Roppongi Hills Mori Tower
Encyclopedia
is a 54-story mixed-use skyscraper
located in Roppongi
, Minato, Tokyo
. Completed in 2003 and named for builder Minoru Mori
, the tower is the centerpiece of the Roppongi Hills
urban development. It is currently the fifth-tallest building in Tokyo
at 238 metres (780.8 ft). The building is primarily used for office space, but it also includes retail stores, restaurants and other tourist attractions. The Mori Art Museum is located on the 53rd floor and visitors can view the city from observation decks on the 52nd and 54th floors.
The tower has been at the center of several scandals. One of the building's tenants, livedoor
, was raided by police. In 2004, a six-year-old boy was killed in one of the building's revolving door
s. After a police investigation, three men were convicted of professional negligence that resulted in the boy's death. Later, an elevator fire in the building prompted nation-wide elevator inspections.
Opening in October 2003, the Mori Art Museum is the centerpiece of the Mori Arts Center. Its interior was designed by Gluckman Mayner Architects
, and it originally occupied the entire 53rd floor as well as a portion of the 52nd floor. The museum's galleries on the 52nd floor have since been removed, however. British-born David Elliott served as the museum's director until he resigned in late 2006, and Fumio Nanjo
assumed the position. The museum is one of the only venues in Tokyo with a percentage of foreign visitors comparable to the Tokyo National Museum
, but it attracts fewer visitors in total.
Since the opening of Tokyo Midtown's Midtown Tower
in 2007, former Mori Tower tenants such as Konami
and Yahoo! Japan
have since relocated to the new tower. Japanese internet service provider livedoor
has also since vacated Mori Tower since the company's headquarters were searched in January 2006 resulting in the arrests of two company executives. Prior to its bankruptcy, Lehman Brothers
occupied the space currently occupied by Barclays.
While on a tour of Mori Tower on the morning of March 26, 2004, six-year-old Ryo Mizokawa was killed in a revolving door
at the building's second-floor main entrance. Mizokawa's head was crushed between the door rotating from his left and the outer frame; he died two hours after reaching the hospital. The door's motion safety sensor was originally set to detect anything standing 80 centimetres (31.5 in) tall. This setting was changed to 135 centimetres (53.1 in), however, after the door began stopping unnecessarily when detecting a newly installed, nearby safety barrier. After the incident, it was revealed that 32 people had previously sustained injuries caused by revolving doors at Roppongi Hills since the complex opened less than a year earlier. In an out-of-court settlement, the Mizokawa family received an undisclosed compensation payment from the building's operator, Mori Building Company.
In March 2005, prosecutors indicted
three people on charges of professional negligence resulting in death: senior Mori Building Co executives Yuzo Tada and Yukihiro Koyama and an executive from the revolving door's manufacturer, Sanwa Tajima Corporation, Hisanobu Kubo. Prosecutors argued that the Mori Building officials did not implement safety measures proposed after previous incidents because they would detract from the tower's entrance appearance. All three pleaded guilty to the charges, and in September they received three-year suspended prison sentences
of 10 months, 10 months and 14 months, respectively.
system in Mori Tower produced a fire that destroyed part of the tower's lift-motor room and forced hundreds of people to evacuate the building. According to the elevator's manufacturer, Otis Elevator Company
, a frayed cable scraping surrounding lift system components produced enough sparks to ignite a fire. After the fire, it was discovered that Otis was aware of rusted and frayed cables in the tower's elevator systems since January 2005. The incident spawned nation-wide inspections of Japanese elevators by both Nippon Otis and the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry. The ministry inspection of approximately 260,000 elevators turned up problems in 813 elevators.
Skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...
located in Roppongi
Roppongi
is a district of Minato, Tokyo, Japan, famous as home to the rich Roppongi Hills area and an active night club scene. Many foreign embassies are located in Roppongi, and the night life is popular with locals and foreigners alike...
, Minato, Tokyo
Minato, Tokyo
is one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo, Japan. As of 1 March 2008, it had an official population of 217,335 and a population density of 10,865 persons per km². The total area is 20.34 km².Minato hosts 49 embassies...
. Completed in 2003 and named for builder Minoru Mori
Minoru Mori
is considered to be Japan's most powerful and influential building tycoon. He joined his father, Taikichiro's, real estate business after graduating from Tokyo University and is now president and CEO of Mori Building, of which he and his older brother Kei's families own 100%...
