30 St Mary Axe nearly oblivious to the tower's existence until directly underneath it. The building was constructed by Skanska, completed in December 2003 and opened on 28 April 2004. The primary occupant of the building is Swiss Re, a global reinsurance company, which had the building commissioned as the head office for its UK operation. The tower is thus sometimes known as the Swiss Re Building, although this name has never been official and has more recently fallen out of favour, since the company's main headquarters is in Zurich and the Gherkin name has become more popular. The building uses energy-saving methods which
Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe makes the call. In reality, Bruce Campbell has stated he came up with the name because his father had a friend and co-worker named Chuck Finley. The members of the Espada Ardiente give Sam Axe the nickname "La Barbilla", which is Spanish for "the chin", a reference to actor Bruce Campbell's signature feature (one he references in the title of his autobiography "If Chins Could Kill..."). When told about his new nickname, Sam Axe pauses for a moment and then responds: "The chin? That doesn't make any sense." One of the members of Espada Ardiente uses a chainsaw to remove