High-rise planned for Omotesando former public housing site
The Aoyama Kitamachi Apaato, a city-operated public housing complex located on a prime 40,000 sqm site in the centre of Omotesando, is going to be replaced with a 20-storey high-rise apartment building.
The current site includes 25 public housing blocks containing a total of 586 apartments. They were built between 1957 and 1968 and are now in various stages of ageing and deterioration. The 4 and 5 storey buildings do not have elevators, and some of the earlier buildings did not have bathrooms (in those days the residents would have gone to local bathhouses).
Since 2006, Tokyo City has been slowly vacating the tenants in preparation of redevelopment. Almost half of the apartments are vacant, while remaining residents gradually move out.
Demolition is scheduled to start in 2017, and completion is expected in time for the 2020 Summer Olympics.Read more
Kobe to redevelop No. 2 City Hall
Kobe City is considering demolishing and rebuilding the ageing No. 2 City Hall. Demolition could start as early as this year.
The No. 2 Building was completed in 1957. It originally had 8 floors, but the upper floors were removed after suffering catastrophic damage during the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake. The magnitude 7.3 earthquake caused the 6th floor of the building to collapse under the weight of the floors above. Rather than demolish the building, the 6th, 7th and 8th floors were removed, and the building went back into use from March 1996 onwards.Read more
90-year old town hall to be demolished
The 90-year old former Kano Town Hall in Gifu City will be demolished this year as repairs have become too costly and the building is at risk of collapse.
The 2-storey, reinforced concrete building was built in 1926 as the town hall for Kano Town (now part of Gifu City). The modernist building was designed by architect Goichi Takeda (1872-1938). It managed to survive the Gifu Air Raid of July 9, 1945, which destroyed 5 square kilometres of the city and killed 800 residents. For a brief time after the war it was used by the occupying forces. Read more
Sports stadium and mall likely to replace old Tsukiji fish market
According to insiders at a major Japanese real estate company, a sports stadium and shopping mall are being considered as a replacement for the former Tsukiji fish market site in downtown Tokyo.
The famous 80-year old fish market is scheduled to move to its new location on Shin-Toyosu Island in Tokyo Bay in early November 2016, leaving a 23 hectare site prime for redevelopment. The outer market, which has retail and restaurants catering to the general public, will remain in its current location, while the wholesale market will move to a much larger site in Shin-Toyosu.Read more
Yokohama school to demolish 87-year old building
The Kanto Gakuin Junior High School has decided to tear down their 87-year old former main building due to age and deterioration.
Built in 1929, the Norman-style building was designed by American architect J.H. Morgan (1868-1937). It was built from reinforced concrete and is 3 storeys with 1 basement. The interior has classrooms and a chapel. It was in use until 2009.
The school principal said that the school and wanted to preserve the historic building but a structural inspection found that the concrete and steel reinforcing was showing significant deterioration. In accordance with guidance from Yokohama City, the school has no choice but to move ahead with demolition.
The building did not appear to show any significant damage from the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake. Read more
290,000 USD will get you Fukuoka Prefecture’s oldest bank building
Fukuoka’s oldest bank building to be demolished if buyer is not found
The owner of a 118-year old former bank building in Kitakyushu City plans to demolish the historic property in the new year in order to sell the vacant block of land.
The former Sumitomo Bank Wakamatsu Branch Building was built in 1897 and is the oldest surviving bank building in Fukuoka Prefecture. The bank closed its doors in 1967, just as the region's coal mining industry was reaching an end.
The two-storey, wood and brick building fronts onto a covered shopping arcade and adjoins an open plaza that was once the site of the branch office for Sumitomo’s coal mining operations.
Sumitomo’s archival department do not know who the original architect was, although some experts suggest it may have been Magoichi Noguchi (1869-1915), an architect who designed many of Sumitomo Bank’s branches during that period, and who had also designed the Osaka Prefectural Nakanoshima Library.Read more
Tokyo City to demolish Kunio Maekawa-designed clubhouse
The Tokyo metropolitan government plans to demolish the Fujimigaoka Clubhouse in Suginami-ku within this financial year.
The 200 sqm, 2-storey wooden structure was built in 1954 as the clubhouse for the former NHK sports grounds. It was designed by Kunio Maekawa - one of Japan’s great modernist architects.
Suginami-ku had leased the grounds from NHK from 2007 until May 2015, and used the clubhouse as the management office. Tokyo City acquired the 10.9 hectare property from NHK between 2012 ~ 2014, and are preparing to turn it into a public park. Unfortunately the city has decided that the clubhouse must be demolished to make way for the new park.Read more