30 St Mary Axe November 2014, the Gherkin was purchased for £700 million by the Safra Group, controlled by the Brazilian billionaire Joseph Safra. As of January 2015, current occupiers of the building include the following: Additionally, retailers and restaurants operate from the site, such as The Sterling and Bridge's Newsagent. 30 St Mary Axe 30 St Mary Axe (known previously as the Swiss Re Building) is a commercial skyscraper in London's primary financial district, the City of London. It was completed in December 2003 and opened in April 2004. With 41 floors, it is tall and stands on the former sites of the
30 St Mary Axe 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 RIBA 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 and Partners