Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
tial photography gallery Taka Ishii. Gallery-hoping is a joy here when they hold
collective opening nights.
( 6-6-9 Roppongi , Minato-ku; admission varies;
opening hours
vary;
Hibiya Line to Roppongi, exit 1A)
Understand
Roppongi Hills & Tokyo Development
A New Mall is Born
When Roppongi Hills opened in 2003, it was more than just another shopping mall. It
was an ambitious prototype for what could be the future of Tokyo. It took developer
Mori Minoru no fewer than 17 years to acquire the land and to construct this labyrinth-
ine kingdom. He envisioned improving the quality of urban life by centralising home,
work and leisure into a utopian microcity. The design team included a cast of interna-
tional visionaries, such as megamall mastermind Jon Jerde and Pritzker Prize winner
Fumihiko Maki.
Up-market boutiques and restaurants occupy the lower floors. One gleaming office
building stretching 53 storeys high assumes the centre: at the top, a contemporary art
museum. There is a hotel (the Grand Hyatt), a movie theatre, several residential
blocks and a formal garden.
Foreign investment banks and leading IT companies quickly signed up for office
space, and Roppongi was positioned as the centre of the new economy - an alternat-
ive to Marunouchi, a bastion of traditional (read: old-fashioned) business culture. The
nouveau riche who lived, worked and played at Roppongi Hills were christened
Hills-
zoku
('Hills tribe') by the media and their lavish lifestyles were splashed across the
tabloids.
The Roppongi Hills Effect
Similar projects appeared in succession: Shiodome Shio-site (2004), Tokyo Midtown
(2005) and Akasaka Sacas (2008). However, Roppongi Hills and its ilk have proved
polarising: conceived during the economic bubble of the late '80s and early '90s and