, the tower is the centerpiece of the Roppongi Hills
Roppongi Hills
is a New Urban Centre and one of Japan's largest integrated property developments, located in the Roppongi district of Minato, Tokyo.Constructed by building tycoon Minoru Mori, the mega-complex incorporates office space, apartments, shops, restaurants, cafés, movie theaters, a museum, a hotel, a...
urban development. It is currently the fifth-tallest building in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
at 238 metres (780.8 ft). The building is primarily used for office space, but it also includes retail stores, restaurants and other tourist attractions. The Mori Art Museum is located on the 53rd floor and visitors can view the city from observation decks on the 52nd and 54th floors.
The tower has been at the center of several scandals. One of the building's tenants, livedoor
Livedoor
is an Internet service provider based in Tokyo, Japan, that runs a web portal and numerous other businesses. The company was founded and led in its first 10 years by Takafumi Horie, known as "Horiemon" in Japan...
, was raided by police. In 2004, a six-year-old boy was killed in one of the building's revolving door
Revolving door
A revolving door typically consists of three or four doors that hang on a center shaft and rotate around a vertical axis within a cylindrical enclosure. Revolving doors are energy efficient as they prevent drafts, thus preventing increases in the heating or cooling required for the building...
s. After a police investigation, three men were convicted of professional negligence that resulted in the boy's death. Later, an elevator fire in the building prompted nation-wide elevator inspections.
Facilities
Mori Tower is a mixed-use facility that is used for retail and office space. The tower's first six floors house retail stores and restaurants.Mori Arts Center and Art Museum
The Mori Arts Center is located on floors 49–54. This center includes various tourist attractions spread over the tower's top six floors. Two members-only facilities—a library and a private club—are located on floors 49 and 51, respectively. Visitors are provided with views of the city at Tokyo City View on the 52nd floor and an open-air roof deck on the 54th floor.Opening in October 2003, the Mori Art Museum is the centerpiece of the Mori Arts Center. Its interior was designed by Gluckman Mayner Architects
Gluckman Mayner Architects
Gluckman Mayner Architects is an architecture firm located in New York City with Richard Gluckman and David Mayner in partnership since 1998. The architects are known for minimalist design, evident in five pioneering art galleries that moved into the Chelsea gallery district from the SoHo...
, and it originally occupied the entire 53rd floor as well as a portion of the 52nd floor. The museum's galleries on the 52nd floor have since been removed, however. British-born David Elliott served as the museum's director until he resigned in late 2006, and Fumio Nanjo
Fumio Nanjo
is the director of the Mori Art Museum, and a graduate of Keio University.- References :...
assumed the position. The museum is one of the only venues in Tokyo with a percentage of foreign visitors comparable to the Tokyo National Museum
Tokyo National Museum
Established 1872, the , or TNM, is the oldest and largest museum in Japan. The museum collects, houses, and preserves a comprehensive collection of art works and archaeological objects of Asia, focusing on Japan. The museum holds over 110,000 objects, which includes 87 Japanese National Treasure...
, but it attracts fewer visitors in total.
Office tenants
Floors 7–48 serve as office space and house various corporate tenants, including:- Allen & OveryAllen & OveryAllen & Overy is a global law firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom.A member of the UK's Magic Circle of leading law firms, Allen & Overy is widely considered to be one of the world's elite law firms, advising national and multinational corporations, financial institutions, and...
(38th floor) - Barclays Bank and Barclays CapitalBarclays CapitalBarclays Capital is a global British investment bank. It is the investment banking division of Barclays plc which has a balance sheet of over £1.2 trillion . Barclays Capital provides financing and risk management services to large companies, institutions and government clients. It is a primary...
(31st - 33rd floors) - Booz & CompanyBooz & CompanyBooz & Company is a global management consulting firm established in the United States in 1914. It is recognized as one of the most prestigious management consulting firms in the world and one of the best consulting firms to work for by Consulting Magazine...
(27th floor) - Goldman SachsGoldman SachsThe Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is an American multinational bulge bracket investment banking and securities firm that engages in global investment banking, securities, investment management, and other financial services primarily with institutional clients...
(41st - 48th floors) - Google JapanGoogleGoogle Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
(26th - 27th floors) - GreeGreeGree can refer to:* Gree Electric Appliances Inc of Zhuhai, China*GREE, a popular Japanese social networking/gaming site operated by GREE, Inc.....
(12th floor) - Nokia Siemens NetworksNokia Siemens NetworksNokia Siemens Networks is a global data networking and telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Espoo, Finland. It is a joint venture between Nokia of Finland and Siemens of Germany...
