Dutch firm OMA has completed a new mixed-use tower in Tokyo, Japan which is the firm's first ground-up building in Tokyo and largest built work to date. 

The project, designed by OMA Patner Shohei Shigematsu, is based on "an open approach" to provide connections between the building and the city, creating a tightly woven interface in the immediate urban context. 

Named Toranomon Hills Station Tower, the 49-story mixed-use tower is the final installment of Mori Building’s vision for Toranomon Hills Area and central Tokyo as a new Global Business Center hub.

Reaching at 266-metre-height, the tower consists of retails spaces, flexible event spaces, three multi-functional galleries, a vast open-air sky garden and infinity pool, with two restaurants, 32-floor office spaces, and the Toranomon Hills Hotel.

The building has a highly public base including a new Tokyo Metro Station tower underground, a light-filled station atrium and retail concourse, and a cultural center at the top called TOKYO NODE. A new hotel and leasable office floors are located in between.

The tower stands at the terminus of Shintora-dori Avenue, a newly configured thoroughfare connecting Tokyo Bay to the city center. 

Its form is created by extending the axis of Shintora-dori Avenue—its public character defines a central activity band in which special areas for gathering are concentrated. 

The core is lifted and split to either side of the base, drawing the public inward. The avenue extends into and through the tower via an elevated pedestrian bridge, completing a loop of greenery and activities for Toranomon Hills Area.

"I am very happy that the Toranomon Hills Station Tower, our first ground-up building in Tokyo and first high-rise in Japan, is now taking its place in the city," said Shohei Shigematsu, Partner, OMA.

"The tower makes connections with the Tokyo Metro network, the surrounding neighborhood along a renewed Shintora-dori, and other nearby skyscrapers spatially and programmatically. It blends together living, working, and cultural activity within and around its highly public base and top."

"The resulting multilayered, three-dimensional experience of space, a signature of life in Tokyo, is seamlessly knitted into the city fabric." 

"It was fun and rewarding to create a vision for a project of this scale and complexity with Mori Building, and work in Japan with a great team of collaborators, whose expertise and dedication to craft and execution were essential to the project. I look forward to seeing the new building enhance existing urban relationships and start to create new ones," Shigematsu added.

The bridge divides the base into two retail zones. The lower zone, the Station Atrium, provides direct access to the new Toranomon Hills Station on the Hibiya Line of the Tokyo Metro. 

The multi-story underground station is open to the outside and flooded with natural light, providing fluid access to the interior of the tower.

The public activity at the base extends vertically to form a central band of special areas for tenants throughout the tower. The building is shaped to reveal this band from multiple vantage points, making it visible across Tokyo. 

Two slabs sandwiching the central band are formed in inverted symmetry. The north slab narrows as it reaches the top in deference to the Imperial Palace. 

The south slab is narrowest at its base and widens as it rises, maximizing views of Tokyo Tower and the Roppongi Hills skyline.

The tower is open to the public and defines a new center of commercial and cultural activity. Works of art and exhibition space are integral to the tower’s presence in the urban context. 

A series of public art commissions, including site-specific works by Leo Villareal, Larry Bell, Oba Daisuke, and N. S. Harsha will be on view throughout the complex. 

The top floor of the tower is dedicated to TOKYO NODE, a multifaceted center for cultural activities devised by OMA and Tokyo-based innovative urban developer Mori Building in collaboration. 

Its state-of-the-art Lab, three galleries, and sky garden with a pool and restaurants open with a specially commissioned installation by Rhizomatiks x ELEVENPLAY.

The tower has earthquake resistance features; it includes high-performance oil damper (HiDAX) that absorbs vibration energy; variable hydraulic dampers located around the core: F44, F14, and F10 truss frames.

The project was built with an inverted construction method to simultaneously build below and above grade, shortening the construction period.

The Toranomon Hills area acquired preliminary Platinum certification in LEED’s Neighborhood Development category, highly evaluated for integrating development with public transportation.

Photo courtesy Mori Building Co., Ltd

Photo courtesy Mori Building Co., Ltd

Photo courtesy Mori Building Co., Ltd

Photo courtesy Mori Building Co., Ltd

Photo courtesy Mori Building Co., Ltd

Site plan

Section diagram

OMA released details of the building with construction updates in February 2023. 

OMA/Shohei Shigematsu recently designed a new exhibition space for French luxury fashion house Dior at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT) in Tokyo, Japan.

Shohei Shigematsu is a Partner at OMA and leads the firm’s portfolio spanning diverse typologies and scale. Shigematsu's portfolio includes several innovative workspaces; the China Central Television (CCTV) Headquarters in Beijing, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Headquarters (2013), and Tenjin Business Center in Fukuoka, OMA’s first ground up office building in Japan (2021).

Project facts

Project name: Toranomon Hills Station Tower

Lead Design Architect: OMA New York

Partner-in-Charge: Shohei Shigematsu

Associates: Takeshi Mitsuda, Jake Sadler-Foster, Luke Willis

Team: Yuzaburo Tanaka, Sumit Sahdev, Yoshiki Matsuda, Anahita Tabrizi, Sergio Zapata, Timothy Tse, Yusef Ali Dennis, Stavros Voskaris, Tommaso Bernabo Silorata, Jackie Woon Bae, Eduardo Tazon Maigre, Tristan Zelic, Noam Dvir, Remy Bertin, Juan Pablo Zepeda, Mitchell Lorberau, Alan Song, Sukjoo Hong, Ken Chongsuwat, Caroline Corbett, Ninoslav Krgovic, Natasha Trice, Toru Okada, Timothy Ho, Andrea Zalewski, Alyssa Murasaki Saltzgaber, Chong Ying Pai, Minkoo Kang, Joanne Chen, Jeremy Kim, Daeho Lee, Mattia Alfieri, Tetsuo Kobayashi, Assaf Kimmel, Aishwarya Keshav, Danni Zhang, Yuriko Tanabe, Taro Kagami, Tomotsugu Ishida, Bom Chinburi, Jade Kwong, Phillip Denny, Miguel Darcy, Eugenia Bevz, Shary Tawil, Wesley Ho, Nicholas Solakian, Carly Dean, Elly Cho, Tamara Jamil, Matthew Davis, Darby Foreman.

Executive Architect: Mori Building Co., Ltd., Kume Sekkei 

Structure: Kume Sekkei
Structure (competition): Arup
MEP/FP: Kume Sekkei

Façade: Kume Sekkei, Arup Japan
T-DECK: NEY & Partners
Interior Lightning: Arc Light Design
Exterior Lighting: L'Observatoire International 

Architectural Model: Vincent de Rijk

General Contractor: Kajima Corporation

All images © Tomoyuki Kusunose unless otherwise stated.

All drawings © OMA.

> via OMA 

mixed-use OMA Shohei Shigematsu skyscraper Tokyo tower