http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/ Photographs and information about Tokyo's great skyscrapers and other architectural landmarks. en-us Thu, 24 Jul 2008 01:01:01 EDT Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:31:27 EDT Copyright 1997-2008Artefaqs Corporation http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/Images/MainElements/CornerIcon.jpg http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/ 90 120 Photographs and information about Tokyo's great skyscrapers and other architectural landmarks. http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/en/Tokyo/133.php A great building for Tokyo that captures the essence of the city -- exotic and futuristic. The Fuji TV head office (headquarters) isn't some towering skyscraper; it is the correct scale for Tokyo. But it does glitter and shimmer like an apparition from the future. Its shiny squarish skeleton complements the nearby cranes of the Port of Tokyo, while its Sphere Observation Deck appears to hover abov http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/en/Tokyo/170.php http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/en/Tokyo/94.php The glitziest intersection in Tokyo's most fashionable shopping district is anchored by the venerable Ginza Wako building. Unlike its glass and neon neighbors, this building presents a dignified presence to shoppers and tourists crowding the Ginza corridor. Its wide curved base is intensely illuminated at night making it a blazing white beacon in the darkness that outshines the Johnny-come-lately http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/en/Tokyo/131.php Built for the Tokugawa shoguns, the Kan'ei-ji pagoda now stands inside the Ueno Park Zoo. This whole area was originally the grounds for the Kan'ei-ji temple which was erected to protect the Edo castle. But during the Boshin War from 1868 to 1869 the temple was destroyed. The pagoda survived, and a bustling neighborhood has grown up around it http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/en/Tokyo/129.php In the tradition of Paris, London, and Chicago, the Giant Sky Wheel is Tokyo's contribution to the world's collection of great Ferris Wheels. The wheel is painted in bright red and white stripes and its cars cycle through the colors of the rainbow -- appropriate since this is part of the larger Palette Town complex. The wheel provides some of the best views of the city and the bay, and at night is http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/en/Tokyo/195.php One of the most beautiful buildings in the Ginza corridor belongs to fashion heavyweight Christian Dior. The building is tall, stately, and understated. Its exterior draws the eye for the very reason that it lacks the flash and trash of neighboring structures. It is the iPod of Tokyo architecture. The facade is what most buildings are judged on, and LVMH went all out for this one. I http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/en/Tokyo/45.php A beautiful skyscraper standing tall above central Tokyo, its gleaming skin reflecting the sun filtered through the metropolitan haze. In the tradition of modern Japanese architecture, the building is designed to appear as if the exterior skin is partially peeled away, revealing the building's inner core; much like a lotus flower as it starts to spread its petals in the spring. In this case, the p http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/en/Tokyo/56.php In the 1990's luxury retailers worldwide were searching for new ways to promote their brands. Products placement was already common. Billboards and magazine ads were adequate, but couldn't overtly attract attention to themselves without diminishing the luxe of the brand. A few flirtations with television advertising proved that medium didn't deliver the right clientele. Eventually they realize http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/en/Tokyo/96.php Tokyo's Harajuku neighborhood is the epicenter of all that in trendy in Japan. The nexus of that culture is the crossing of Meiji Dori and Omotesando Dori. The roads intersect on a slight hill, and the most prominent position on that hill is held by the rounded fortress known as Laforet Harajuku. The building's curved form resembles a glowering fortress clad in aluminum siding. On the southernmost http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/en/Tokyo/93.php There are a lot of buildings in Tokyo owned by the Shiseido company. Some historic. Some modern. But few get as much attention as this one. Occupying a very prominent corner on Ginza Dori, the Tokyo Ginza Shiseido Building uses color to stand out from the competition. But not the gauche neon and LED monstrosities of other nearby buildings. Instead, this Shiseido building's stucco facade is colored http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/en/Tokyo/27.php What could have been a boring American-style glass and steel box is saved from mediocrity by the channels running down its east and west sides. They hold recessed cross braces that add a visual element emphasizing strength and size. Each X is six stories tall. However, close up, the building works well on a human scale. There is a sunken garden and a surprising amount of room in its public plaza w http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/en/Tokyo/61.php A great part of the Tokyo skyline. It is one of a number of newer skyscrapers that are helping define the style of Asian architecture in the 21st century. Too many of Tokyo's older towers were mere copies of bland skyscrapers in other cities. Projects like the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower help Tokyo set itself apart from other capitals while at the same time firmly establish itself as a city to be http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/en/Tokyo/171.php Tokyo's city hall, the Metropolitan Government Office, is known around the world as one of the most ambitious pieces of modern municipal architecture. While that construction has been granted many well-deserved accolades, there are other examples of great government architecture not that far away. The seat of government for Sumida Ward is in a thoroughly modern, thoroughly respectable skyscraper o http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/en/Tokyo/37.php Looking more like the home of a global corporate giant than the local city council, this office complex reflects the modern Asian architectural sensibility. In some ways its twin 48-story towers even mirror the famed Petronas Towers in Malaysia. The building's towering height is the result of Japan's late 20th century economic boom when land values soared and it seemed like the money would never s http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/en/Tokyo/125.php Tokyo is a fascinating city for architecture lovers. Its ancient temples and shrines are complemented by modern works that defy Western imagination and make the word "daring" seem too tame. Azumabashi Hall is one of those pieces of Japanese architecture that the people of Tokyo readily embrace while outsiders trying to wrap their brains around it cock their heads and squinch up their faces as if t http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/en/Tokyo/124.php While the flashy gold sculpture next door atop the Asahi Breweries Hall next door steals the show, the Asahi Breweries building is more than interesting on its own. At first glance, it's another reflective glass curtain wall urban block. But taking a step back and absorbing the building not as a skyscraper, but rather as a art form, http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/en/Tokyo/82.php In a city that lives by the clock and dies by the clock, this clock tower rises above them all. It is a modern, somewhat minimalist interpretation of the classic skyscraper spire we've seen in New York's Chrysler Building and Empire State Building, but with Asian taste. In some ways, it resembles a 1950's robotic version of a Gothic bell tower complete with right-angled flying buttresses marking http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/en/Tokyo/95.php On one of Tokyo's most fashionable streets the world's luxury retailers are elbowing each other in order to attract shoppers' attention. This battle goes beyond price, value, and quality. It extends to the very architecture of their shops. Dior's Omotesando building is an outgrowth of that competitive spirit in a city where, recession-be-damned, brand names still rule the retail roost. The buildin http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/en/Tokyo/92.php All the glitz and glamor of Tokyo's famed Ginza district revolves around this glass cylinder. The San'ai Building occupies what may be the most prized corner of real estate in Asia. It's high profile, towering presence, and glittering neighbors make this a supernova in a sky of stars. The building's external illumination is mainly provided by light filtering through its glass facade. That is augme http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/en/Tokyo/87.php Like most of the buildings at this busy intersection, the Shibuya Ekimae Building is notable not for its structure but for the advertising splashed across it. Its angles support three sides of advertising both in large blocks and in narrow illuminated ribbons running around the building. An interesting contrast to the chunky main mass of the building is the delicately curved electronic billboard t http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/en/Tokyo/83.php http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/en/Tokyo/84.php http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/en/Tokyo/85.php http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/en/Tokyo/70.php A modern echo of Japan's ancient Mount Fuji, the Tokyo Tower stands as one of the great cultural and architectural landmarks of Asia. In structure, it resembles the Eiffel Tower of France, but this one is slightly larger -- 1,092 feet compared with 1,056 for the Eiffel Tower. This makes it the tallest free-standing steel structure in the world. However, it is comparatively light -- just about 4,00 http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/en/Tokyo/71.php