"The One Canada Square tower stands
at 235 metres (771 ft) in height with 50 stories, at time of writing is the
tallest building in the UK. It took over the tallest building title from Tower
42 in 1990.
Most people refer to One Canada Square as Canary Wharf
when in fact Canary Wharf is the name given for the development and district. In
the past the area was made up of cargo warehouses which served the docks and the
Docklands area.
The tower is used solely for office space and is not
open to the public. In the early days there was a viewing deck but this was
stopped due to concerns following IRA bombings.
In total the tower has 3,960 windows and 4,388 steps
which are divdied into four fire stairwells. If you are not keen on the steps to
get to work you could use one of the 32 lifts, with a small number of lifts
reserved for freight and emergency use.
Lift times from the ground to the 50th floor take just
40 seconds! The warning light on top of the tower flashes 40 times a minute,
57,600 times a day.
Approximately 9,000 people in One Canada
Square.
The top of the building is capped by a 39.6 metre (130
feet) pyramid which weighs 11 tons.
For a number of years the tower was the only one in the
immediate vicinity. Then in 2001 and 2002 the completion of the Smaller 'HSBC'
and Citigroup towers joined the tower. Today there are many plans afoot for the
Canary Wharf sites and nearby Docklands Areas with more buildings and towers
planned alongside vast Quaysides."
Text source: [visit
link]
"One Canada Square
• The tower at Canary Wharf
(One Canada Square) has 50 floors and is 800 feet (244 metres) high.
•
The tower is an occupied office building and is not open to the
public.
• 90,000 square feet of Italian and Guatemalan marble have been
used in the 36-foot lobby
• The tower has 3,960 windows and 4,388
steps, divided into four fire stairways.
• The tower has 32 passenger
lifts divided into four banks, each serving a different section of the building.
It also has two freight lifts and two firemens lifts.
• Lifts travel
from the lobby to the 50th floor in just 40 seconds.
• The building is
designed to sway 13 and three quarter inches in the strongest winds that might
occur once every 100 years.
• 27,500 metric tonnes of British Steel and
500,000 bolts were used in the construction of the tower.
• The
exterior walls are clad by some 370,000 square feet of Patten Hyclad Cambric
finish stainless steel.
• Average floor size is 28,000 square
feet.
• On most floors, there are 13 feet 6 inches floor heights,
permitting a minimum 9 feet height from raised floor to dropped
ceiling.
• Four floors have an additional 6 inches for extra raised
floor height for computer and heavy mechanical use.
• Four floors have
an additional 1 foot allowance for use as a trading floor and the top floor has
an additional 2 feet.
• The aircraft warning light at the very top of
the tower flashes 40 times a minute, 57,600 times a day.
• Over 108,000
deliveries are made to the loading bay of the tower every year."
Text source: [visit
link]