Cities on the Hills
While Tokyo has established itself as one of the world’s leading urban centers, it can still improve its cultural magnetism, livability, and attractiveness for overseas businesses. Helping the city rise in the world’s esteem by gradually transforming Tokyo is at the heart of Mori Building’s mission.
Mori Building’s signature complexes connect communities
Azabudai Hills
In our globalized society, it is only natural to compare cities to one another—assessing their relative strengths and weaknesses to help us determine exactly where they stand in the world.
And while Tokyo has established itself as one of the world’s leading urban centers, it can still improve its cultural magnetism, livability, and attractiveness for overseas businesses.
Helping the city rise in the world’s esteem by gradually transforming Tokyo is at the heart of Mori Building’s mission. And central to this goal is the development of its Hills projects, starting with ARK Hills in 1986. This was followed by Roppongi Hills in 2003; Toranomon Hills, with its four distinctive towers and new metro station that were in development from 2014 to 2023; and finally, Azabudai Hills, which just opened in November.
The Hills are the brainchild of late Chairperson Minoru Mori, who espoused the concept of “vertical garden cities,” which are based on the ideas of the famed architect Le Corbusier and infused with advanced technology and modern perspectives. The complexes are built tall, on single large floor plates that have been created out of small plots of land, which Mori aggregates by negotiating with individual landowners over decades.
As well as being architecturally impressive, these complexes are united by common themes. They are green, they are locations that improve the safety of their surrounding neighborhoods, and they offer a stimulating cultural atmosphere.
Azabudai Hills Food Hall
A Green Base
When visiting the Hills, you are not only struck by the towering skyscrapers that are the complexes’ hubs, but by the greenery that can be found at their ground levels.
As Mariko Murata from Mori Building’s Environmental Promotion Unit explains, nowhere is this more apparent than at Azabudai Hills. “Based on the design and concept by Heatherwick Studio, who designed the landscape of the low-rise area of Azabudai Hills, about 320 plant species have been selected that express each season. For example, the Central Square is planned around deciduous trees from the native vegetation of the area, so that visitors can feel the changes of the four seasons.”
She points out that by building high on a large scale, the Hills projects are not only able to support beautiful green spaces but also be more environmentally sound. “With this method, we can increase green coverage by up to 30 percent and energy efficiency by up to 40 percent. In addition, we can significantly improve environmental performance, as the buildings have a much longer life and the use of energy and resources is a great deal more efficient.”
Azabudai Hills orchard
Safe Havens
The Hills also stand out for their safety. As well as featuring structures that can easily withstand natural disasters such as earthquakes, they are central locations where residents can go in times of need. As Takashi Hosoda, senior manager at Mori Building’s Disaster Emergency Office points out, “Mori Building has been engaged in redevelopment projects in its hometown of Minato Ward under the slogan, ‘cities to escape to, rather than flee from.’” Roppongi Hills can accommodate 5,000 people, Toranomon Hills 5,200 people and Azabudai Hills 3,600 people who may be unable to return home in the case of an emergency.
The company has taken the lessons of the past—such as the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of 1995 and the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011—to heart, recognizing the necessity for secure systems and infrastructures. Through cooperation between the public and private sectors, Mori Building has strengthened both the hardware and software systems of the complexes to ensure the safety of tenants, residents, visitors, neighbors, and the employees who use the buildings and facilities it manages and operates.
Hosoda adds that the complexes will allow the quantity and quality of disaster preparedness in Minato Ward to improve, helping “the urban structure to be transformed to one in which ‘homes, offices and the town [Hills] where you are now are the safest places to be.’”
Toranomon Hills dampers
Grand Designs
As well as creating areas around Minato Ward that are both green and secure, Mori Building aims to strengthen their cultural capital. Yoshinao Matsushima, the PR and Promotion Group senior manager in the Cultural Affairs Department, explains that with Roppongi Hills, which is home to the Mori Art Museum, the company was inspired to address the fact that Tokyo needed a cultural center to rival locations such as New York’s Lincoln Center, London’s Covent Garden, and Paris’ Centre Georges Pompidou.
To establish locations that are culturally rich, the Hills complexes not only house galleries with exhibits by the world’s leading artists, but pieces of public art that are meant to create spaces that enrich people’s everyday aesthetic lives, Matsushima points out. “The Hills feature artworks that visitors to the city can touch and enjoy. There are many works by internationally acclaimed artists, so visitors can enjoy high-quality, genuine art experiences at any time.”
United by the aim of drawing people in with green oases and stunning art, while also creating safe refuges, Mori Building has its eyes not just on the immediate future, but generations ahead. As Murata reveals: “In this era of fierce intercity competition, where people, goods, capital, and knowledge gather in attractive cities across borders, a city’s potential and possibilities have a great impact on the economy as well as the future of urban living. In this context, Mori Building has created the grand design for Tokyo with a long-term perspective of 50 to 100 years and is striving to achieve it.”
