UK's tallest building is 'about more than height'

Speaking from the 24th floor of the Shard, the central London tower set to be the highest in western Europe, Irvine Sellar said his building would be known for more than its altitude.

Mr Sellar, who is chairman of the Sellar Group, said: "It's not an ego thing. We're not the tallest building in the world by a long way, but we are the best-looking in Europe."

The Shard, which last month outstripped Canary Wharf's One Canada Square to become the tallest building in Britain, is the highest-profile part of a broader plan for a 2 billion redevelopment of the area around London Bridge Station.

The tower will have 44 lifts and will be topped by a four-floor viewing gallery that will be open to the public.

A new public concourse and a piazza will be complete by 2013 and will link the 310 metre (1,016ft) building to the station, through which 400,000 commuters pass every day.

Mr Sellar said that when architect Renzo Piano first visited the area, he described it as "a Kingdom of Darkness".

He also revealed that the Italian architect, who helped designed the Pompidou Centre but had never before designed a building in Britain, had initially been reluctant to work on a building so tall.

At a meeting in Berlin in 2000, Mr Piano told him: "I don't like tall buildings, they're fortresses, they're imperious, they're symbols, they're arrogant."

Mr Sellar said: "Well I thought: 'Thanks, Renzo. It's been nice meeting you.'"

But as they talked further Mr Piano became animated about the project and began sketching a rough design on the back of a menu. Ten years later, the building has now reached 72 storeys of its final 87.

At a meeting last week, the architect told Mr Sellar: "If we were both not a little mad this would never have happened."