Minato-ku, Tokyo, Friday, May 2, 2003 -Tokyo will assume a new place among the world's "global cities," as Minoru Mori, president of Mori Building Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo), and a team of some of the most renowned architects and designers of the century officially open Roppongi Hills. Located in Roppongi 6-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo, the 28-acre project - more than 17 years in the making - is the manifestation of a life-long dream of Minoru Mori to restore Minato-ku to its pre-war glory days as a cosmopolitan destination for academics and artists and a magnet for the global business community.
By assembling a blue-chip team of architects and designers to collaborate with his internal team of Mori Biru Architects and Engineers, Mr. Mori has, by all accounts, succeeded beyond expectations. Since the multi-level Roppongi 6-chome area was designated as a Priority Redevelopment District by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government in 1986, approximately 400 landowners in the area and Mori Building Company have worked together to realize the largest private-sector urban redevelopment project in JapanÕs history. The project provides a blueprint for other urban centers, by dramatically illustrating the benefits of linking land use, transportation planning, intellectual and artistic pursuits and vibrant residential communities.
The project is a powerful masterpiece that triumphs as a near-perfect manifestation of the vision of its acclaimed billionaire developer, to create a truly "global city" that offers the finest quality of life. "Roppongi Hills is truly a place where Japan brings together diverse points of view from diverse nations, making people from all cultures feel welcome and stimulated," said Mori. "We have put into practice the collective experience of the world's greatest urban designers and integrated significant landscape planning and urban amenities."
"Roppongi Hills is an extraordinary project," said Jon Jerde, founder and chairman of The Jerde Partnership, the experience architecture firm that worked with MoriÕs team to create a sense of connectivity and unity among the public and community spaces. "By instilling a new sense of harmony and community in an important city like Tokyo, I believe Roppongi Hills will reshape thinking about urban planning and living globally."
"Roppongi Hills is probably the most ambitious mixed use project in the world," noted Paul Katz, partner, Kohn Pedersen Fox PC, architects of the 54-story centerpiece, Roppongi Hills Mori Tower and adjacent Grand Hyatt Tokyo hotel. "There is nothing like it. Mr. Mori conceived a virtual reinvention of the city. It doesn't fit neatly into any one definition. It is very different from other urban developments around the world."
"Mr. Mori has a noble vision, but it's abstract," said Fumihiko Maki, the Harvard-educated, award-winning architect and founder of Maki and Associates, designers of the TV-Asahi building. "No master
designer dominated the form and appearance of each individual building, so individual architects were free to create within the terms of zoning and restrictions. However, we each connected to Mr. Mori's larger philosophy and worked very hard with the other architects to create pedestrian walkways and spaces that fully realized Mr. Mori's goal of making Roppongi Hills an interesting and pleasant place to visit, live and work."
"Roppongi Hills is a new interpretation of urban living," added Tony Chi of New York-based tonychi and associates, designers of many of the hospitality and leisure areas in and around the Grand Hyatt Tokyo. "It will be the most dynamic community in Tokyo and a good example for the rest of the world, appealing to four generations. It is not the individual buildings themselves that make Roppongi Hills vibrant; it is the excitement generated in between."
"This is a community that adds value to your life," Chi continued. "When you look up and see the beautiful reflections of nature in the architecture, or look down from your window and see the reflecting pool on top of the Hyatt or gorgeous rooftop gardens [on the residential buildings and TV Asahi broadcast center, you will experience Mr. Mori's vision. Each building is a podium, literally and figuratively, upholding a piece of art."
"Roppongi Hills has struck a balance that is unusual for Tokyo," echoed Richard Doone of Conran & Partners, designers of residential towers and the exclusive Roppongi Hills Club. "It has an international flavor. It has more structure than the rest of the city, but it's not over planned."
