Mixed-use skyscraper rises in the heart of metropolitan Tokyo
By David Malone, Associate Editor
Y2, an urban mixed-use skyscraper located at Chūō ward, in Tokyo, Japan, is a 3.3 million-sf tower that will include office space, a Bulgari Hotel, and an elementary school, all on top of a retail podium and a below-grade transportation hub.
Designed by Pickard Chilton, the 787-foot tower incorporates a gently curved façade meant to evoke the image of a billowing sail, a reference to the site’s original location on a canal that served as an outer moat for the Edo Castle. At the northwest corner, the tower will engage the ground to emphasize its verticality and to clearly identify the main entry. Visitors who enter the building via its direct connection with Tokyo Station will rise through a cascade of escalators, through the podium retail levels, to a podium roof terrace overlooking Yaesu Granroof.
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Pickard Chilton worked in tandem with Tokyo-based Nihon Sekkei, an architecture and engineering firm, and Takenaka Corporation, the project’s general contractor. The Y2 project is slated for completion in 2022.
