30 St Mary Axe

Modern Architecture London, United Kingdom

180m tall, better known as "The Gherkin" (the cucumber) due to its particular architecture and shape, it is the work of architect Norman Foster and his former partner, Ken Shuttleworth. Completed and inaugurated in 2004, the building stands on the site of the former Baltic Exchange building, damaged by an IRA bomb in 1992.

Its design won the prestigious RIBA Stirling Prize for the best new building by an architect from the RIBA in 2004. Until 2014, based on the name of the former owner (the Swiss Re insurance group), it was also known as The Swiss Re Tower, Swiss Re Building or Swiss Re Centre. The building was then bought by IVG and Evans Randall in 2007 and, subsequently, in November 2014 it was purchased (for over 900 million euros) by the Safra Group, a large industrial group controlled by the family of the Brazilian banker Joseph Safra.