Archinect - News

OMA's new Toranomon Hills Station Tower opens in Tokyo

2023-10-27T13:48:00-04:00

OMA and Partner Shohei Shigematsu have shared new photos of their just-completed work on the Toranomon Hills Station Tower project for developer Mori Building Co. in Tokyo.

The first high-rise to be completed inside the studio’s larger Toranomon Hills mixed-use district overlooks the terminus of Shintora-dori Avenue, whose axis is extended through a split base containing a Metro station and shopping area. This creates an interface between city and the building that the architects say is essential to their design’s public character, an element that culminates in a top-level cultural center called TOKYO NODE.

Photo: Mori Building Co., Ltd, courtesy of OMA

Photo: Tomoyuki Kusunose, courtesy of OMA

In between the public elements, the total 873-foot tower contains 32 levels of office spaces, a hotel, and two restaurants. Users will approach via an elevated T-Deck pedestrian walkway that connects the site to the surrounding development. Base-level activities are extended vertically in a ban...

Sou Fujimoto designs Pace Gallery Tokyo expansion inside Heatherwick's Azabudai Hills development

2023-09-05T16:57:00-04:00

The new home of the Pace Gallery in Tokyo will feature interior spaces designed by Sou Fujimoto inside a three-story portion of Heatherwick Studio’s exciting new Azabudai Hills development, according to plans revealed today by the gallery.

The total 5,500-square-foot design includes some 3,000 square feet of exhibition spaces split between the first and second floors of the gallery. A third floor will also include a private terrace and sculptural garden connected to the landscape component of the 20-acre site, which sits prominently at the nexus of several other cultural destinations in the city’s busy Toranomon commercial district.

Rendering © DBOX for Mori Building Co., Ltd

The designer of the 2013 Serpentine Pavilion and Musashino Art University Museum and Library will deliver a space that is evocative of his personal explorations and approach to architecture.

Rendering © DBOX for Mori Building Co., Ltd

Pace says it has been interested in a Japanese expansion since at least the la...

Heatherwick Studio details progress on Toranomon-Azabudai district in Tokyo

2023-05-15T12:20:00-04:00

Heatherwick Studio has shared new photos of their nearly complete Toranomon-Azabudai mixed-use district in the heart of Tokyo.

The 20-acre plan includes a new school, temple, shopping center, and a 64,583-square-foot central garden with room for 1,400 residences, 150 retailers, and capacity for over 20,000 office workers.

The studio devised a pergola-like facade system in order to give the construction a distinctive visual character while adding a “vibrant piece of urban topography” to the city’s patchwork commercial Minato Ward area.

Previously on Archinect: Heatherwick Studio begins construction in the Toranomon-Azabudai district in Tokyo

Heatherwick says they are taking a “human-centred approach by integrating nature into the public spaces.”

Once in operation, the district is expected to attract some 30 million visitors annually. The project broke ground in August of 2019. Tokyo’s Mori Building Company is the client. Construction is expected to be finished by the end of this year...

OMA’s first Tokyo tower takes a step closer to completion

2023-02-02T11:48:00-05:00

OMA has taken a step closer to the completion of its first tower in Tokyo, following the announcement that the Toranomon Hills Station Tower will open in the Fall of 2023. Part of the wider Toranomon Hills development, the mixed-use tower will reach 873 feet in height, and will hold offices, commercial spaces, hotels, and an interactive events facility named TOKYO NODE.

Image credit: OMA NY / Mori Building Co., Ltd.

The lower section of the tower is imagined as a “large funnel” designed to draw the public inward. The dominant architectural element of the tower’s base is the T-DECK, a large-scale pedestrian bridge that links the building to the broader development, and creates two public zones. The lower zone, dubbed the ‘Station Atrium,’ manifests as a three-story concourse which the design team believes “provides an exciting sense of arrival.”

Image credit: OMA NY / Mori Building Co., Ltd.

Above the base, the tower’s form is angled from several vantage points to create new sightlines...

New photos show progress on Heatherwick's Toranomon-Azabudai district in Tokyo

2022-12-08T14:57:00-05:00

Heatherwick Studio has shared construction photos of its soon-to-complete Toranomon-Azabudai redevelopment project underway in Tokyo.