(29th floor) - The Pokémon CompanyThe Pokémon Companyis a corporation responsible for marketing and licensing the Pokémon franchise and is affiliated and owned by Nintendo. It began operating in 1998 and adopted the moniker "Pokémon Ltd." in 2000. The company is headquartered in the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower in Roppongi Rokuchome, Minato, Tokyo...
(18th floor) - Salesforce.comSalesforce.comSalesforce.com is an enterprise cloud computing company headquartered in San Francisco that distributes business software on a subscription basis. Salesforce.com hosts the applications off-site...
(39th floor)
Since the opening of Tokyo Midtown's Midtown Tower
Midtown Tower
is a mixed-use skyscraper located in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo. Completed in 2007, it is the tallest of the six buildings located within the Tokyo Midtown complex, and at , it is also currently the tallest office building in Tokyo...
in 2007, former Mori Tower tenants such as Konami
Konami
is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...
and Yahoo! Japan
Yahoo! Japan
is a Japanese internet company formed as a joint venture between the American internet company Yahoo! and the Japanese internet company SoftBank. It is headquartered at Midtown Tower in the Tokyo Midtown complex in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo.-History:...
have since relocated to the new tower. Japanese internet service provider livedoor
Livedoor
is an Internet service provider based in Tokyo, Japan, that runs a web portal and numerous other businesses. The company was founded and led in its first 10 years by Takafumi Horie, known as "Horiemon" in Japan...
has also since vacated Mori Tower since the company's headquarters were searched in January 2006 resulting in the arrests of two company executives. Prior to its bankruptcy, Lehman Brothers
Lehman Brothers
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. was a global financial services firm. Before declaring bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth largest investment bank in the USA , doing business in investment banking, equity and fixed-income sales and trading Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (former NYSE ticker...
occupied the space currently occupied by Barclays.
2004 fatality
Revolving door
A revolving door typically consists of three or four doors that hang on a center shaft and rotate around a vertical axis within a cylindrical enclosure. Revolving doors are energy efficient as they prevent drafts, thus preventing increases in the heating or cooling required for the building...
at the building's second-floor main entrance. Mizokawa's head was crushed between the door rotating from his left and the outer frame; he died two hours after reaching the hospital. The door's motion safety sensor was originally set to detect anything standing 80 centimetres (31.5 in) tall. This setting was changed to 135 centimetres (53.1 in), however, after the door began stopping unnecessarily when detecting a newly installed, nearby safety barrier. After the incident, it was revealed that 32 people had previously sustained injuries caused by revolving doors at Roppongi Hills since the complex opened less than a year earlier. In an out-of-court settlement, the Mizokawa family received an undisclosed compensation payment from the building's operator, Mori Building Company.
In March 2005, prosecutors indicted
Indictment
An indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...
three people on charges of professional negligence resulting in death: senior Mori Building Co executives Yuzo Tada and Yukihiro Koyama and an executive from the revolving door's manufacturer, Sanwa Tajima Corporation, Hisanobu Kubo. Prosecutors argued that the Mori Building officials did not implement safety measures proposed after previous incidents because they would detract from the tower's entrance appearance. All three pleaded guilty to the charges, and in September they received three-year suspended prison sentences
Suspended sentence
A suspended sentence is a legal term for a judge's delaying of a defendant's serving of a sentence after they have been found guilty, in order to allow the defendant to perform a period of probation...
of 10 months, 10 months and 14 months, respectively.
2007 fire
On April 4, 2007, an elevatorElevator
An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...
system in Mori Tower produced a fire that destroyed part of the tower's lift-motor room and forced hundreds of people to evacuate the building. According to the elevator's manufacturer, Otis Elevator Company
Otis Elevator Company
The Otis Elevator Company is the world's largest manufacturer of vertical transportation systems today, principally focusing on elevators and escalators...
, a frayed cable scraping surrounding lift system components produced enough sparks to ignite a fire. After the fire, it was discovered that Otis was aware of rusted and frayed cables in the tower's elevator systems since January 2005. The incident spawned nation-wide inspections of Japanese elevators by both Nippon Otis and the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry. The ministry inspection of approximately 260,000 elevators turned up problems in 813 elevators.
See also
- Roppongi HillsRoppongi Hillsis a New Urban Centre and one of Japan's largest integrated property developments, located in the Roppongi district of Minato, Tokyo.Constructed by building tycoon Minoru Mori, the mega-complex incorporates office space, apartments, shops, restaurants, cafés, movie theaters, a museum, a hotel, a...
- List of tallest buildings and structures in Tokyo