Saturday, 4 August 2007

Norman Foster's The Gherkin (or 30 St Mary Axe), London

Helicopter ride over London

A helicopter sight seeing tour is one of the best ways to see the sights of London. To truly appreciate London, jump in a helicopter and see our Capital city from the air. The helicopters used for these sight seeing tours are renowned as being amongst the world's most comfortable and reliable aircraft and, as you might expect, the views through the cabin windows are excellent.

30 St Mary Axe is a skyscraper in London's main financial district, the City of London. It is widely known by the nickname "The Gherkin", and occasionally as a variant on The Swiss Re Tower, after its previous owner and principal occupier. It is 180 metres (591 ft) tall, making it the second-tallest building in the City of London, after Tower 42, and the sixth-tallest in London as a whole. The building's name is its address — St Mary Axe being the street it is on.

The building was designed by Pritzker Prize-winner Lord Foster and ex-partner Ken Shuttleworth and Arup engineers, and was constructed by Skanska of Sweden between 2001 and 2004. However, despite Foster taking complete credit for the design, industry insiders advise that Shuttleworth, who later founded his own design studio, MAKE, was the primary source of the radical and innovative design of the structure.

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