The Gherkin Tower - London, UK
A prominent curved, tapering, 41-story high-rise in London’s
central business district, Gherkin Tower is the city’s most
widely recognized contemporary architectural structure.
Extraordinarily embraced by the public, the progressive
designed building set the standard for future buildings in one
of the world’s oldest financial centers.
Architecture & Design Features
Structural Expressionism Architectural Style.
The Gherkin name was established based on the unique shape of the building.
The tower’s uppermost dome, known as the “lens” symbolizes a glass dome
that covered part of the ground floor of the Baltic Exchange Building,
previously located at The Gherkin Tower project site.
Diagonal bracing structure provide many benefits including natural ventilated
internal spaces and ample protected public space at the ground level.
The tower is aerodynamically designed to reduce wind load on the structure.
Each level is rotated for each successive floor.
The building’s HVAC system passes air through the façade cavity, extracting
warm air trapped between the exterior glass panels and interior
Building Automation System (BAS)-controlled, customized blinds.
Lightwells, which penetrate deep into the tower’s interior, significantly reduce the
need for electrical lighting, resulting in reductions in energy and related costs.
PROJECT SUMMARY
Project Description Original plans were for Millennium Tower, a 92-story, 386-meter (1,266 ft.) building
with more than 1.5M SF of office space, apartments, shops, restaurants and gardens.
This plan was dropped as it was considered out of scale in the City of London and
potentially disruption to aircraft flight paths to London City and London Heathrow
airports. The building stands at the former site of the Baltic Exchange which was the
headquarters of a global marketplace for shipping freight contracts and also soft
commodities, and the Chamber of Shipping. The iconic property’s outdoor plaza is full
of people in the summer, food markets, city events, and a dynamic arts program.
Official Building Name 30 St. Mary Axe
Other Building Names The Gherkin | Swiss Re Building
Location Primary Financial District | London, UK
Address 300 St. Mary Axe, London, UK
Construction Commenced - 2001 | Completed December 2003 | Occupied April 2004
Occupancy | Use Office
PROJECT DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION
Developer Swiss Re
Architect Norman Foster and Partners
Structural Engineer Arup Group
Main Contractor Skanska
Owner | Manager Safra Group | CB Richard Ellis
Façade All-glass façade, elliptical-shaped, tapered as it rises towards the top floors and base,
in a spiraling design. The tower’s exterior cladding consists of approximately 5,500 flat
rectangular, diamond-shaped glass panels. The active façade is ventilated, comprising
a low-emissivity, double-glazed clear external panels to the outside and single-pane
interior glazing units, separated by an interior cavity.
Structure Aerodynamic, elliptical-shaped building, with tapered form and diagonal bracing and
column-free floor plates. The geometry of the tower required an innovative design for
the fabrication of individual exterior glazed panels.
BUILDING CONSTRUCTION SUMMARY
Size | Category 694,000 GSF | 64,000 GSM | Class A Office + Retail Amenities
Height Rankings #10 in London, UK | #84 tallest in Europe
Height Details Tip: 591 feet | 180 meters
Number of Floors 41 Above Ground | 1 Below Ground
# Elevators |Speed 24 Elevators | 6 meters per second
# Parking Spaces 272
NOTABLE FACTS
Helped to define a modern, open, and progressive image, with architectural quality, for one of the
world’s oldest financial centers.
Previously, at this development site, on April 10, 1992 the Provisional IRA detonated a bomb close to
the Exchange, causing extensive to the historic building and surrounding structures.
The building design has been the recipient of numerous architecture awards.
Britain’s most expensive office building, the property was sold for £630 million in 2007.
Floors 38-40 comprise a restaurant, private dining and bar establishment.
The tower’s sustainability design results in an estimated 50% less energy consumption than
comparable sized office buildings.
The Gherkin Tower
London’s Tower Bridge and City Skyline
