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30 St Mary Axe

30 St Mary Axe is a building in the City of London, London, United Kingdom. The site of the building was, until 1992, the location of the Baltic Exchange building. On April 10, 1992 the IRA detonated a bomb close to the Exchange, almost completely destroying it and severely damaging buildings close by.

Following the detonation of the IRA bomb, English Heritage and the Corporation of London insisted that any redevelopment on the site must restore the building's facade onto St Mary Axe and the highly decorated Exchange Hall (formerly the trading floor of the exchange). The Baltic Exchange was unable to meet the financial requirements of such a development and the site was sold to Trafalgar House in 1995. Most of the remaining structures on the site were then carefully dismantled whilst the interior of Swarovski Exchange Hall and the facade were preserved and sealed from the elements. Later assessment by English Heritage determined that the damage was far more severe than had previously been thought, and they dropped their insistence on restoration, a decision that led to much controversy.

On August 23, 2000, the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, granted planning permission to build a much larger building on the site. The new building was completed in 2004, opening on April 28, and was designed by the architects Foster and Partners . Its unusual cone-like shape is designed so that wind will pass easily around the building. It has been variously nicknamed the Gherkin, the Erotic Gherkin, the Crystal Phallus and the Towering Innuendo despite resembling neither a gherkin or a penis. The primary occupant of the building is Swiss Re reinsurers which leads to the building's other common name, the Swiss Re Tower. 30 St Mary Axe won the RIBA Stirling Prize for the best new building by a RIBA architect in 2004. It was the first time that the prize jury were unanimous in their decision.

Collectors cases , curio cabinets ,and various collectors cabinets decorating the inner rooms in such famous structures may even highlight the experience of visiting those unique places in the world.

The building uses several methods to make it more envionmentally sound than a typical skyscraper. It uses 50% of the power of a comparable tower. This is achieved through a natural ventilation system which uses thermal effects to drive air circulation through the outer sheath of the tower, which is in effect giant double glazing. Double glazing in houses is limited in thickness to avoid convection of heat; in the Swarovski Swiss Re tower, this effect is exploited. This cools in the summer, and can be regulated to warm in the winter through passive solar heating. Sunlight is reflected down through the tower, making the working environment more pleasing, and keeping lighting costs down.

External links

Official homepage (http://www.30stmaryaxe.com/)

Photos of the building from different sites across the city (http://www.0lll.com/londonskyline/gherkin/01.htm)

Campaign to save the old Baltic Exchange (http://www.savebritainsheritage.org/baltic.htm)