THE SHARD

The Shard is the tallest building in

Western Europe and it is more than 300 m high.

It took 4 years to build, using

1,500 builders, 12 tons of steel

frame and 50,000 cubic metres of

concrete.

The person with this idea was

Irvine Sellar who said "I am not a

rational man, a rational man

would have given up."

The architect was Renzo Piano

and he drew his first picture of

the Shard on a napkin.

It cost £1.9 billion pounds to build.

They started building it in May 2008

and finished it in 2012.

Before they started building, they

first had to break down an office

which took 14 months.

They had to be careful taking away

the building because as one

spokesman said "It's like taking your

foot away from sand, all the rest of

the sand fills the hole."

During building they found a fox on

floor 72.

It has enough glass to cover 8

football pitches and enough concrete to fill 19 Olympic swimming pools.

Inside the Shard there is:

- floor 0 - 1 - London Bridge Station

- floor 2 - 3 - Shard Lobby

- floor 4 - 28 - Shard Offices

- floor 29 - 33 - Bars and Restaurants

- floor 34 - 52 - Shangri-la hotel

- floor 53 - 65 - residences

- floor 66 - 72 - View from the Shard

- floor 73 - 95 - The spire.

The Shard

The View from

The Shard.