Azabudai Arena at dusk
The Toranomon Hills Station Tower: Transforming a Neighborhood
Home to a buzzing community that melds business and art with innovation and tradition, Toranomon is one of Tokyo’s most vibrant and interesting neighborhoods. And later this year, the area will take a bold step with the opening of Toranomon Hills Station Tower.
This fall, Mori Building's new project will elevate innovation in business, retail, and art
Tokyo Node Hall
Home to a buzzing community that melds business and art with innovation and tradition, Toranomon is one of Tokyo’s most vibrant and interesting neighborhoods. And later this year, the area will take a bold step with the opening of Toranomon Hills Station Tower. The new facility will help to expand and evolve the Toranomon Hills complex as a new international hub and global business center where various businesses and global players gather to disseminate new ideas and values.
The 49-story tower will be located above Toranomon Hills Station, the first new station on the Hibiya Line in 56 years. For many visitors, the first experience will be stepping into the Station Atrium—an impressive three-story, 2,000-square-meter plaza brilliantly illuminated with natural light. The space serves not just as a point of passage for travelers and commuters, but a welcoming entrance to the entire area.
Toranomon Hills Station Tower will be completely integrated with the new station and connected to Mori Tower’s Oval Square by the large-scale pedestrian T-Deck, significantly improving pedestrian flows. This continues the work done with the construction of Toranomon Hills Mori Tower, which integrates with Loop Road No. 2, seamlessly connecting central Tokyo with Haneda Airport.
In addition, a bus terminal on the first floor of Toranomon Hills Business Tower offers access to airport limousine buses and the Tokyo Bus Rapid Transit network. Together, these will strengthen Toranomon Hills as a transportation node of the gateway connecting central Tokyo with the world.
The pedestrian path to the Toranomon Hills Station Tower, nicknamed “The T-Deck.”
The Station Atrium
Along with 32 floors of office space, Toranomon Hills Station Tower features the innovative Tokyo Node, a 10,000-square-meter interactive communication facility that will take up part of the eighth floor and the 45th to 49th floors. Tokyo Node features a main hall and three galleries, which can be used on their own or as a single integrated space. The space will also be home to four dining facilities that can be used in conjunction with events.
On the rooftop, a sky garden and pool help create an unforgettable atmosphere for events. On the eighth floor, the facility features a cutting-edge laboratory for research into future urban experiences. Tokyo Node aims to be a space from which new content and creativity can be shared with the world.
The Station Tower completes the redevelopment of Toranomon Hills that began in 2014 with the opening of Toranomon Hills Mori Tower. This was followed by the Toranomon Hills Business Tower in 2020, which is home to Arch, an incubation center for business creation that has attracted more than 110 major corporations, as well as CIC Tokyo, an innovative coworking space that serves as a hub for the startup ecosystem in the city. In 2022, Toranomon Hills Residential Tower opened in the complex, providing an unmatched standard for urban residential living. In total, the urban complex will include about 300,000 square meters of office space, 730 residential units, 26,000 square meters of retail space, 370 hotel rooms, and 21,000 square meters of green areas.
Tokyo Node sits atop the Toranomon Hills Station Tower.
Spaces for All
Shoppers will have a great deal to look forward to this fall, as there will be a broad variety of stores in Toranomon Hills Station Tower. Spanning from B2 to the seventh floor, a retail space featuring about 80 stores will cater to a broad range of needs. One of the highlights will be the T-Market, boasting 27 restaurants, delis, and food stores where shoppers can pick up an array of gourmet items. Altogether, the retail space will more than double what is currently available in the Toranomon Hills area.
The tower will also house the Hotel Toranomon Hills, the first in Hyatt’s Unbound Collection to be launched in Tokyo. Space Copenhagen of Denmark is responsible for the hotel’s stunning interior design, which combines natural materials with traditional Japanese architecture.
The sleek and modern look of Toranomon Hills Station Tower itself was designed by Shohei Shigematsu, partner at international architecture design group OMA. The tower’s design is informed by the idea of creating an “urban axis” that links Toranomon Hills with the surrounding neighborhood in a seamless, natural way.
Throughout the engaging and welcoming space, there will be captivating works of public art—from a scintillating work created with software-controlled LEDs to paintings and sculptures. These aesthetic touches combine to create an inspired atmosphere.
Toranomon Hills Station Tower is set to help Toranomon Hills continue to steadily evolve as a mixed-use complex that integrates with the urban infrastructure, achieving an impact comparable to that of Mori Building’s epoch-making Roppongi Hills. This fall, the new project will elevate the neighborhood to greater heights of innovation in business, retail, and art.