 

   Personally, London's tall, slim Dalek is growing on me. The Shard contrasts starkly with every building in London, as the photos show. 
   However, I suspect the London panoramas offered from the tower might quickly generate more interest than the Shard itself.

Photos: Copyright of Paul Coleman. No re-use without permission.

Paul Coleman, London, June 2011

Renzo Piano's Central St Giles and The Shard

I donned the PPE gear and squeezed into the service lift with eleven other souls this afternoon. We zoomed to the top floor of architect Renzo Piano's orange, green and yellow Central St Giles development.

It wasn't the sunniest of days but the views from the penthouse were spectacular. I thought it wise to take a photo of Piano's other stamp on the London skyline, The Shard. As you can see, The Shard is well on its way to becoming Europe's tallest building.

Click on images to enlarge. Photos by Paul Coleman. No re-use without permission.

Paul Coleman, London, May 2011

The Shard reaches for London's sky: PhotoWatch

I couldn't resist pointing the Canon at the sunlight flaring off the cobbles of St Mary at Hill. The ever-rising Shard loomed over the City of London street like a Martian machine from War of the Worlds.

  I'll keep a watching photographic brief on the Shard at London Bridge Quarter. Architect Renzo Piano's 87-floor 'vertical city' is clambering into London's skyscape from its London Bridge foundations at an average rate of three metres per day. 

  Will the Shard become an iconic new London building, such as the Gherkin or the London Eye? Or just another modern weird edifice like City Hall? Perhaps, the Shard's 72nd floor public viewing gallery will convince Londoners and tourists this is the tower to visit.

Piano says masts of ships docked in the Pool of London and Monet's paintings of the Houses of Parliament inspired the Shard's conceptual design (see above photo of HMS Belfast in front of the Shard. Look at the radar mast; so that's how Piano tinkled up the idea!).

  Full construction started on 16 March, 2009. When completed, the £435 million Shard will stand as Western Europe's largest building at 310 metres (1,016 feet) high. 

  Even now, with its concrete core not yet completed, Piano's creation is now Britain's tallest building, surpassing the 235m (773ft) Canada Tower at Canary Wharf in late November (The Canada Tower is the pointed building at the far right of the masthead at the top of this page).

  The next two images (below) were taken from Tower Pier, next to the Tower of London. (Click on images to enlarge).

Piano's angled glass cladding is already creeping up around the steel and concrete core. Piano hopes the glass will give the Shard a delicate, slender appearance, reflecting light in different ways as the seasons change - just like a shard of glass. 

  The Shard's 130,000 square metres of floorspace will comprise offices, a hotel, restaurants and apartments. The viewing gallery will be 240m above street level. 

  Some 5,500 cubic metres of concrete were poured during a 36-hour period to create the raft on which the Shard sits. About 1,000 tons of reinforced steel were set into the concrete raft.

  Weeks ago, the Shard reached higher than the 180m (590ft) Swiss Re building or Gherkin.

Just how tall will the Shard feel? A good marker is when your viewing pod reaches the top point of the London Eye's revolution, a height of 136m (425ft). Another yardstick is the top of the Wembley Stadium arch, a height of 133m.

  The Shard replaces Southwark Towers, the former home of Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

 The developer is the Sellar Group on behalf of LBQ Limited. Mace are the main building contractor. Renzo Piano is the conceptual architect. Detailed architectural work has been carried out by Adamson Associates.

 It mightn't yet be everyone's cup of tea but, as you can see below, the Shard seems to  impress the birds.

Photos copyright of Paul Coleman. Not to be re-published without permission.


Paul Coleman, London, December 2010.

St Giles, Renzo Piano and a cast of outcasts

The five blocks of Central Saint Giles have clambered onto the London skyline. Clad in 5,479 yellow, orange, green and red ceramic panels, the blocks tower over Henry Flitcroft's church of St-Giles-In-The-Fields (click on photo to enlarge). The two-acre complex also creeps up on nearby Shaftesbury Avenue, Centre Point and Denmark Street, London's electric guitar alley, writes Paul Coleman. 


Architect Renzo Piano's development promises 'a new public realm' just off St Giles High Street, one of London's forgotten thoroughfares. 
The new edifice rises in an area rich in history because so many of its former inhabitants, many of whom were Irish immigrants, were crippled by poverty. It's close to the site of the 'Rookery', a notoriously overcrowded London slum.
Burials in St Giles' churchyard ceased in 1853 after public health fears. 
The ruinous Gin craze of the 17th Century destroyed many lives in St Giles.

Some claim highwayman Claude Duval was buried at St Giles after being hung at Tyburn in 1670.

Earlier, many Londoners accused St Giles' dwellers for starting the Great Plague of 1665.

The church started out as a hospital for lepers.

St Giles was also thought to have been a Saxon village and a Roman burial ground.

Aptly, given its inhabitants' tortuous history, St Giles was named after the patron saint of outcasts. 

Bovis and Stanhope's joint development will offer new offices, private and 'affordable' homes, shops, restaurants, cafés and a public piazza.

Central Saint Giles replaces the demolished St Giles Court office block. 
Built in the early 1950s,the old block housed the former Ministry of Aviation. 
In recent years, spiked railings and banks of CCTV cameras protected this Cold War remnant. 
Grimed net curtains concealed a vast array of darkened, seemingly empty rooms. Mysteriously, lights could be seen shining from one upper floor.
To add to its mystery and menace, I've heard it was still being used by MI5, er...sorry, the Ministry of Defence. 
Only falling London Plane tree leaves, the odd beer can and wandering plastic bags evaded the railings. 
Look closely at the tree branches in the photo (above). 
The mysterious block might've disappeared but you can see that 'witches knickers' still like to visit St Giles. 


Want to see for yourself? Nearest tube:Tottenham Court Road.
Nearest cool coffee place? Ola, on Shaftesbury Avenue.

Photo (above) shows Central Saint Giles, the white buildings next to Centre Point, as shown on the huge model of London displayed at The Building Centre, 26 Store Street, WC1. The blue line shows the Crossrail route east and west of Tottenham Court Road. Of course, Crossrail will run underground beneath central London!


Nearest cool coffee place: Er...the coffee bar in the foyer of The Building Centre!