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The JR Central Towers at dusk. As gigantic as they are, they have an elegant design that blends into the surrounding cityscape rather than dominating it. |
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The station building complex
functions as both a transit
point and a commercial center,
and it comes complete with rental
office space and a hotel as
well as all sorts of restaurants
and shops. Multifunctional station
buildings are by no means rare
in Japan. Many major terminals
where passengers change trains
have such a building or set
of buildings. But among these
numerous structures, the JR
Central Towers are exceptional.
Their scale is such that they
have even made the list for
largest station buildings in
the Guinness Book of World
Records.
The Hotel Tower rises 53 stories
high, or 226 meters, and the
Office Tower, though it has
only 51 stories, is even taller,
reaching 245 meters into the
sky. At the bottom of the complex,
which altogether has 416,565
square meters of floor space,
are 4 underground floors.
The flagship establishments
of the complex are JR Nagoya
Takashimaya, a department store,
and Nagoya Marriott Associa
Hotel. Other notable features
are Towers Plaza, which takes
up two floors and has a dazzling
variety of restaurants, Sky
Street, which is a concourse
70 meters above the ground connecting
the Hotel Tower to the Office
Tower, and Panorama House, an
observatory at the top of the
Office Tower.
Sky Street
connects the Hotel Tower
to the Office Tower on the
15th floor, 70 meters above
ground level. This linear
concourse is like a street
across the sky. |
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Open spaces of extravagant
size were worked into the design.
Sky Street, for instance, has
a lofty ceiling and an all-glass
exterior wall, which combine
to give you the impression of
strolling along an avenue high
up in the sky. There are 12
elevators, nicknamed Sky Shuttles,
available to whisk you from
the entrance straight up to
Towers Plaza and Sky Street,
so you will hardly have to wait.
Conventional skyscrapers tend
to produce an oppressive atmosphere
and be inconvenient for movement,
but the JR Central Towers stand
out for the excellence of their
design in both respects.
Seiji Kitayama, general manager
of the Planning Division of
JR Central Building Co., Ltd.,
was involved in the project
from the start. “We set
our sights on turning the train
station into a city,” he
says. “We thought of passageways
as city streets, and we designed
them for providing easy access
so that people can fully enjoy
all the pleasures of the assorted
facilities. With a large department
store and hotel added to the
list of what is available, the
various services of the respective
facilities benefit from a synergistic
effect and offer all the convenience
and excitement of a big town.
The towers are not a mere gateway
to Nagoya; they are in themselves
a city which bustle with human
activity.”
Such are the JR Central Towers,
Aichi’s latest landmark.
If you have occasion to come
to our prefecture for a visit,
why not venture into this city
in the sky and check it out
for yourself?
(Masahiro
Ota; photos by Seiya Kawamoto)
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