LONDON | London Bridge Tower - "The Shard" | 1,017 FT / 310 M | 87 FLOORS

[RobEss]

Originally Posted by Chapelo

(originally posted by 72 on SSC)

just what exactly is going on here?

[nito]

Originally Posted by RobEss

just what exactly is going on here?

That is caused by the sun's rays hitting the angled glass, similar to the effect generated from photovoltaic power station towers.

[RobEss]

Originally Posted by nito

That is caused by the sun's rays hitting the angled glass, similar to the effect generated from photovoltaic power station towers.

Thanks! - it's magnificent, I looked up recent news regarding the Shard to see if it had caught fire!

[Ed007Toronto]

Looks great

[NYguy]

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/des...e-dinner/4546/

When a View Costs More Than Dinner





January 31, 2013
Henry Grabar

In 2011, through an unusual disclosure of company finances, two interesting facts emerged about the Empire State Building. First, its owners make little to no profit renting the 102-story building’s nearly 3,000,000 square feet of office space. Second, they haul in around $60 million a year in profit from its observation deck.

Nearby Rockefeller Center, whose "Top of the Rock" observation deck reopened eight years ago, is projected to draw in about $25 million in annual profit on its spectacular view. And bidding is currently underway to operate an observation deck at the forthcoming One World Trade Center, which could be the granddaddy of them all.

What would happen in a similarly large, wealthy and tourist-trafficked city where one building had a virtual monopoly on the best view? Look no further than London, where the observation deck at the Shard opens Friday. Book your ticket online, and for $40 ($48 in person), you can enjoy a view of London that was, until now, reserved for airplane travelers. The highest publicly accessible view of the city has been 443 feet above ground at the apex of the London Eye. The platform at the Shard is 800 feet high.

A visit also costs twice as much as a trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower. At $40 per adult and $30 per child -- $170 for a family of five – the View from the Shard, as the glass-walled 68, 69 and 72 floors will be called, is going to make Paris's 19th century landmark look like a lemonade stand.

That’s what former London mayor and big-time Shard partisan Ken Livingstone thinks. He has called on Boris Johnson to subsidize trips to the tallest building in Western Europe, fearing that the high prices sour his vision of a tower for the people.

But if it were that easy to make a fortune in the business of seeing things from high places, more buildings would be in the game. Like a gangly center on opening day, the Shard has a height advantage but little experience. And buildings with lucrative observation businesses aren’t just tall; they're iconic.

"One building's views are just as good as the next," says Rutgers professor Jason Barr, who studies the economics of skyscrapers. "You have to have some sort of marquee branded status to make an observation deck work. Who’s going to buy a t-shirt that says 'I went to the top of the AXA Equitable Life Insurance Building?'"

And, Barr notes, they require a gamble up front, or a costly mid-life makeover. Observation-equipped towers need separate lobbies, separate elevator shafts, and a whole lot of infrastructure behind the scenes to care for hordes of tourists.

[The Imster]

We need more buildings like this around London and the world - looks stunning with the lights at night - i still think i would have preferred the views at over 1000ft from a viewing angle - which would have meant the building would have had to be 1300ft - that would have looked awesome at ground level. my only critisim is sdome of the sides of the buildings looks weird - but the whole it looks stunning from a far. I wonder how long the Shard will have the title as being the tallest in London? Will its height be eclipsed?

[CalibratedZeus]

Not sure if any of you have seen this yet, but you can zoom in with some pretty impressive detail onto The Shard, or any other building in London for that matter.

http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html

[kpdrummer82]

Originally Posted by CalibratedZeus

Not sure if any of you have seen this yet, but you can zoom in with some pretty impressive detail onto The Shard, or any other building in London for that matter.

http://btlondon2012.co.uk/pano.html

Why does London look so crappy, no offense to the Brits on the forum. Seriously though, there are WAY too many construction sites up and the cranes litter the skyline and make it look revolting. Can London try and slow down it's modernization process.

[Swede]

Originally Posted by kpdrummer82

Why does London look so crappy, no offense to the Brits on the forum. Seriously though, there are WAY too many construction sites up and the cranes litter the skyline and make it look revolting. Can London try and slow down it's modernization process.

Too MUCH construction? From your post I gather you want most of London to be some sort of museum piece? It's not. It's a living city. Thus as the population grows, new technologies are developed, businesses expand and contract.. construction follows. Even in old cities, even in old countries, even in touristy cities.

