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Matthew Lloyd / Getty Images
Laser lights shine from The Shard over Tower Bridge on July 5, 2012 in London, England. The European Union's highest building, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, stands at 310 meters.
Andy Rain / EPA
The Shard, Western Europe's tallest building, was formally inaugurated in London on Thursday by His Excellency Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassem Bin Jabor Al Thani, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Qatar and His Royal Highness the Duke of York. The event marks the physical completion of the exterior of the building, which is fast becoming one of the most recognizable London skyline silhouettes.
Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images
The Shard stands above London Bridge Station on Thursday in London, England. The European Union's highest building is to be formally inaugurated with a laser show this evening.
Luke Macgregor / Reuters
Tower Bridge, Canary Wharf, HMS Belfast and the Swiss RE (known as the Gherkin) building are visible from the 69th floor of the Shard during its inauguration in London.
The Shard, Europe's tallest building will be officially dedicated. The glass paneling and tapered design have already made it one of London's most iconic landmarks. ITV's Lewis Vaughan Jones reports.
Carol Grisanti reports in the World News Blog that the 1,016 foot Shard was built at a cost of $2.35 billion:
“It’s a vertical city,” said Renzo Piano, the acclaimed Italian architect who designed the building. A city featuring 28 floors of office space, three floors of restaurants, 10 luxury apartments spread out over 12 floors, a five-star hotel with 200 rooms and a viewing gallery on the 72nd floor, which will be open to the public. The finished structure suggests harmony, technical perfection and purity of design in architectural terms.
But try telling that to its detractors -- who say it represents arrogance, power and money as Britain grapples with a double-dip recession and austerity cuts. Critics suspect mega-rich foreigners will be the only people wealthy enough to move in.
See more images of architectural curiosities in PhotoBlog.
Feng Li / Getty Images
Reaching for the sky, these buildings and towers compete for the world's attention.
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Time to arrest someone for "Destruction of skyline".
That building is absolutely horrendous looking.
THE SHART !!!!!!
The shaft, in more ways than one.
Disgusting.
What sort of half-assed journalism omits 1. The height in feet or meters and 2. Number of stories total, in the first para of the article. This kind of slipshod reporting is just sad!
I agree. Also, what building was the record holder, and how tall is that one?
Forrest, the last record holder was in Frankfort, Germany.....some bank tower across from the Eurobank tower. Not sure of its name or height.
What a thoroughly uninspired design. I wonder how much trouble it would be to dig a hole deep enough to bury the thing.
Ew.
Xenophobic Britains at it again: "Critics suspect mega-rich foreigners will be the only people wealthy enough to move in". What would happen to London if all of the mega-rich foreigners suddenly left? I wish they'd all come here to the States and spread that wealth around here...not only could we use it, we would appreciate it!
It was apparently built, and is owned by, some some Qatari sheikh with seven names. It used to be that Britain owned the entire mid-east, now it's exactly the other way around. FYI/BTW, not to be a nit-picker but they correct word is "Britons."
Regardless, I'm glad it's in the UK, rather than the US. That is one butt ugly waste of steel and glass.
According to the later part of the article and its detractors, of course that is what it represents, just like the line in Titanic, when Rose stated, "Do you know of Mr. Freund, Mr. Ismay? His ideas about the male preoccupation with size, might be of particular interest to you." So where with the rebuilding of the towers in New York might be somewhat more about recovering, rebuilding and showing those that attacked the U.S. that you can't keep us down, it still has to do with size there as well. Just as with the U.S. is the same with England, it doesn't matter what kind of economy there is, if some rich man has the money, he will build it!
The Taliban are drooling ....
I think you mean al Qaeda. The Taliban have never attacked anyone/anything outside Afghanistan other than Pakistan.
The habit and attitude of constant criticism on the part of those of my English heritage is both totally reprehensible and utterly disgusting. Is there not one English person alive who can be positive and say something constructive about anything? What is wrong with the English culture and society?
The building is beautiful and a commendable new tourist attraction!
An excellent description of the building. It's as likely to attract terrorists as it is to attract tourists.
It is called progress!
London is a drab city, anyway and a building like that wakes the place up----it is just the beginning---- Great!!----(Ex, Brit.)