The Gherkin is a commercial skyscraper in London
The Gherkin, formally 30 St Mary Axe and previously known as the Swiss Re Building, is a commercial skyscraper in London's primary financial district, the City of London. It was completed in December 2003 and opened in April 2004. With 41 floors, it is 180 meters tall and stands on the sites of the former Baltic Exchange and Chamber of Shipping, which were extensively damaged in 1992 in the Baltic Exchange bombing by a device placed by the Provisional IRA in St Mary Axe, a narrow street leading north from Leadenhall Street.
After plans to build the 92-storey Millennium Tower were dropped, 30 St Mary Axe was designed by Foster + Partners and the Arup Group. It was built by Skanska; construction started in 2001.
The building has become a recognizable landmark of London, and it is one of the city's most widely recognized examples of contemporary architecture. It won the 2003 Emporis Skyscraper Award.
Thanks to Google Earth Studio for this amazing aerial view.
After plans to build the 92-storey Millennium Tower were dropped, 30 St Mary Axe was designed by Foster + Partners and the Arup Group. It was built by Skanska; construction started in 2001.
The building has become a recognizable landmark of London, and it is one of the city's most widely recognized examples of contemporary architecture. It won the 2003 Emporis Skyscraper Award.
Thanks to Google Earth Studio for this amazing aerial view.
Transcript
00:00The Gherkin, formerly 30 St Mary Axe and previously known as the Swiss Rebuilding, is a commercial
00:17skyscraper in London's primary financial district, the City of London.
00:21It was completed in December 2003 and opened in April 2004.
00:26With 41 floors, it is 180 metres and stands on the sites of the former Baltic Exchange
00:31and Chamber of Shipping, which were extensively damaged in 1992 in the Baltic Exchange bombing
00:37by a device placed by the Provisional IRA in St Mary Axe, a narrow street leading north
00:41from Leidenhall Street.
00:44After plans to build the 92-storey Millennium Tower were dropped, 30 St Mary Axe was designed
00:49by Foster Plus Partners and the Arup Group.
00:51It was built by Skanska.
00:53Construction started in 2001.
00:55The building has become a recognisable landmark of London, and it is one of the city's most
01:00widely recognised examples of contemporary architecture.
01:03It won the 2003 Emporus Skyscraper Award.
01:07The building stands on the site of the former Baltic Exchange, which was the headquarters
01:11of a global marketplace for shipping freight contracts and soft commodities, and the Chamber
01:15of Shipping.
01:16The tower's topmost panoramic dome, known as the «Lens», recalls the iconic glass
01:21dome that covered part of the ground floor of the Baltic Exchange and much of which is
01:25now displayed at the National Maritime Museum.
01:28The Gherkin nickname was applied to the current building at least as early as 1999, referring
01:33to the plan's highly unorthodox layout and appearance.
01:36On 10 April 1992, the Provisional IRA detonated a bomb close to the Baltic Exchange, causing
01:42extensive damage to the historic building and neighbouring structures.
01:46The United Kingdom Government's Statutory Advisor on the Historic Environment, English
01:51Heritage, and the City of London's governing body, the City of London Corporation, were
01:56keen that any redevelopment must restore the Baltic Exchange's old façade onto St Mary
02:00Axe.
02:02The Exchange Hall was a celebrated fixture of the shipping market.
02:05English Heritage then discovered that the damage was far more severe than initially
02:09thought, and they stopped insisting on full restoration.
02:12Albeit over the objections of architectural conservationists, the Baltic Exchange and
02:17the Chamber of Shipping sold the land to Trafalgar House in 1995.
02:22Most of the remaining structures on the Baltic Exchange site were then carefully dismantled,
02:26and the interior of Exchange Hall and the façade were preserved.
02:30Hoping for a reconstruction of the building in the future, the salvaged material was sold
02:34for £800,000 and moved to Tallinn, Estonia, where it awaits reconstruction as the centrepiece
02:40of the city's commercial sector.
02:42In 1996, Trafalgar House submitted plans for the London Millennium Tower, a 386-metre
02:49building with more than 140,000 square metres of office space, apartments, shops, restaurants
02:55and gardens.
02:56This plan was dropped after objections that it was out of scale in the City of London
03:01and anticipated disruption to flight paths for both London City and London Heathrow airports.The
03:06revised plan for a lower tower was accepted.
03:09John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, granted planning permission on 23 August 2000
03:14to construct a building on the site, which would be much larger than the old Exchange.
03:19The site needed development, was not on any of the site lines, planning guidance requires
03:23that new buildings do not obstruct or detract from the view of St Paul's Cathedral Dome
03:27when viewed from several locations around London, and had housed the Baltic Exchange.
03:33The plan for the site was to reconstruct the Baltic Exchange.
03:36BMW Architects proposed a new rectangular building surrounding a restored Exchange.
03:42It would have the type of large floorplan that banks liked.
03:45That is all.
03:46Subscribe and comment for future videos.
04:06Thanks for watching.