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Investing in risk: How the Gherkin became a British icon
Bryan Scheib, “The Gherkin,” digital computer file, 2013. Created by superimposing dozens of the user-uploaded photographs that rank near the top of a Google Image search, this visualization by Bryan Scheib captured the tension between consistency and variation in visual representation that characterizes urban icons. Courtesy of Bryan Scheib. Like the previous image, this perspective view of a simulation of air velocities in Atrium 6 framed expectations about energy consumption at 30 St Mary Axe. BDSP, Swiss Re HQ, 2009. Presentation. Displayed in fall 2011 at the marketing office for 20 Fenchurch Street, this visualization imagined how the new cluster of skyscrapers around the Gherkin would appear from across the Thames. Photograph by Jonathan Massey. In their “Postcard from the Future” imagining 30 St Mary Axe as a ruined tenement, Robert Graves and Didier Madoc-Jones suggested that sophisticated design expertise could help London avoid negative impacts of climate change. Robert Graves and Didier Madoc-Jones. The Gherkin, 2010. Included among the documents submitted toward the end of the planning review was this chart showing some of the variant designs considered for 30 St Mary Axe between 1996 and 2000. Foster + Partners, 'Swiss Re Environmental Statement, Part IV: Non-Technical Summary, May 2000”: “Fig. 5, Part 4: Design Evolution.” Courtesy of Foster + Partners. Seen here from the vacant sixteenth floor of 30 St Mary Axe, the large skyscrapers of Canary Wharf constituted a new business district to the east of the City. Photograph by author. This perspective sketch from fall 1998 shows how the base of the building might function as an airy retail zone extending below plaza level. Foster + Partners, Swiss Re House, Record Set of Presentation, 19th and 21st October 1998, 1998. Courtesy of Foster + Partners. Drawings like this one from an intermediate planning and design report suggested that the tower would enhance the skyline by completing the “cluster” of towers in the City’s northeastern quadrant. Foster + Partners, Swiss Re House, Record Set of Presentation, 19th and 21st October 1998, 1998: “Consolidation of the City Cluster of High Buildings.” Courtesy of Foster + Partners. The portion of the plaza adjoining Bury Street provides seating for patrons of the restaurant in the six-story annex building. Photograph by author. Shown here where it opens into the office floor at the base of one of the six-story atriums, the Abluft enclosure sandwiches blinds and encased diagrid struts between the exterior curtain wall and an inner curtain wall of rectangular glass sheets. Photograph by Jonathan Massey. This plan view from a simulation of air flow and velocity through the sixth floor was among the many documents generated by environmental consultants BDSP during the design of 30 St Mary Axe to model the building’s environmental performance. BDSP, Swiss Re HQ, 2009. Presentation. Photographed in March 1998, these study models show the massing already permitted by the Planning Department alongside some of the alternative building configurations considered by Foster + Partners early in the design process. Foster + Partners, Swiss Re House 1004, Progress Report, 21 April 1998, 1998. Courtesy of Foster + Partners. The U.S. Pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal, in which the United States Information Agency set floor decks linked by elevator and escalator within a five-eighths geodesic sphere, provided a model for the Climatroffice and successor projects from Foster + Partners, including 30 St Mary Axe. From I. Kalin, Expo ‘67: Survey of Building Materials, Systems, and Techniques Used at the Universal and International Exhibition of 1967 (Ottawa, Canada: Materials Branch, Department of Industry, Trade, and... This schematic design from spring 1998 envisions 30 St Mary Axe as an adaptation of the Climatroffice, with staggered floorplates set within a curving steel-and-glass enclosure. Foster + Partners, Swiss Re House 1004, Progress Report, 21 April 1998, 1998. Courtesy of Foster + Partners. View full image + The section and plan of the Climatroffice project (1971) show how the Foster firm reconceptualized the platforms, escalators, and enclosure of the U.S. Pavilion as elements in a freestanding climate-controlled office building. Courtesy of Foster + Partners. These sketches made during the schematic design phase in spring 1998 suggests that the adapted Climatroffice configuration will create rentable daylit retail space below plaza level. Foster + Partners, 1004 Swiss Re House, 14 May 1998, 1998. Courtesy of Foster + Partners. In this poster publicizing a protest at Heathrow Airport organized by the Camp for Climate Action, artist Rachel Bull depicted 30 St Mary Axe as an ambivalent climate change icon courting risks beyond its capacity to manage. Climate Camp (artist: Rachel Bull). The Camp for Climate Action, 2007. Offset lithograph poster. This site plan showing the plaza and context of 30 St Mary Axe includes the ground floors of both the tower and the Bury Street annex building at the east end of the ramp leading down into the below-grade parking deck. Courtesy of Foster + Partners. As this diagrammatic section through a near-final version of the tower shows, atriums two and six floors tall link many of the office floors. Foster + Partners, Sheet PA1202, “Bury Street East Illustrative Section,” from a drawing set submitted with the final planning application for 30 St Mary Axe, July 1999. Courtesy of Foster + Partners. By featuring 30 St Mary Axe as support for vaulting gymnast Ben Brown, this “Back the Bid” poster suggested that London possessed the expertise and daring to risk public money on hosting the Olympic Games. M&C Saatchi, Inc., “Back the Bid,” offset lithograph poster, 2004. Courtesy of London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG).

Bryan Scheib, “The Gherkin,” digital computer file, 2013. Created by superimposing dozens of the user-uploaded photographs that rank near the top of a Google Image search, this visualization by Bryan Scheib captured the tension between consistency and variation in visual representation that characterizes urban icons. Courtesy of Bryan Scheib.
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Bryan Scheib, “The Gherkin,” digital computer file, 2013. Created by superimposing dozens of the user-uploaded photographs that rank near the top of a Google Image search, this visualization by Bryan Scheib captured the tension between consistency and variation in visual representation that characterizes urban icons. Courtesy of Bryan Scheib.