More info: The Shard is a 72-storey skyscraper, designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano and is located in Southwark, London. The shard stands at 309.6 metres (1,016 feet) high, making it the tallest building in the United Kingdom, and the seventh-tallest building in Europe.
The Shard's construction began in March 2009; it was topped out on 30 March 2012 and inaugurated on 5 July 2012.
The glass-clad pyram shaped tower has 72 habitable floors, with a viewing gallery and open-air observation deck on the 72nd floor. The Shard is jointly owned by Sellar Property (5%) and the State of Qatar (95%).
The Shard features 11,000 panes of glass, with a total surface area of 602,779 square feet (56,000.0 m2) equivalent to the area of almost eight Wembley football pitches. The panes of glass are angled in such a way that they reflect the sunlight and sky above so that the appearance of the building changes according to the weather and the seasons.
The Shard has a 26-floor office complex, occupied by 32 companies across 10 business sectors, 3 restaurants—Aqua Shard, Oblix, and Hutong—the five-star Shangri-La The Shard, London hotel, 10 residential apartments, and the UK's highest viewing gallery, The View from The Shard.
The outside of the shard is cleaned 4 times a year, using state-of-the-art gondolas and a team of 17 abseiling cleaners and it takes around 3 months to clean - so once finished they have to start all over again !