Firm： Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates

Type： Commercial › Office Hospitality + Sport › Hotel

YEAR： 2014

SIZE： 1,000,000 +

Photos： Nacasa & Partners inc. (15)

Named for its prestigious location, this 38-story building is situated between the Imperial Palace Park and Tokyo Station, in the heart of Tokyo’s premier office district. The Otemachi Tower will serve as the headquarters for a prominent financial institution, and will be topped by a five star hotel. Since the building is situated above a nexus of five subway lines, its lower levels will contain a retail concourse that connects internally to the tower and externally to Otemachi no mori, a new public park on the western perimeter of the site.

The rectilinear form of The Otemachi Tower is modulated by deep vertical and horizontal recesses. The recesses were configured to generate site-specific architectural gestures affecting the primary views of this building from the Imperial Palace and the Tokyo Station approach. The horizontal reveals also suggest the programmatic stacking of the tower with the hotel lobby and atrium expressed near the top. The wall system is composed of floor-to-ceiling glass units separated by pairs of 400 mm deep vertical anodized cast aluminum fins.

The outside edge of each fin has a rough cleft finish, which will add a subtle random texture to the even rhythm of the curtain wall modules. In addition, the expression of a three-story package was introduced into the wall to mediate between the tower and pedestrian scales. As the tower wall reaches the ground, its hem-line raises and lowers in order to accommodate lobby volumes, entrance canopies, and other ground level features.