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Swiss Re "gerkhin" tower from Lloyds, Lime St, Leadenhall, London.................
Foster's Swiss Re Gerkhin bursts up through the high-rise financial City of London --- an upright bomb from afar. Forty percent of the Square Mile was rebuilt in the 1980s, but the need for more high-rise towers, not too typical of London, was inevitable. This recently completed tower uses similar technology to the GLA Egg, though is high and symmetrical, with twisting geodesic surface treatment winding fairground-like to the peak. Squeezed close to other towers, and just across from Richard Rogers' earlier Lloyd's building. Wonderful technology, or sore-thumb? Some public space is claimed by the inward taper down, and the rounded bullet form wind-reducing, which is more likely. Rapidly built. Visually odd.
The tower is 180m (590ft) tall.
But it's the ingenuity of the tapering spiral void inside, drawing in daylight and ventilation without vertiginous height, that is most successful.This interior has a radial plan with column-free floor space. The plan is rotated for each successive floor, making a series of spiraling five-storey atria that stretch the height of the building of 41 floors.
More on the Gerkhin later.
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Enlarge:
1. Simply click the upper-right diagonal arrows.
2. Further enlarge: Then press F11 on a PC, or Fullscreen. Allow re-focus.
Or
3. Max enlarge: If flickr's +cursor is showing, click it for max enlargement and allow to re-focus. Explore detail moving cursor.
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Later detail in Tr4Clips set:
www.flickr.com/photos/peteshep/2421959901/
wikimapia
St Mary Axe tower:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30_St_Mary_Axe
Foster's eight images and Description:
www.fosterandpartners.com/Projects/1004/Default.aspx
Link to some interior images of 30 St Mary Axe:
www.30stmaryaxe.co.uk/photo.asp?imgSec=3
Link to Great Buildings
30 St Mary Axe:
www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/30_St_Mary_Axe.html
Link to website:
www.30stmaryaxe.com/
Link to 360o Panoramic view from top of Swiss Re;
Wait for download. Click Play image, then Full-screen button on right.
Drag and zoom:
www.panoramicearth.com/5884/London/View_from_the_Gherkin
Lloyds:
www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Lloyds_Building.html
Link to six 360o tours of Lloyds -- one includes Swiss Re at night.
Wait for download. Choose tour on right. Click full-screen:
www.sphericalimages.com/lloyds-building/index.html
