Minerva Building design changes and a further increase in height, to 53 floors and . Its location marks the Eastern gateway to the City and the building might have acted as a focus for the regeneration of the eastern City fringe. The site is outside the strategic views of St. Paul's, and does not contain listed buildings, although it does infringe upon a conservation area. It also lies within one of the three proposed viewing cones for the Tower of London, as do 30 St Mary Axe, Heron Tower and Tower 42. Although the official height was , the building was claimed
30 St Mary Axe designed by Norman Foster and Arup Group. It was erected by Skanska; construction started in 2001. The building has become a recognisable feature of London, and it is one of the city's most widely recognised examples of contemporary architecture. The building stands on the former sites of the Baltic Exchange (24-28 St Mary Axe), which was the headquarters of a global marketplace for shipping freight contracts and also soft commodities, and the Chamber of Shipping (30-32 St Mary Axe). On 10 April 1992, the Provisional IRA detonated a bomb close to the Exchange, causing extensive damage to the historic building