The Shard, Europe's tallest building, unveiled in London

[alp227]

Source: Press Association

Europe's tallest building has been officially unveiled in central London.

The Shard's tapered design and glass panelling have already made the skyscraper one of the capital's most noticeable landmarks.

Just yards from the banks of the River Thames in Southwark, it seems to pierce the sky as it shoots more than 1,000ft into the air.

The tower, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, has 72 floors which can be occupied, and will contain offices, exclusive residences, a luxury hotel, restaurants and a viewing gallery.



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jul/05/the-shard-unveiled-london

[onehandle]

1. The Shard was built for the 1%.

The Shard is the perfect metaphor for modern London

Expensive, off-limits and owned by foreign investors – the Shard extends the ways in which London is becoming more unequal

snip...

The money men behind the Shard would like the rest of us to treat it merely as a building. Ideally, you'd marvel at its jutting architecture (the work of Renzo Piano, don't you know); failing that, they'd take you castigating its arrogant flashiness.

But before falling for the predictable Shard-en freude, we should think again. Because what is approaching completion over on London's South Bank is almost the perfect metaphor for how the capital is being transformed – for the worse. The skyscraper both encapsulates and extends the ways in which London is becoming more unequal and dangerously dependent on hot money.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/25/shard-metaphor-for-modern-london

[stockholmer]

2. 1%? try .01%, with money to drop 30 million quid for a flat

The Shard's backers, Qatar (along with Saudi Arabia) is really benefiting and providing the 'spiritual' push behind so much of the systemic false 'revolutions' that are ongoing in the Middle East. They utilize the money and bankster muscle that is the City of London and its empiric attack-dog, the USA. Look carefully and you will see that the Muslim Brotherhood is, from its beginning roots in the 1920's, an entity of British control. Thus, you have country after country slamming aside secular pan-arabist governments (Iraq, Libya, etc) as well as non Sunni (Syria, Iran, etc) ones, all being replaced with Sunni fundamentalists backed by the NATO/US/UK war machine.

Qatar probably exerts more power per person (in terms of population versus geo-political projections of their ruling power's wishes) than any other nation on the planet except for Israel.

[suffragette]

10. And £30m is the low end. Apparently they go up to £50m.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/04/london-shard-opens-to-fanfare?intcmp=239

The content of the building is also largely exclusive. From marble lobbies, double-decker lifts whisk users up to office space on floors four to 28 (40 to 50% is already let out, they say), a luxury hotel in the middle 18 floors, and 10 duplex apartments on the top floors, valued at £30m-£50m each.


And to introduce all this exclusivity, what better to play then this (quote from the same article):

...the London Philharmonic Orchestra will play Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man.



Guess they couldn't find a 'Fanfare for the Ultrawealthy Who Look Down with Scorn at the People they Oppress."

[Nihil]

17. I'd really like a power cut at 18:00 after the thing is fully occupied ...

> a luxury hotel in the middle 18 floors, and 10 duplex apartments on
> the top floors, valued at £30m-£50m each.

... just to know that the bastards had to walk up the stairs to get to bed ...

[Smilo]

3. Exclusive Residences............

says it all.

"And I hope that the people who will come and work here and live around here will truly appreciate not only the hard work that the entire team have put together, but also they'll recognise the relationship and investment that has been put in by both the UK and Qatar."

So there you have it folks - Qatar - a small, but extremely rich oil producing country - is now buying up London real estate for the haves.

Of course, over here we have the Chinese and Russians coming in and buying our real estate at bargain bin prices.

[yellowcanine]

4. From the pics it looks kind of ugly to me.

But maybe it grows on a person.

[Kolesar]

11. It looks rather Soviet to me

Maybe it is the lighting in the stills.

[j-c-p]

5. Shard?

broken glass? It seems like a dumb name to me.

[alfredo]

6. So London has the Shard, the Gherkin, and the Eye. What next, the pickled Herring?

[alfredo]

7. Here's a recent photo

[Spitfire of ATJ]

8. Brilliant!

[Rhiannon12866]

14. Cool details. Here's another pic, part of the new skyline:

[freshwest]

15. Olympics built on nuclear waste, missiles placed on rooftops. Nothing to see there, move along.

Still I think something's up with the Shard.

Voldemort is ruling Florida and the Golems are running amok in every state.

I wouldn't be surprised if we were living in a low-budget version of LOTR or Terminator.

[Archae]

9. That's not a shard.

This is.

[cigsandcoffee]

12. It looks like a shard of ass, not glass. n/t

[Proles]

13. I agree with its detractors. It just seems out of place in the more subtle architecture of London.

Not every major city needs skyscrapers... but meh.

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

16. Any pics of the veil?

It must be awesome!

[Franker65]

18. Looks good

I like it! Londoners should be proud. It looks great. It does remind me a little bit of that hotel in Pyongyang though...

[truthisfreedom]

19. The Shard? Seriously?

It broke off something else?