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30 St Mary Axe

Towers and Skyscrapers

30 St Mary Axe, previously known as the Swiss Re Building and nicknamed The Gherkin after its shape, is a commercial skyscraper in the City of London, England's primary financial district. Completed in December 2003 and opened in April 2004, it has 41 floors and stands 180 metres tall, on the site of the former Baltic Exchange, which was extensively damaged in the 1992 Baltic Exchange bombing.

Facts
Year Created
2003 1
Architectural Style
High-tech architecture (structural expressionism), neo-futurism and post-modernism 1
Structural System
Fully triangulated perimeter structure, self-supporting without extra reinforcement 1
Building Type
Commercial skyscraper 1
Construction
from 2001 1
Height (metres)
180 1
Storey Count
41 1
Current Use
Offices, with a bar on the 40th floor and a restaurant on the 39th floor 1
Classification
Genre
Architecture 1
Connections

In Genre

Entity-backed identity for the genre enum value this work already carries, resolved to an arts art-form by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The genre fact itself, with its own citation, stays on the work unchanged.

Sources
1. Wikipedia: 30 St Mary Axe
  • Lead section, height field
    180 metres (591 ft)
  • Lead section, floors field
    With 41 floors, it is 180 metres (591 ft) tall
  • Lead section, completion field
    It was completed in December 2003 and opened in April 2004
  • History section, construction start field
    construction started in 2001
  • Design section, style field
    The design by Foster + Assocs has been described as incorporating various architectural styles: high-tech architecture (also known as structural expressionism), neo-futurism, and post-modernism
  • Design section, structure field
    its fully triangulated perimeter structure makes the building rigid enough without any extra reinforcements
  • Lead section, building type field
    commercial skyscraper
  • Interior section, current use field
    The building houses offices, with Swiss Re as the original main tenant, plus a bar on the 40th floor, restaurant on the 39th floor, and private dining rooms on the 38th.
  • Genre reference
    30 St Mary Axe, previously known as the Swiss Re Building and nicknamed The Gherkin after its shape, is a commercial skyscraper in the City of London, England's primary financial district.
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