Shard of Glass Breaking Ground Soon

It's started... scaffolding has begun going up on the St Thomas St facade of Southwark Towers.

These next few weeks were meant to be crucial, but things are looking absolutely dire for this project. I'm starting to give up hope of it ever being built... :-(



Delay for UK's tallest tower as backers struggle for funding

James Rossiter

The timetable for completing the Shard of Glass, intended to be Britain's tallest building, has been put back by at least a year to 2012 as its backers struggle to secure finance.

Full story from The Times

[edited by JH to replace quoted text with link - please link to articles on external sites rather than copying-and-pasting in full. Thanks.]

I'm told that PwC are now completely out of the building.

Today's Architect's Journal carries a story completely rubbishing the Times' claims.

From that report (relevant paragraph pasted in because I think the AJ is subscription only - I hope it's ok to copy and paste it but please remove if it's not):

"The spokesman said: ‘I don't know where they got the story from, but it's simply not true. The scaffolding is going up as we speak and once that has happened the existing building [Southwark Towers] will be demolished. Everything is progressing as planned.'"

The completion date remains at 2011 according to the AJ.

I remain skeptical. There's a big difference between demolishing Southwark Towers (which will cost a mere £8m), and actually constructing the Shard (for which they need £1.2 billion)...

This will be the most expensive skyscraper built anywhere in the world, ever - and it comes during a period of growing uncertainty in the financial markets.

>>during a period of growing uncertainty in the financial markets.


Perfect time to be building. If it does all go wrong, then the construction costs will be cheaper. And 2011 will doubtless coincide with the next upturn when there will be a shortage again.

If it doesn't all go wrong, then having the guts to continue with it will also be a bonus.

Big article here on Building.co.uk

http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=583&storycode=3094541

NOTE: If you scroll down, near the bottom there are videos showing the construction method. The first one looks awesome!

wjfox2004 wrote:

Big article here on Building.co.uk
http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=583&storycode=3094541

NOTE: If you scroll down, near the bottom there are videos showing the construction method. The first one looks awesome!

Interesting piece. And as you say, the first clip is very cool!

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b281/SE9/DSC09775.jpg

And some good news regarding the funding - looks like it should all be resolved:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=ap7TLu7EUUj8