The Shard

This guide to The Shard in London traces a 2002 letter from a heritage official meant to kill the project, and the insult that became the building's name. It follows developer Irvine Sellar's dinner in Berlin with architect Renzo Piano, who sketched a spire on a restaurant menu inspired by Canaletto's paintings of church spires and ship masts crowding London's skyline. Years of planning battles followed, along with a 2013 protest that saw six women scale the glass overnight. Stand on the south bank of the Thames for the view Piano was chasing.