First steel section installed for Fenchurch Street skyscraper

Architect Rafael Viñoly’s 38-floor City of London skyskraper dubbed the “Walkie Talkie” has taken an upwards step with the installation of the first of the 4,500 steel sections that will make up the building’s envelope.

The 20 Fenchurch Street office development from Land Securities and Canary Wharf Group is due for completion in 2014.

Some 21,000 m3 of concrete and 5,000 tonnes of steel have gone into the skyscraper’s foundations and core.

Now its steel is being installed by Bury-based contractor William Hare Structural Engineers.

Executives, including John Garwood of Canary Wharf Group and Neil Paterson from Land Securities, signed their names on the first nine-metre column at an on-site ceremony last week.

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