It was announced that the construction of the 47-storey Ledenhall Building (224 m) in the City of London was going to be continued (in fact, the beginning, before that it was about the demolition of a building located on this site). The author of the project is Richard Rogers; the building, nicknamed "The Cheese Grater" because of its triangular outline, will be erected very close to its masterpiece - the headquarters of Lloyd's. It was originally planned to complete construction in 2011, but in 2008 the project was stopped due to the crisis, and therefore they are now talking about mid-2014. The seven lower floors of the tower will be a winter garden with shops and restaurants, offices will be located above.
An even more ambitious project - "Shard London Bridge" by Renzo Piano, is moving faster: the construction of the 310-meter structure began in March 2009 thanks to the infusion of funds from Qatari developers. The 72 floors will house offices, a hotel, apartments, restaurants, spas and observation decks. The far from completed skyscraper was already the tallest structure in the UK last November, and by the time of its completion in 2012 will be the EU record holder. Such claims caught the attention of the public and professionals, resulting in a virtual exhibition of "tomorrow's photographs" of London with a tower embedded in the cityscape; Images courtesy of Hayes Davidson imaging bureau and photographer Nick Wood.
Much to the south, in the capital of the UAE, Abu Dhabi, the Saadiyat Island project is being implemented: the foundations of the branches of famous museums - Louvre Jean Nouvel and Frank Gehry's Guggenheim are being built. Both of these enormous buildings are due for completion in 2013, as is the Sheikh Zayed Norman Foster Museum, which unveiled its project to the public just last year. The Saadiyat plan includes four museums (besides the ones mentioned above - the Tadao Ando Maritime Museum) and the Zaha Hadid Performing Arts Center, as well as parks, a golf club, a residential area, hotels and much more; the project's budget is being hidden, but observers estimate it could be $ 27 billion.
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