[muppet]

London is booming due to the population growth (city proper):



The metro even more so. The city is surrounded by a protected Green Belt, plus an additional third of the area inside is protected parkland, often royal. Thus it needs to densify even more, and fast. It's been a building site for as long as I can remember, perpetually unfinished even through recessions. Much of what's being built can only go on ex-industrial sites - the docks alone took up 1/8 of the city. Also on the postwar crap they churned out after the war - there are about 3000 ugly residential tower blocks either being torn down or refurbished too.


Also if the city looks a bit modern dont forget the mid-rises and highrises hide thousands of historic streets below ( plus 40,000 protected buildings and counting):

It may look like this from this angle:




But from another, you see what's below view:


#

Street level at times (and if you dont look up) you'd never guess you were in the heart of a modern financial district. This applies to most of the panorama.

[Fishman92]

I've got some pictures from the observation deck view that I could post- anybody interested?

[mr1138]

Originally Posted by kpdrummer82

Why does London look so crappy, no offense to the Brits on the forum. Seriously though, there are WAY too many construction sites up and the cranes litter the skyline and make it look revolting. Can London try and slow down it's modernization process.

Lol. I seriously hope this post was a joke! On the Denver forum people practically throw a party every time a tower crane goes up, and every time one comes down people are foaming at the mouth for the next one to go up... The idea that tower cranes and modernization are a BAD thing is certainly a new one for me! Not exactly sure what point you were trying to make, but on a website full of pro-growth, pro-density, and pro-skyscraper people, I don't think you'll find many sympathizers to an anti-growth point of view.

[Ed007Toronto]

lol someone on SSP complaining about too many cranes.

[kpdrummer82]

Originally Posted by mr1138

Lol. I seriously hope this post was a joke! On the Denver forum people practically throw a party every time a tower crane goes up, and every time one comes down people are foaming at the mouth for the next one to go up... The idea that tower cranes and modernization are a BAD thing is certainly a new one for me! Not exactly sure what point you were trying to make, but on a website full of pro-growth, pro-density, and pro-skyscraper people, I don't think you'll find many sympathizers to an anti-growth point of view.

Listen I'm not complaining nor do I think it's a bad thing that cranes are going up and the city is modernizing, nor did I mean that London is in no way a beautiful city because honestly, it's in the top 3. I just think with this specific panorama, it looks masked of its beauty by all of the cranes and construction. I'm sorry if I offended any of you. By the way, when is this going to be relocated to a different forum, I'm pretty sure this is no longer "under construction"

[easy as pie]

^ hah, i sort of agree in one very very limited sense, which is the chaotic way the cluster is forming are the swiss re tower. like the planned/stalled spiral one (pinnacle, iirc) is really ugly imo, like out of moscow or something, and it messes up the cluster from so many views. i'm actually one who really likes lone towers on the horizon, i'd love it if new high rise development in london were spread around a bit more.

[Duck From NY]

Originally Posted by kpdrummer82

Why does London look so crappy, no offense to the Brits on the forum. Seriously though, there are WAY too many construction sites up and the cranes litter the skyline and make it look revolting. Can London try and slow down it's modernization process.

I think it looks great in the Panorama.

London is one of the greatest cities in the world, if not the greatest, and it looks the part. From the ground level it has beautiful parks, canals, riversides. It has rugged and character-filled red-brick row-houses, Victorian mansions, groundbreaking skyscrapers, and stately buildings. Pretty much anything that looks ugly was built in the decades following WW2, and London is wisely choosing to demolish some of them in favor of protecting older buildings.

P.S. I'm actually fond of some of those ugly concrete structures, particularly those little mini shopping-centers enclosed within city blocks.

[Fishman92]

Well, here are some pictures from my visit. Went on its second open day- which was the first public opening day. Amazing view, I'd like to live up there.
Sorry for picture quality- phones still aren't the best cameras. I have SLR shots that I'll upload at some point.

[Veritas]

I'm going to be sick. When will this conformatist gimmickry end?

[ThatOneGuy]

^^Conformist*

Also, that's a new one. Haha... Shard just follows the herd, eh?

[THE BIG APPLE]

An actual Shard model to be out by the next week by yours truly, as in a model someone actually spent time making. Been working on it for the past 4 weeks.