Vol. 31 Winter 2004

A winning combination of careful attention to client needs and architectural ingenuity results in a sleek, multipurpose high-rise that embodies Tokyo's transition from past to future. The new headquarters building of world-famous news agency Kyodo News has opened in the heart of Shiodome Sio-Site, the city of tomorrow taking shape in Tokyo's Minato Ward. Standing 172 meters (564 feet) high and having 34 aboveground stories and about 66,000 square meters (710,400 square feet) of floor space, this high-rise complex houses offices, a hotel, and commercial facilities. An information transmission base for the 21st century, Shiodome Media Tower beams the latest news to the world 24 hours a day.

Shiodome Media Tower was designed and built by Kajima Corporation. A design team headed by Seita Morishima of the Architectural Design Division was responsible for the architectural design. To satisfy the client's desire to maximize space on each floor, the team decided on a triangular building that conforms to the shape of the site. The tower's external appearance expresses straightforwardly the robust superstructure, and the frame hints at the internal configuration: the building's interior features three multi-story open spaces. The result is a high-rise that combines strength with dignity and beauty. Kajima introduced a number of state-of- the-art facilities to meet the demands of the IT-revolution-age client. The design team also employed an energy and resource-saving design approach from the standpoint of life-cycle engineering, such as the atria for gravitational ventilation and wind-induced ventilation and installing airflow windows. The design of the Kyodo News offices, which are located on the middle floors, employs a triangular basic plan that concentrates the offices at the center of the building to maximize space and promote visibility, with the service core surrounding the offices. A "spider-shaped" stairwell at the center of the six floors housing the editorial offices contains staircase landings on each floor, from which open staircases extend up and down in three directions. This arrangement promotes cooperation among the various editorial departments, ensures physical continuity of the editorial floors, and fosters a psychological sense of unity.

The hotel occupying the building's upper floors provides a view from every guestroom by situating them along the building's periphery. At the hotels' center is a vast atrium 10 floors high capped by an enormous skylight that in the daytime bathes the restaurants and cafes below in natural light. The elegant interior befits a member of the "design hotels" group. The building's lower floors feature an expansive atrium of the same height as the Tokyo Waterfront New Transit Yurikamome elevated railway. The atrium houses News Art, a public exhibition space serving as a cultural exchange facility that fuses leading-edge technology with the news. Because the site is surrounded by the JR Yokosuka Line and a Toei Subway line below ground and the Tokaido Shinkansen and Yurikamome railways above ground, Kajima engaged in continual measurement control to ensure that construction did not affect transportation systems, installed shock-absorbing mats at the building's base to prevent vibration from being transmitted to the structure, and employed the latest construction methods and a meticulous approach.

A high-rise building with three multi-story open spaces, fresh-air ventilated multi-level office space, and a hotel with a stylish, flourishing indoor market square--all this reveals the distinctive character of the Shiodome Media Tower in its many facets. "Because it is an order-made building that resulted from exhaustive discussions with the client, we were able to achieve a unique, mixed-use building." These words from architect Seita Morishima suggest a sense of satisfaction with a job well done.

Tokyo's Shiodome District: Dramatic Transformation from a Sleepy Relic of the Past to a Dynamic Harbinger of the Future Originally a marshy tideland, today's Shiodome area was reclaimed at the beginning of the Edo Period (1603 to 1867), and many residential mansions for feudal lords from the Sendai, Aizu, and Tatsuno domains were located in the area. At the opening of the Meiji Period (1868 to 1912), the area was the site of the original Shimbashi Railway Station, built in the modern Western architectural style. This opened the way for the beginning of service in 1872 of Japan's first railway, which connected Tokyo and Yokohama. The station continued to be spotlighted as the Tokyo terminal of the Tokaido Line until the opening of Tokyo Station in 1914. Subsequently, for many years the Shiodome area was the site of Shiodome Freight Terminal, a dedicated freight facility. However, demand for rail freight decreased as trucking became the principal method of overland freight conveyance, and it was decided to redevelop the area to take advantage of its proximity to Tokyo Station. The original Shimbashi Railway Station (photo courtesy of Yokohama Archives of History) The reconstructed Shimbashi Railway Station The Shiodome Redevelopment Project divided a 31-hectare (77- acre) site centered around the former Shiodome Freight Terminal into 11 blocks and created a multipurpose community for business, commerce, culture, and residence. Full-scale work on Tokyo's largest inner-city redevelopment undertaking began in 1995, and 13 high-rise buildings showcasing stylish architectural techniques have already been completed, including Shiodome Media Tower. The details of this vision for a new urban community are being filled in, and the full picture is beginning to appear. The name of this district, which once heralded the dawning of modern Japan as an early center of rail transport, has been changed to Shiodome Sio-Site. Completion of the project and conversion of the area into a future-oriented information hub, business center, and residential community is planned for 2007. Although the original station building was destroyed by the fire following the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, remnants of the station were unearthed in a historic site survey conducted during the redevelopment project. On the basis of the survey, technical drawings were prepared making full use of digital technology, and in 2003 Kajima constructed a nearly exact replica of the original station building on the same location. This symbol of the birthplace of rail transport in Japan preserves the history of Shiodome for future generations. It is a fitting landmark for a district making the transition from an underused freight depot to a dynamic business and residential center.

Vol. 31 Winter 2004 Shiodome Media Tower:Tokyo's State-of-the-Art, Multipurpose Building Kajima around the World

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