More Pickles (what a surprise): Architect Edition

Not really edible this time, though...

I was trying to write a post about skyscraper regulations - has anyone heard something about how skyscrapers used to totally shadow city streets but then 'they' made rules about tapering and so on that changed everything for the sunnier?...no?...well neither has Google.  (What is up with the new Google, by the way?)

Anyway, that put me in mind of the London Gherkin.  This notable structure, located at 30 St Mary Axe in the financial district of London, sparked the BBC headline: Erotic Gherkin for London Skyline.  Perhaps you dirty-minded individuals can see why.  I certainly can't imagine...

 [Photo from here.]

Right, so if you do an image search of the word gherkin, all but one of the first twenty are of 30 SMA.  Big stuff.  It won some awards when it was first built in 2003, and is quite 'green' - apparently it uses half the energy needed for a typical building of its size.  (I wonder if its glass panels include aerogel insulants?)  Great Britain's most expensive office building is also aerodynamic and "improves the wind environment for pedestrians in the area" - something I hadn't thought about, but which I'm sure is worth considering as an architect.  It's also quite economic by the manner in which floorspace is used, although I can't say for certain how, never having been inside.  I've only ever peered at it through the windows of the London Eye, or else from somewhere like the Tower or the Tate Modern's Bankside Power Station.

Hmm.  Tomorrow, another modern UK architectural feat!  One I've actually been inside!