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
30 St Mary Axe 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 featured in recent films such as "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince", Russell Crowe's "A Good Year", Sharon Stone's "Basic Instinct 2", and Woody Allen's "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