Kohn Pedersen Fox Architects PC Ð Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, Grand Hyatt Tokyo and Keyaki-zaka Complex
The solidly built, steel-and-glass 54-story Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, designed by a team led by Eugene Kohn, William Pedersen and Paul Katz of Kohn Pedersen Fox Architects PC (KPF) in New York, is meant to be not only the "business brain" of Tokyo, but its "cultural heart" as well. The seventh to 48th floors are designed for business, with approximately 60,000 square feet of office space equipped with cutting-edge ultra high-speed information network facilities, giving it the largest footprint of a high-rise in the world. The Mori Tower is built according to a comprehensive earthquake-resistant design and provides state-of-the-art security functions.
KPF took their design inspiration from traditional Japanese forms, driven by the globalization of the world economy. The team maximized the amount of glass and steel, giving the building horizontal lines that evoke the strength and armor of a samurai warrior ("like a WesternerÕs interpretation of a Japanese woodcut") and diagonal lines like the folds of an origami paper sculpture. The design had both aesthetic and practical reasons: the gentle curves and slopes of the building deflect broadcast signals, so as not to disturb network transmissions from nearby Tokyo Tower.
Mr. Mori had a multifunctional idea for the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, far beyond the business aspect. To express the lofty cultural aims of Mr. Mori's vision, the KPF team took the bold step of incorporating the spectacular vistas of the city of Tokyo into an overall artistic scheme. By situating The Mori Arts Center on the top floors of the tower, KPF was able to integrate The Mori Art Museum (scheduled to open officially in October 2003), an observation platform and rooftop sky deck, so that visitors may experience the constant and dynamic change that is Tokyo as a virtual work of art.
"So much has been lavished on design in one form or another by Mr. Mori," noted Katz. "The Roppongi Hills Mori Tower gives Japanese a definition of globalization, while providing Westerners with an unusual complex to go to that makes them feel very comfortable."
Maki and Associates - TV Asahi Building
The broadcast center of TV Asahi, designed by a team led by Fumihiko Maki of Maki and Associates of Tokyo, occupies a significant footprint in the overall Roppongi Hills development, with five television studios and spacious offices occupying six floors and a dual-level basement. "It was most important to design a good building that will become a pleasant working environment for the people of TV Asahi," commented Maki, "enveloped by the landscaping and greenery that Mr. Mori advocates, both around the building and on top of the building." To accommodate Mr. Mori's vision, the team recreated on the rooftop of the broadcast center, the genuine traditional Japanese gardens that had been preserved on ground level facing the building.
The modern broadcast center incorporates the most advanced electronic technology available today, providing state-of-the-art television and video capability. Maki and Associates also built in the latest anti-seismic devices so that the studios can remain functional in the event of an earthquake.
Conran & Partners Ð Roppongi Hills Club, Roppongi Hills Residences, Roppongi Hills Spa, Roppongi Hills Gate Tower
The southern end of Roppongi Hills is a peaceful residential area, consisting of four residential buildings with 840 apartments, designed by a team led by Richard Doone of London-based architects and designers Conran & Partners. Although the firm was well aware of what was being planned for the rest of the complex, DooneÕs team felt it was important to make a clear distinction between "home and office" when creating the residential towers.
"We worked from a warmer, richer palette for the residential buildings and selected materials that were natural and would age well with a natural patina," said Doone. "Originally, the richness of color and texture of our buildings caused a bit of a stir, but since the residences are targeted at an affluent, international and sophisticated clientele from both Asian and Western cultures, we were confident that this would be understood and appeal."
The interiors feature more open plan areas than traditionally found in Japanese layouts. Three concepts inspired by nature dominate the designs for the apartments in Residence C: Mountain, featuring dark stone and square edges that play off curvaceous forms; Desert, highlighted by sandy leathers and warm, neutral colors, and Forest, almost exclusively timber with wood-block floors and paneling.
On the lower floors of Residence C, Conran & Partners designed the Roppongi Hills Spa, an urban retreat which is created around the notion of a journey from the hectic city, the visitor passing through a series of restorative spaces in order to return to their everyday lives in a soothed and enhanced state.
