30 St Mary Axe, nicknamed the Gherkin, stands on St Mary Axe in the City of London. Foster + Partners designed it, with Arup as structural engineer and Skanska as main contractor. Swiss Re commissioned it as its UK headquarters. Later owners were IVG Immobilien and Evans Randall in 2007 and the Safra Group in 2014. The article calls the style high-tech, neo-futurist and postmodernist.
Construction began in 2001 and was completed in December 2003, and it opened in April 2004. The tower is 180 meters (591 feet) tall with 41 floors, and its glass panels wrap a curved form crowned by a lens-shaped glass cap. Six ventilation shafts run up the building.
A restaurant is on the 39th floor and a bar on the 40th. The upper floors can be hired privately, and a lift with accessible access serves the top bar.
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