Vertical city

Emerging from London Bridge station, it’s a bit of a shock to see that The Shard, Renzo Piano’s 310m-high glass tower, is actually becoming a reality.

Words Pamela Buxton

So many plans for London skyscrapers get no nearer to reality than their swanky computer renderings. And the higher the aspiration, the less likely they are to move beyond the screen and into actual, rather than virtual, reality.

The Shard’s dimensions will be truly huge – the tallest mixed-use building in London with 1.4m sq ft of office, hotel, and residential accommodation. Yet here it is, rising up apace. The concrete core, is now clearly visible and more excitingly, the first sign of the steel structure is appearing from behind the hoardings alongside London Bridge’s bus stations.

The plan, according to developer Sellar Property Group, is for the structure to complete by May 2012, with Adamson Associates working as ‘alliance’ architects in collaboration with Renzo Piano Building Workshop.

By the time the Shard is complete, the developer will be hoping that confidence will have returned to the commercial property market. But is this ‘vertical city’ going to be any good? We’re going to have to wait a bit longer to find out. It’s only Piano’s second UK project, and is likely to leave even more of a mark on the city than his Pompidou Centre did on Paris.  Meanwhile another foreign superstar architect, Jean Nouvel is far further advanced on his first UK project – One New Change opposite St Paul’s Cathedral. It is relatively low-rise but looks a powerful, some might say too powerful presence in such a sensitive location.

It’s often said that this country doesn’t get the best out of overseas architects when they build here. Let’s hope that’s about to change. For The Shard, whether it turns out to be good, bad or merely mediocre, is going to dominate London’s skyline in a way that no other building has ever done before.