For the landscaping, Conran & Partners aimed for a European sensibility, collaborating with award-winning contemporary landscape architect Dan Pearson. As a result, the surrounding residential gardens are inspired by a pastoral English landscape, drawing upon traditional garden ideas, such as the rill and apothecary garden, and reinterpreting them with a bold and modern simplicity.
Also, Conran & Partners was commissioned to create the various environments of the immense oval interior of the 51st-floor Roppongi Hills Club in the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower. The Roppongi Hills Club, a gathering place for professionals active in the political, artistic and academic fields, has a seating capacity of about 1,000 in a diverse array of restaurants, bars and private dining room settings. "Our ideas were generated from interrogating the oval building plan," said Doone. "We explored the notions of orbits, planets, movement, velocity and speed, and ultimately revolved the dining spaces off a single circular route where each space is revealed through a dynamic perspecitival sequence."
Doone added that the breathtaking views and sweeps of light that are ever-changing throughout the day were essential to the design scheme. "That's what keeps it always fresh and new," he enthused. "Whether one comes in the morning for a breakfast meeting or relaxes for an hour at dusk as the lights of the city come on below, it will be a completely different, delightful experience."
Conran & Partners also were responsible for the design of Roppongi Hills Gate Tower, a 15-storey mixed-use building including retail space, offices and residences, which was the first phase of Roppongi Hills to be completed, in 2001. This building, clad in red sandstone, terracotta, travertine, copper and timber was the precursor for the elevational treatment of the adjacent residential buildings, creating a cohesion to the whole quarter.
The Jerde Partnership - Design Architect, Public and Community Spaces (Metro Hat Subway, Hollywood Plaza, Hollywood Cosmetics Building, Hillside, West Walk, Keyaki-zaka Complex and Roppongi Keyaki-zaka Dori)
The Jerde Partnership worked with Mr. Mori and his team to connect the site's pedestrian-level uses into a new round-the-clock district with enhanced quality of urban life. Mr. Mori was aware of the firmÕs commitment to making places that create connections between people and admired their work on the critically acclaimed Canal City Hakata in Fukuoka as well as other urban regeneration projects around the globe.
For Roppongi Hills, The Jerde Partnership has created a new pedestrian district with enhanced quality of urban life. The firm seamlessly integrated man-made with nature, traditional with modern, without diminishing the Buddhist Temple, Edo-style garden and generous scenic parks and plazas that thrive among the dense mixed-use buildings. Roppongi Hills' range of uses and spaces are connected by natural, ungridded circulation composed of unique pathways that are lined with pedestrian-scaled experiences.
"Mr. Mori's commitment to the Roppongi Hills vision helped us achieve an often-discussed but seldom realized urban plan combining incredibly dense buildings with generous parks and green spaces," said Brian Honda, senior vice president of The Jerde Partnership and design principal. "Using natural urban growth as a model, we connected Roppongi Hills' range of buildings and uses with an organic organization that is cohesive without being confined to a rigid urban grid. "
The projectÕs gateway is located at the northern end of the site facing Roppongi Dori. Roppongi Hills can be reached directly from the new Metro Hat subway station which links via underground passage to the Roppongi Station, making it a "front door" to the entire community. The new Hollywood Beauty headquarters and educational institution also is located here. The east and west sides of the project are connected by Keyaki-zaka Dori, poised to rival the world's most prestigious retail shopping thoroughfares like Rodeo Drive and Madison Avenue. This tree-lined main street hosts fashionable boutiques, cafes and other retail outlets. "Street furniture" specially commissioned from leading international designers enhances the sophisticated atmosphere.
