'I can see the Shard from here'- pix of London's latest architectural horror

As the tallest building in Western Europe the iconic Shard can be seen from all sorts of high rises and walkways in London.

Shard through a sculpture. Photograph: Matt Brown/Londonist/Flickr

The Shard from Tower Millennium pier. Photograph: as098_uk/Flickr

London Eye & Docklands. Photograph: David Gardener/Flickr

Morning haze. Photograph: James Booth/Flickr

I can see the Shard from here! Photograph: James Booth/Flickr

Shard from BT Tower. Photograph: Matt Brown/Londonist/Flickr

Head in the clouds. Photograph: Stuart Noble/Flickr

BT Tower and Shard. Photograph: amandaphotogirl/Flickr

Shard and Tate. Photograph: Christina Theisen

Shard from Borough Market. Photograph: Andrew Weidmann

The Shard as seen from the Millenium Bridge. Photograph: Philippe Bossin

The Shard from the Honor Oak Park. Photograph: David Edmond

The bird, the bridge, and the building. Photograph: James Farley

Shard taken through the clouds on 23 November from ground level on Southwark Street. Photograph: James Robertson

Sunset. Photograph: Pablo Vieira

A view of the Shard. Photograph: Zefrog/Flickr

Gherkin architect declares end of London skyscraper boom

Heron Tower and Shard to be among the last of iconic buildings as austerity drive ushers in the era of 'ground-scrapers'

Julia Kollewe and Alex Hawkes

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 20 April 2011 09.29 BST


London skyline will have fewer high-rises as City embraces 'austere and efficient' buildings. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Just as the distinctively named Shard of Glass, the Helter Skelter, the Cheese- grater and the Walkie Talkie are being erected across the City, the architect who created the eye-catching Gherkin has declared the London skyscraper building boom is nearing its end.

"The age of bling is over," said Ken Shuttleworth, the architect who led the team at Norman Foster's firm that designed the Gherkin. The 40-storey tower, which opened in 2004, would never get off the ground now, he claimed. "Money now drives everything, so if you can build something for half the price, you will." Tenants are demanding "austere and efficient" buildings that were more likely to be "ground-scrapers" than high-rises, he said. "The tall glass box is dead."

His outspoken remarks do not resonate with everyone at a time when London is witnessing a boom in towering buildings as developers capitalise on a projected surge in office rents. Last week Deutsche Bank suggested that rents in the centre of London could hit record levels by the end of 2013.

The Heron tower, which stands in Bishopsgate next to Liverpool Street station, has just opened, while several other towers are under development, including the Pinnacle, which is also in Bishopsgate.

"You need tall buildings not only for sustainability reasons, but because the population is increasing," said Kamran Moazami, the lead structural engineer on London Bridge's Shard and head of structural engineering at WSP Cantor Seinuk. As well as the office towers in the city going up, he also pointed to a number of residential tower schemes to show that the market for tall buildings remains in rude health.


The Shard under construction in London. Photograph: Paul Owen for the Guardian

Figures from Emap Glenigan, a construction information service, also suggest that there are plenty of new tower buildings on the way. There are 49 projects of more than 40 floors in the development pipeline in the UK, with just 10 on site. Of the 49, around a third got planning approval before the recession began, and about half have not yet secured planning permission.

Tall buildings cost more to build than low-rise structures with the same amount of space, prompting some developers to go for smaller projects. At the same time, many tenants are reluctant to pay a premium for being in a tower as belt-tightening continues.

Property tycoon Gerald Ronson recently admitted that it will take about 18 months to let all the space in his Heron Tower, with the lower floors going for about £55 a sq ft while the top floors will command more. Rents in the City today are around the same level as in the 1980s.

The towers now under construction in the City were largely conceived before the financial crisis took hold, with developers obtaining planning permission before the credit crunch. The projects were then mothballed due to a lack of finance.

"I doubt we have seen the last application to build a tall building in the City although, at present, there is greater enthusiasm for lower developments – such as the one approved at 5 Broadgate on Tuesday – or for the retro-fitting of existing buildings," said Peter Rees, the City of London's planning officer. The 5 Broadgate plan, which is for investment bank UBS and designed by Shuttleworth's Make Architects, is in some respects a typical example of what the Shuttleworth means. The 13-storey building will not be glazed all the way around in the manner of traditional city office blocks. Its cladding will instead have a gun metal finish and will provide only "muted reflections of the neighbouring buildings and spaces".

But despite Shuttleworth's insistence that "bling" is out amid a new age of austerity, developer British Land still insists that it wants to create "a stunning piece of architecture" with its plans for Broadgate.

Outside the City, a global surge in skyscraper construction is also showing no signs of coming to a halt. "Tall buildings, once almost exclusively a product of North America, are spreading across the globe at an ever-increasing rate," says the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, based in Chicago.

There were 602 buildings higher than 200m around the world as of 1 March 2011. There were only 258 in the year 2000, and 146 in 1990.

There are now 342 skyscrapers in Asia, and despite being home to 10% of the world's population, Europe is a laggard, with only 3.7% (22) of the world's tallest buildings.

The United Arab Emirates has 44 buildings over 200m in height. For a country of 4.7 million people, this means that there are only 100,000 citizens for every 200m-plus building. In contrast, China has nearly seven million citizens for every 200m-plus building.

With demand for office space in the City of London on the rise, developers will have to find a way to build out if they decide not to build up.

Assuming that banks and other financial firms will be taking on 11,500 new staff over the next three years as the economy recovers, BNP Paribas Real Estate estimates that they will need an additional 1.6m sq ft of space – equivalent to four Shards or five Heron Towers. Its research shows that typical take-up in the City is 3.1m sq ft every year, and the banks' expansion will mean extra requirements of about 550,000 sq ft a year up to 2014.

"You have to maximise the space," says Moazami. "Low rises are a disaster"

We can see it clearly from the top of my Mum & Dad's road. How much taller is it gonna be or is that it?

It's dead in the centre of the panoramic westward-looking vista from the terrace outside my 6th-floor front door. Tomorrow I'll take a pic and post it here.

It's getting bigger, Nash. The building contractors have had to stage a dress rehearsal in some field up north of the assembly of the pointy top section.

London's tallest buildings:

eddie wrote:
Shard and Tate. Photograph: Christina Theisen

That is a particularly - erm, deceiving photo! I'll work out where it's taken from eventually.

Eddie, what happened? I was just looking at the Shard and Gherkin from your flat and it disappeared!!

The pencil-like thing on the horizon is the Shard, as viewed from the terrace outside my 6th-floor flat:

Nah Ville Sky Chick wrote:Eddie, what happened? I was just looking at the Shard and Gherkin from your flat and it disappeared!!

No worries. Middle-aged technological bungling is all. Trial and error. Think I've got it sorted now.