Umeda Sky Building
The Umeda Sky Building is a two-tower mixed-use skyscraper in Osaka, Japan. Located on the outskirts of the Umeda business district in Kita-ku, Osaka, the Umeda Sky Building consists of two 40-story towers interconnected at their two uppermost stories via glass bridges with escalators and elevators that cross an open atrium space. It is currently the fifteenth-tallest building in the prefecture.
The towers reach a total height of while the overall height of the tower including the spires is. The towers were designed by Hiroshi Hara, and were constructed by Takenaka Corporation They were completed in 1993.
History
The building was conceived in 1988 as the "City of Air" project for a mixed-use skyscraper with four interconnected towers in the Umeda central business district, in close proximity to the Yodo River. The third tower of the complex was initially planned to be constructed within the current site of the Vegetable Garden, while the fourth tower was to be located on the eastern side of the third tower. Eventually, the Japanese [asset price bubble|Japan economic bubble of the 1980s] caused widespread damage to the Japanese economy and brought the total number of towers down to two.During the architectural planning of the complex, Hiroshi Hara created two overall concepts for the towers. The first concept was to create a modern landmark in the city featuring modern architecture, and drew inspiration from the Grande Arche in Paris, France, which features a hypercube-like design. The second concept was to emphasize a vision of a "floating city", which can be reflected from the city's urban landscape and is contrasted with the opaque ceramic atrium at the ground floor. The concept also included open-air amenities and viewing decks over the Umeda district and the entire Osaka skyline.
Construction started with the construction of the twin towers using reinforced concrete, while the construction of the sky deck began afterwards. As the structural works of the towers were completed, the sky deck was raised to the ground using a set of hydraulic elevators to raise the section upwards, the first time this was done in a construction project. The installation of the glass-layered escalators and elevators also followed the same system. The tower was fully completed and began opening its doors to the public on March 25, 1993.