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30 St Mary Axe

City of London, United Kingdom

The 281st tallest building in the world

250 m · 820 ft

30 St Mary Axe, previously known as the Swiss Re Building, is a commercial skyscraper in London's primary financial district, the City of London. It is nicknamed The Gherkin after the vegetable of the same name due to its shape. It was completed in December 2003 and opened in April 2004. With 41 floors, it is 180 metres (591 ft) tall and stands on the sites of the former Baltic Exchange and Chamber of Shipping, which were extensively damaged in 1992 in the Baltic Exchange bombing by a device placed by the Provisional IRA in St Mary Axe, a narrow street leading north from Leadenhall Street. After plans to build the 92-storey Millennium Tower were dropped, 30 St Mary Axe was designed by Foster + Partners and the Arup Group. It was built by Skanska; construction started in 2001. The building has become a recognisable landmark of London, and it is one of the city's most widely recognised examples of contemporary architecture. It won the 2003 Emporis Skyscraper Award.

Building data from Wikidata (CC0); heights normalised. Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).

More tall buildings in United Kingdom

  1. The Shard306 m
  2. 22 Bishopsgate278.2 m
  3. One Canada Square235 m
  4. Heron Tower230 m
  5. 122 Leadenhall Street225 m

Other tall buildings worldwide

  1. Burj Khalifa · Dubai829.8 m
  2. Merdeka 118 · Kuala Lumpur678.9 m
  3. Shanghai Tower · Shanghai632 m
  4. Abraj Al Bait · Mecca601 m
  5. Makkah Clock Royal Tower Hotel · Mecca601 m
  6. Ping An Finance Centre · Futian Subdistrict599 m
  7. Lotte World Tower · Songpa District555.7 m
  8. One World Trade Center · Manhattan546.2 m