A New Direction: Ark Hills

Completed in 1986, Ark Hills was the first of Mori Building’s signature “hills” projects built on the vertical garden city idea. It stands at the crossroads of the districts of Akasaka and Roppongi and was designed to bring together residents and workers, as well as attract leading overseas financial institutions to Tokyo.

The complex is dominated by a creased-looking rectangular high-rise, the Ark Mori Building, and includes offices, retail facilities, the residential Ark Towers, a television studio, concert venue Suntory Hall, and several gardens. There is also a triangular tower housing the ANA Intercontinental Hotel Tokyo. Ark Hills is modeled after New York’s Rockefeller Center as a privately-owned complex offering public spaces people can use in life, work, or leisure.

The Ark Hills high-rise (left) and main entrance with the complex’s emblem (right).

Construction of the Ark Hills project got underway in November 1983 after 14 years of planning. For Mori Building, it represented a change in direction away from real estate deals and into the realm of full-fledged urban development. The firm had to rely on its construction and leasing operations to finance the plan, though, building 15 more “numbered buildings” as plans for the project crept forward. It eventually was able to acquire 80% of the necessary land, buying it during the heady “bubble” years when prices were assumed to rise indefinitely. Although a financial crisis and ensuing decades of economic stagnation proved this premise wrong across most of Japan, land prices around Ark Hills have remained strong.

The Ark Hills central plaza (left) and residence entrance.

Ark Hills

  • Year built: 1986
  • Address: 12-32 Akasaka 1-chōme, Minato, Tokyo, 107-6001
  • Nearest station: Tameike-sannō (Tokyo Metro Namboku and Ginza Lines)

A New Symbol: Roppongi Hills

Following its change of course with Ark Hills, Mori Building took the concept of vertical garden cities a step further with its Roppongi Hills project. The firm embarked on the 11.6-hectare multipurpose complex, Japan’s largest urban redevelopment project, with an eye to boost Tokyo’s flagging international competitiveness.

The complex took 17 years to complete, the majority of which, 14 years, was spent working out deals with the 400 people who lived or owned plots in the area.

Roppongi Hills, with its trademark 238-meter tall, 54-floor Mori Tower, opened in April 2003. The compound also includes the Grand Hyatt Tokyo hotel, the Keyakizaka Complex containing a movie theater and greenspace, and the Roppongi Hills Crosspoint office building. On the lower levels is the event area Roppongi Hills Arena, situated opposite from the head offices of broadcaster TV Asahi and the small Mōri Garden, designed to commemorate the gardens first built on the estate of feudal leader Mōri Hidemoto in the mid-seventeenth century. There are a total of six high-rises along Keyakizaka-dōri, the main roadway through the complex, the tallest being the twin Roppongi Hills Residences.

The Roppongi Hills North Tower office building (left) as seen from the circular advertising space Metro Hat, and the twin Roppongi Hills Residences.

Roppongi Hills sees upwards of 110,000 people, including employees, come and go each weekday. In constructing the complex, Mori Building aimed to create a new cultural and leisure center in the Roppongi district at the heart of Tokyo. The Mori Art Museum, located inside Mori Tower, hosts the annual Roppongi Art Night, a contemporary art event. It is one corner of the area’s so-called art triangle, the other points being the National Art Center, Tokyo and the Suntory Museum inside the Tokyo Midtown complex.

Mōri Garden next to the headquarters of TV Asahi (left) and the zelkova-lined Keyakizaka-dōri.

Roppongi Hills

  • Year built: 2003
  • Address: 6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, 106-6108
  • Nearest station: Roppongi (Tokyo Metro Hibiya and Toei Ōedo Lines)

A Global Business Center: Toranomon Hills

Toranomon Hills Tower as seen from Kokkai-dōri.
While the focus of Roppongi Hills is culture, Mori Building is developing the Toranomon Hills complex as a center of international business to enhance Tokyo’s global profile. When completed, the complex will spread across seven and a half hectares in the Toranomon business district. The 247-meter, 52-floor Toranomon Hills Tower, the first of four high-rises scheduled to be built, opened in 2014, just a stone’s throw from the office building where Mori Building began 60 years earlier.

Toranomon Hills Tower

  • Year built: 2014
  • Address: 23 Toranomon 1-chōme, Minato, Tokyo, 105-6301
  • Nearest station: Toranomon, Tokyo Metro Ginza Line

(Originally written in Spanish by Daniel Rubio of Nippon.com. Banner photo: Roppongi Hills as seen from Tokyo Tower. All photos by Nippon.com.)