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.

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. 

Pace says it has been interested in a Japanese expansion since at least the late 1960s when the gallery was in its first influential decade of operation under the direction of founder Arne Glimcher. In a statement, the gallery’s current CEO Marc Glimcher added: “Pace’s artists have always held Tokyo and Japan to be a touchstone of artistic innovation, so it is incredibly exciting to offer those artists a home and a team in this endlessly dynamic city.”

The project is expected to be ready by late spring, coinciding with the inauguration of the larger development, which is slated to host 30 million visitors per year. Fujimoto's crown design for the district's record-setting Torch Tower, which will stand as Japan's tallest building once completed, will follow sometime in 2028.