Gluckman Mayner Architects Ð Museum Cone and Mori Art Museum
The Mori Art Museum, while situated at the top of the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, also features an elegant 100-foot-high elliptical entrance structure at ground level, the Museum Cone, designed by Gluckman Mayer Architects of New York. This iconic element gives the Museum a powerful presence on the landscape of Roppongi Hills.
The translucent glass Museum Cone anchors the East-West axis of the site and is the main organizing element in the design and circulation of the Museum, allowing visitors arriving from any of four levels - the traditional Japanese garden at the lowest level of the property, the retail level one story up, the vehicular drop-off on the first floor and the main office on the second floor - to ascend to the third floor and cross a delicate glass Entry Bridge to enter the Museum Lobby at the base of the Tower. The Museum Cone is built of lightweight steel with a shingle-styled glass facade engineered by Yoshinori Nito & Dewhurst Macfarlane and Partners that resembles a soft glowing Japanese lantern at night; at its center, a concrete-clad funnel structure containing passenger elevators and a sweeping spiral stair with views of the Japanese garden provides the main vertical support.
tonychi and associates Ð Hospitality Spaces, Grand Hyatt Tokyo
Inspired by the four seasons, Tony Chi and his team of diverse design professionals have created "places that are not defined by meal periods, but how guests use the spaces." As such, the four restaurants and elevated sixth level plaza that brings everything to life, offer arresting moments around the clock that are hallmarked yet not defined by the cuisine.
"We want the diner and the pedestrian to integrate," said Chi, who was tapped by Mori because of his reputation as one of the most celebrated and recognized design visionaries in the hospitality industry today. "We have created [at Roppongi Hills] restaurants that scratch all of the senses, bringing together delicious tastes, aromas, conversation, laughter, music, movement, touch and emotion."
Indeed, ChiÕs aim with the hospitality spaces at the Grand Hyatt was to deliver sensory appeal, entertainment and originality, as the firm always does with each new project they nurture. Taking a passionate, instinctual approach to design, Chi married architecture, interior design, graphics as well as furniture design, accessories and tableware to create dining experiences that become theatres for the performance of light, color, texture and symbol in support of the sensual experience of world cuisine.
The tavern-styled Oak Door evokes the hearty steak-and-potatoes warmth of autumn with its four fireplaces and bold, masculine spirit. The China Room is a magnificent representation of spring in Asia, highlighted by translucent laminated glass panels that depict sepia-toned images of leaves and other flora. Wild juniper flowers blossoming in summer inspired Juniper, the hotelÕs European restaurant on Level Four. "It's a wonderful, Betsy-Johnson inspired environment," Chi enthused. And at Maduro, the cozy bar, one can almost imagine a wintery place sitting on a lake.
These facilities intermix with the many elements of the Roppongi Hills district to create bountiful encounters for every guest. "[The Grand Hyatt Tokyo] will rock the world of the hotel industry," Chi promised.
Conclusion -- Roppongi Hills as "The Global City"
If Roppongi Hills succeeds as a dynamic city-within-a-city, it will only have accomplished half of what Minotoru Mori has in mind, for Mori believes there is a direct connection between the strength of the cities and the prosperity of the nation.
"The 21st century will be an era of metropolitan nations," declared Mori. "It will be led by those nations whose cities are rebuilt to match the needs of the new information age, rather than the old industrial age. Despite the formidable challenges facing Japan today as a nation in transition, I see real opportunity - the beginning of a new renaissance and the chance for private enterprise to inject some support and confidence to the economy. Roppongi Hills is the first bold step to meet that opportunity."
"Mr. Mori's vision for urban living will be a new model with worldwide influence," concluded Pedersen of KPF. "His faith and optimism in the modern city as a place to both live and work was a great inspiration to us on this project. The most significant contribution of the tower is the introduction of a major civic function at the top of a private development. This is a unique accomplishment in the evolution of high-rise construction. The dynamic combination of diverse components of this project lends an energy to Roppongi Hills that truly demonstrates the city of tomorrow, and strengthens TokyoÕs place as a global city."