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At 1016' (309.6m) The Shard is the tallest habitable building in Western Europe. The building has a total of 95 storeys, but the top 23 are considered to be its spire. There are public viewing galleries on two of the floors, the 68th and 72nd, the latter being the highest "habitable" floor, at an altitude of 800' (244m), giving views - on the clearest days - as far as 35 miles (55km) in every direction.
The Shard took three years to build, involving nearly 1500 construction workers during its peak construction phase.
It has a massive concrete central core, with almost as much concrete again in its foundations. Attached to this is a complex steel structure which is clad in triple-glazed glass panels. This exterior consists of 11,000 individual glazed panels with a total area of over 600,000ft² (56,000m²) - the equivalent of about eight football pitches.
The trip from the Ground floor to the viewing galleries is in two separate lifts, the first one from floors 0 to 33, the second from 33 to 67. They both travel at about 6m/s - or about a floor per second.
On a clear day the panorama from the viewing galleries is excellent as you are at the highest fixed point in the city; the buildings, trains and traffic looking almost like models from this vantage point.
The Shard is a multi-purpose building containing an hotel, restaurants, residential and office space - with a total floor area of 1.2 million ft² (110,000 m²).
The architect of this building is the Italian Renzo Piano who created the building for the developer Irvine Sellar.
Visiting the "View from the Shard" viewing galleries costs £25 for adults and £19 for children if booked in advance. (2013)

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