Shard appeal
July 5, 2012
London's newest and biggest skyscraper, the controversial Shard Tower will be officially inaugurated with 12 lasers and 30 searchlights lighting up the night sky over the capital.
The lasers will reach out at 10.15pm local time on July 5 to other major landmarks including the London Eye, the Gherkin and Tower Bridge to music played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
The 310-meter tall building is 95 percent funded by Qatar. A royal delegation has flown in to mark the completion of the exterior of the building. The interior will not be finished until next year.
The 95-story Shard, so called because of its resemblance to a gigantic glass splinter, stands on the banks of the river Thames near London Bridge. It dominates the capital's skyline and overwhelms nearby St. Paul's Cathedral.
Not everyone in London is overjoyed at the new building which also stands close to some of the city's most deprived areas where unemployment is high. A local resident who helps to run a district council housing and who wants to remain anonymous, told the Reuters news agency: "It's just monstrous. This doesn't seem to help the community in any way. We don't even know what's inside."
Ten apartments take up the top 13 floors with 360-degree views extending to 71 kilometers. The circular vista includes the great parks and palaces of west London round to the eastern docklands - for a distant sight of this month's Olympic games.
The building was designed in 2000 by Renzo Piano, the Italian architect best known for creating Paris's Pompidou Centre in collaboration with Britain's Richard Rogers. The project met with many delays over planning permission.
Shorter than the 80-year-old Empire State Building, the Shard is the first and the tallest of a new crop of skyscrapers planned or in construction in central London.
jm/mr (Reuters, dpa)