1056 Chapel Street, New Haven, CT 06510 | T: 203.777.2515 | F: 203.787.2856 © Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects 2015
Location Tokyo, Japan
Total Area 1.4 million square feet | 130,000 square meters
Date of Completion 2005
Client Mitsui-Fudosan
The Nihonbashi Mitsui Tower adds new office space, a museum, and
a luxury hotel to a historic district of Tokyo. By carefully linking the
41- story tower to the landmark Mitsui Main Building and making the
1929 Beaux- Arts landmark central to the design of the new tower,
the project advanced the use of historic preservation as an approach
to urban redevelopment. The 41- story mixed- use tower contains the
corporate headquarters of the Mitsui Fudosan Group and a Mandarin
Oriental Hotel. Four basement levels include shops, parking, and
subway access.
The base is formed by a rhythmic sequence of granite columns that
continues the order of the marble- clad Mitsui Main Building. The design
extends the cornice and entablature lines of the historic building into
the tower’s base. The upper stories are set back in deference to the
historic streetscape. As the tower reaches toward the sky in a series of
steps, its forms become lighter and more transparent.
Each distinct form in the tower’s skyward progression reflects its
use. The base and the adjacent atrium, open and filled with light, hold
mostly public functions: a lobby for the offices, shops, restaurants, and
an entrance to a new museum. Moving upward, the next form contains
the corporate headquarters. This element’s strong, vertical organization
and use of stone conveys the company’s solidity and permanence. At
the top of the tower is the thinnest, most delicate and transparent form.
These ten floors are the 180- room Mandarin Oriental Hotel, offering
views of the Imperial Palace gardens from the guestrooms and suites.
In the new atrium, a rear elevation of the bank building — an unadorned
party wall — is visible through a translucent glass wall. An image of
a monumental Corinthian column was screened onto the glass,
reproducing a key element of the three principal façades of the historic
building. The project included interior renovations to the Mitsui Main
Building, designed by the New York firm of Trowbridge and Livingston
and home to Mitsui companies since its opening. On the first floor,
a bank hall and atrium were preserved. The fourth floor became a
banquet space for the hotel and the top floor contains a museum
displaying the Mitsui collection of art and antiques.
Nihonbashi Mitsui Tower
Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects
1056 Chapel Street, New Haven, CT 06510 | T: 203.777.2515 | F: 203.787.2856 © Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects 2015
Nihonbashi Mitsui Tower
Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects
