The developers of this new Japanese highrise took a chance by adding green building elements to their design. With nearly full tenancy on opening last month, these pioneers have blazed a trail for others to follow.
by Rick Seireeni
A recent visitor to Tokyo would find it hard to believe that 19th Century Westerners marveled at the city's wooded landscapes crisscrossed by tree-lined rivers and canals. Unlike the filth and pollution that plagued contemporary cities like New York and Liverpool, Tokyo residents shared an intimacy with nature in the very heart of the city. Images of this lush urban landscape on the Sumida River were captured by the famous woodblock artists of the era and brought home as envious proof of what Western cities had lost.
Well, that was then. Today, Tokyo is a vast sea of concrete and glass. It has more than caught up with the Western style of urbanization. Except for the few parks that were carved out of nobleman estates, there is very little nature left. Tokyo Bay, on which the city is perched, is entirely surrounded by port activity and offers virtually no public enjoyment. Even the vast system of canals that could have made Tokyo the Venice of the East, have been covered by elevated highways. There are so many people, so many cars and so many buildings, that the climate has been permanently altered. Despite major efforts to reduce auto emissions, Tokyoites live in a toxic microclimate made worse by elevated temperatures.
Against this background, my Tokyo partner and myself were presented with an opportunity. The World Trade Center licensing group in Japan together with the Meidensha real estate division were planning a major new office tower on one of the last easily accessible, large properties in an area of Tokyo called Osaki. The chosen site, a former manufacturing area, is on the main Yamanote rail line ringing central Tokyo and was considered an ideal location for urban infill by city planners.
There was only one problem: 9/11.
Just as final plans were underway, the twin towers in New York were destroyed and with it any realistic plan to link the identity of the New York World Trade Center with a World Trade Center in Tokyo. For any number of reasons - ghosts, karma, bad memories - the owners wanted a new direction and a new name. As our luck would have it, their newly hired project manager had been a former client of our brand consulting services. We had established a reputation for thinking outside the box, and that's what he wanted - or that's what he ‘thought' he wanted.
My partner, Sy Chen, had been a longtime fan of the Urban Land Institute and their writings on environmentally sensible building. I have been a dedicated environmentalist waiting for an opportunity to preach the benefits green urbanism. This was an ideal opportunity for both of us. So, despite the fact that we knew the client was simply looking for a quick fix to a name problem, we pitched and eventually sold them a total brand repositioning.
We argued that Japan was changing. It had been an industrial powerhouse, but was now outsourcing most of its manufacturing. The site of the project was a perfect example. It had been the location of one of the largest and most polluting factories in central Tokyo, but now it was to be home to new high-tech and medical science firms. ‘Thinking' had overtaken ‘making' as a primary source of Japan's GNP.
And because Tokyo and its suburbs are home to 20% of the country's population, the environment, especially the local urban environment, had become a hot-button issue of concern. To offset the enormous cost of land and construction that have made it virtually impossible to provide privately owned open space, the City was now offering tax breaks to developers who would bring a little Edo-style nature back to a sprawling megalopolis.
