In April 2005, a glass panel two thirds up the tower fell to the plaza beneath. The plaza was sealed off, but the building remained open. A temporary covered walkway, extending across the plaza to the building's reception, was erected to protect visitors. Engineers examined the other 744 glass panels on the building. The cost of repair was covered by main contractor Skanska and curtain-wall supplier Schmidlin (now called Schmidlin-TSK AG). Since its completion, the building has won a number of awards for architecture. In October 2004, the architect was awarded the 2004
Stirling Prize. For the first time in the prize's history, the judges were unanimous. In December 2005, a survey of the world's largest firms of architects published in
2006 BD World Architecture 200 voted the tower as the most admired new building in the world. However,
Ken Shuttleworth, who worked for
Foster + Partners on the design of the building, said in 2011 that he believed the style was now out-moded: "I was looking at the glass all around and [thought], 'Why on earth did we do that?' Now, we would do things differently." The building appeared in the
CBeebies children's show
Me Too! under the name
Harlequin Hospital and in films such as
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince,
A Good Year,
Basic Instinct 2, and
Match Point and, rechristened the
Spirit of London, became the spaceship centrepiece of
Keith Mansfield's 2008 novel
Johnny Mackintosh and the Spirit of London. In September 2006, the building was put up for sale with a price tag of £600 million. Potential buyers included
British Land,
Land Securities,
Prudential,
ING, and the
Abu Dhabi royal family. On 21 February 2007,
IVG Immobilien AG and UK investment firm Evans Randall completed their joint purchase of the building for £630 million, making it Britain's most expensive office building. Swiss Re made a gain of more than £300 million from the sale. The new owners are seeking compensation from four of their former managers on the deal, in which about £620 million was paid for a building with a build cost of about £200 million, giving the previous owners a clear £300 million profit. Since February 2010,
Sky News has broadcast its flagship business programme,
Jeff Randall Live, from a studio in the building. The top two floors of the tower have been available since at least 2015 for private hire for events. in contrast with the juxtaposition of the
16th century St Andrew Undershaft church in 2010
Deloitte announced in April 2014 that the building was again being put up for sale, with an expected price of £550 million. The current owners could not afford to make loan repayments, citing differences in the value of the multi-currency loan and the British pound, high interest rates and general financing structure. In November 2014, the Gherkin was purchased for £700 million by the
Safra Group, controlled by the Lebanese - Brazilian billionaire
Joseph Safra.
Roman tomb In the construction process of 30 St Mary Axe, a skeleton of a teenage girl was unearthed and dated as
roughly 1600 years old. To prevent damaging it throughout the construction process, it was stored in the
Museum of London. In 2006, 3 years after the completion of the building, she was returned to and reburied on the site. Her tomb is visible and marked with an inscription in both
Latin and English: == See also ==