Japan’s tallest skyscraper, Landmark Tower, has opened in Yokohama, Tokyo’s modern port city.
The 70-story, 977-foot-high building, hailed as a masterpiece by architect Hugh Stubbins, marks the gateway to a redevelopment named “Minato Mirai 21” (“Port of the Future”).
The gigantic structure, built by Mitsubishi Real Estate Co., contains offices, hotel accommodations and shopping malls. It’s located in central Yokohama facing Tokyo Bay, where Yokohama is constructing a 21st-century model development that belies the city’s onetime reputation as a scruffy haunt of sailors.
True to its name, the $2.5 billion tower makes history not only by its sheer size but also by its innovative high-tech engineering features.
“Ships can spot this huge `lighthouse’ from far out at sea, and air travelers descending into Haneda Airport can gaze into it as they pass Yokohama’s latest monument to growth,” a Yokohama city official said.
From the “sky garden” on the 69th floor, visitors can enjoy a panoramic view of Mount Fuji. The horizon is 48 miles away.
A non-stop elevator, which is the world’s fastest, transports visitors from the second to the 69th floor in just 40 seconds. Admission to the observatory costs about $9 for adults and $4.60 for children.
The “Dockyard Garden” will stage a variety of outdoor events-concerts, performances and so forth. The shopping malls have an outdoor atmosphere, with sunshine streaming through the glass roof of the atrium, according to Mitsubishi Real Estate.
Landmark Tower provides Yokohama with an attraction to rival its “Chinatown,” where some 200 Chinese restaurants and shops, run by 9,000 permanent Chinese residents, lure 14 million visitors a year.
After standing in the shadow of Tokyo proper for more than a century, Yokohama, Japan’s second-largest city, has gone on a development spree using concrete, steel and public relations.
Minato Mirai 21 is the centerpiece of this ambitious undertaking. Started in 1983, it’s finally taking shape more than a decade after the first architects’ models were built.
When completed in 2000, a cluster of high-rise buildings in the 35-acre complex will make Minato Mirai 21 home to 10,000 people, accommodate a daytime working population of 190,000 and be a cultural oasis for the city’s 3.28 million residents.
