Maison Mita to be redeveloped into high-rise
Maison Mita, a 67-unit, 49-year old condominium in central Tokyo’s Mita neighbourhood will be redeveloped into a 77m tall, 23-storey high rise by both Mitsubishi Jisho Residence and Asahi Kasei Realty & Residence. Demolition of the current building is expected to start in December 2017 and the new building is due for completion by December 2020.
Apartment owners had been discussing redevelopment for the past 10 years.
Apartments in the older building ranged in size from 34 ~ 108 sqm, with a mixture of studio and family-oriented layouts. The building was developed by Kyoei Life Insurance and completed in 1968. Kyoei developed several Maison-named condominiums in central Tokyo in the 1960s, 70’s and ‘80s. The insurance company filed for bankruptcy with liabilities of 4.6 trillion Yen in 2000 in what was said to have been the country’s biggest bankruptcy since WWII.
Luxury condo to replace Yoyogi Terrace Apartment block
Foretseine, a subsidiary of Mori Trust, will be demolishing the vintage Yoyogi Terrace Apartment rental building in Shibuya and replacing it with a luxury condominium.
Details on the project, including the construction schedule, have yet to be announced, but it is expected that the new building could be completed by 2020 2022.Read more
Heritage-listed house in Sendai to be demolished
The owners of a heritage-listed house in Sendai will soon demolish the old home and several other historic buildings to make way for a city-planned road that will cut through the site. The buildings include the former main house, workshop and storehouses for the 140-year old Mondaya company - a manufacturer of traditional Sendai-tansu cabinets.Read more
2.2 Traditional machiya houses in Kyoto are demolished each day
Kyoto City is losing its traditional machiya townhouses at an alarming rate, with an average of 2.2 of these symbolic houses demolished each day.
On May 1, Kyoto City announced that approximately 5,600 machiya have been demolished over the past seven years. In 2016, a survey found that there were 40,146 surviving machiya in the city.
Of the surviving machiya, 14.5% are vacant and not occupied by owners or tenants, an increase of 4 points from the previous city survey in 2009. Kyoto City’s vacancy rate across all types of housing was 14% in a 2013 survey.Read more
First heritage de-listing for Kyoto City as 90-yr old bookstore is about to be demolished
Demolition of the 90-year old Heirakuji Bookstore in downtown Kyoto will begin this month as the owner can no longer afford to maintain the aging building.
The building was registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 1998. The heritage listing will be removed due to the demolition of the structure. This is the first time a national heritage listing has been removed from a property in Kyoto City and the second time for Kyoto Prefecture.Read more
Hakone modernist hotel to close next year
Hakone Hotel Kowaki-en will close its doors in January 2018, marking the end of 60 years of operations. The 224-room hotel was designed by modernist architect Yoshimura Junzo and built in 1959. The hotel’s garden dates back to 1914.
The hotel closure is due to aging buildings and facilities. The owner and operator, Fujita Kanko, operates 6 other hotels in the immediate neighbourhood, and this site is expected to form part of a larger hotel redevelopment project. It could include the adjoining Kowaki-en Horai-en Garden, which is a 16,000 sqm traditional Japanese landscape garden. Fujita Kanko acquired the garden in 2015.Read more
Modernist building in Yokohama to be demolished next month
One of Yokohama's early examples of modernist architecture will soon be demolished. The Prefectural Police Headquarters Onoecho Government Building was built in 1952. The 3-story concrete building with a curved exterior, floor-to-ceiling glass windows and no front entrance is considered one of the city’s modernist masterpieces.Read more