Robert Merry, an independent stone consultant and project manager who ran his own company for 17 years and now also runs training courses on project management, gives his personal slant on the stone industry this month

Towering above London, welcoming the one million additional visitors to the Olympics, stands The Shard – Renzo Piano’s soaring, shear walls of glass, 310m high… 80 storeys… with a viewing gallery on the 68th floor. There are restaurants over three floors, the 5-Star Shangri-La hotel from the 34th to the 52nd floors, 25 floors of offices and a top-it-all 12 floors of apartments.

Apparently the top was built at the same time as the basement and it only took 38 months.

It broke all sorts of construction and health & safety records – second only to the Olympic Park.

The apartments and duplexes (flats over two floors to you and me) are probably of extremely high value, with stone clad bathrooms, floors and stairs and views to die for.

God forbid the lift breaks down and the only option is to use the stairs, as frequently happened at my last job, One Hyde Park. At least that was only six storeys.

The Shard is an extraordinary building. It may be loved and despised in the same breath, but it cannot be ignored. It follows you around London, a point of navigational reference.

As we drove back into London last week someone in the car said “Oh, I can see the Shard!” as we thundered down the A13 in Essex.

Standing underneath The Shard from London Bridge Station it appears light. It doesn’t dwarf you, though it should. The pyramid-like inclines of the glass walls give it a sense of falling back, not leaning forward.

A little further away, standing at St Pauls, its only flaw becomes visible – they forgot to finish it.

The top stands open, trying to demonstrate that it really is just four bits of glass stuck in the ground.

For me, project manager, process driven, I like beginnings, middles and ends. It hasn’t got an end. It’s incomplete.

The more I stare, the more it looks like a wig-wham.

I expect smoke to be rising out of the top and John Wayne, dressed as Rooster Cogburn astride a horse to be seen on the north side of London Bridge.

I realised as I was writing this that some of you might not know who John Wayne is and I was going to change it to read: Jeff Bridges dressed as Rooster Cogburn, in the Coen brothers re-make of ‘True Grit’.

But, to be frank, I couldn’t understand a word Bridges said in the entire film and was very annoyed by his mumblings. And anyway, John Wayne’s Cogburn was better.

Last week I went for an evening walk on Hampstead Heath with the family, to watch the sun set on the city down below. The buildings were fleetingly rooster red from the sun – Canary Wharf, Natwest Tower and The Shard.

Then suddenly I understood. From four or five miles away, looking across the Thames basin, the Shard is a glorious church spire, soaring heavenwards. The religious centre of a new futuristic London landscape. It was awe inspiring.

I am not sure there will be that many Sunday morning services at the Shangri-La, though it would bring a new meaning to the Sermon on the Mount.

I’m not particularly religious. Only in times of extreme financial crisis will I raise my head skyward and ask: “Why me?”

But I am moved by The Shard. From London Bridge to St Pauls to Hampstead Heath… at each distance it takes on a different aspect and from far away it is truly beautiful. Even if they did forget to finish it.

Robert Merry, MCIOB, ran his own stone company for 17 years and is now an independent Stone Consultant and Project Manager. He also delivers training programmes on all aspects of Estimating and Project Management – details and dates are on his website: www.stoneconsultants.co.uk

Tel: 0207 502 6353 / 07771 997621