Any ambitious new building is welcome, whether designed to invoke civic pride, provide jobs or just be the tallest/fanciest/poshest in the neighborhood.
And when a landmark building also marks the reinvigoration of a run-down neighborhood, it's doubly welcome. So, a round of applause please for The Shard, which is due completion in 2012, and already towers over the kinda run-down Southwark ("Suthark") area of London.
When done, the jagged building (which was previously to be known as London Bridge Tower, but because of its shape, was soon christened something way more appropriate by those cheeky Londoners, who also gave The Gherkin its name) will rise 1,017 feet above foundations built on a demolished 1970s eyesore tower block, and loom over the previously pretty sketchy London Bridge Station.
The top will contain a public viewing gallery and the structure as a whole will reflect the changing patterns of the sky in a manner designed to change its appearance depending on the weather and season.
The Shard's architect, Renzo Piano, was of course jointly responsible for Paris's lauded Pompidou Centre. His inspirations for The Shard reportedly include the maze of railway lines visible from the site, the masts of tall ships on the river Thames in days gone by, and the London spires of Venetian painter Canaletto.
