ARCH 655_Project 1_Midterm
ARCH 655_Parametric Modeling in Design_Project 1 30 St. Mary Axe (The Gherkin) 1. Introduction At the heart of the City, at 30 St. Mary Axe, the headquarters of the Swiss Reinsurance Company is not only an unmistakable landmark on the London skyline, but also the first skyscraper built with British capital ecological criteria. The building is where once the headquarters of the Baltic Exchange, a company that managed the maritime rents and which dealt with the sale of boats was. When in 1992 an IRA bomb destroyed the building, it was thought possible restoration, but later realized that the old structure could not be retrieved. Only in 2000, however, consent to the realization of a new building began. The integration of the Swiss Tower in the context of the City had to undergo however the rules of the London authorities, who expressly asked were respected identity and style of the other buildings. Swiss Tower certainly does not go unnoticed and is clearly distin