The firm’s first Japanese project is set to bring a new school, temple, shopping areas, and a 64,583-square-foot central garden to a previously underutilized district in the heart of the capital city’s Minato Ward for developers Mori Building Company.

"It’s been very exciting working on the Toranomon-Azabudai project and much of our effort has been focused on designing the public spaces that everyone will experience when they spend time in this new area," Heatherwick said at the project’s initial announcement.

Previously on Archinect: Heatherwick Studio begins construction in the Toranomon-Azabudai district in Tokyo. Rendering by DBOX for Mori Building Co.

"For the design, we have taken a human-centred approach by integrating nature into the public spaces. A pergola-like façade system has been devised and scaled up to unify the project and to allow p...

Tower frame on what will be Japan's tallest building has been completed in Tokyo

2022-04-27T17:21:00-04:00

Construction has been completed on the structure of Japan’s second tallest building, the 330m Toranomon-Azabudai Project A District tower, which will be second only to the Tokyo Tower.

The tower is part of the larger Toranomon-Azabudai District Category 1 Urban Redevelopment Project, which will include two other buildings, all designed by Pelli Clarke & Partners, that will host offices, residences, a hotel, an international school, retail shops, restaurants, and cultural facilities. Together they will form an 8.1-hectare “modern urban village” featuring no less than 2.4 hectares of greenery and a 6,000-square-meter central square.

Image: Pelli Clarke & Partners

When complete, the tower is expected to be Japan’s tallest building, just shy of the nearby landmark Tokyo Tower. The entire redevelopment complex is set to be complete by 2023.

Pelli Clarke Pelli unveils designs for tallest skyscrapers in Japan

2019-08-29T13:30:00-04:00

Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects (PCP) and Japanese "urban landscape developer" Mori Building have unveiled renderings for a new "modern urban village" slated for Tokyo's Minato City. PCP has designed the project's three towers, including the project's centerpiece, a 1,080-foot spire slated to be the tallest building in Japan when completed.

Rending by DBOX for Mori Building Co.

The bulging, glass-wrapped tower is capped by a floral top and will contain a mix of offices, residences, and retail spaces. The two adjacent towers that make up the complex feature a mix of residential, office, and hotel spaces. According to a press release announcing the project, the towers were designed under the guidance of the late architect César Pelli.

The towers are embedded within a 20-acre site that has been designed by Heatherwick Studio. Heatherwick's domain includes the project's public realm and "lower level architecture," according to a press release. Earlier this month, renderings were unveiled...

Heatherwick Studio begins construction in the Toranomon-Azabudai district in Tokyo

2019-08-23T13:06:00-04:00

Heatherwick Studio has commenced construction on the redevelopment of the Toranomon-Azabudai district of Tokyo. the project is due to complete in March 2023 and is Heatherwick Studio's first project in Japan to move into construction.

The studio focused on the "public realm and lower-level podium architecture" of the development, including landscaping and retail. The design includes a mix of office, residential, retail, and a school and temple, "all set within a new vibrant piece of urban topography to achieve Mori Building Company's ambition of creating an exceptional public district for the city."

Rendering by DBOX for Mori Building Co.

“It’s been very exciting working on the Toranomon-Azabudai project and much of our effort has been focused on designing the public spaces that everyone will experience when they spend time in this new area. As many new developments around the world can be harsh and sterile we wondered if we could provide a more human-centered alternative by integrat...

It's lights out at the old Okura: reconstruction of the iconic Tokyo hotel starts next week

2015-08-28T15:02:00-04:00

Tokyo’s venerable Hotel Okura is getting a remake, starting next week. Over the course of the past 53 years since its opening on May 20, 1962, the Okura, located in Toranomon, has earned an unsurpassed reputation both at home and abroad as a luxury hotel to represent Japan. The hotel said in a statement that it will maintain the Japanese traditional aesthetics and the basics of the architecture style of Hotel Okura.

Previously on Archinect:

And before the wrecking ball ends an era of Japanese 1960s Modernism to make way for the new, shiny, 41-story, $836M Okura Hotel, here a few more impressions of all its glory on the way out.

Rest in peace, old friend, and say hi to the ones we've lost.

All images via Monocle Magazine's savetheokura.com petition site.