Japan finishes Tokyo Sky Tree
Tourists ride rickshaws with the Tokyo Sky Tree tower in the background in Tokyo.
Pic: AFP
Tourist bosses in the country hope the tower will be a big draw for foreign visitors, whose numbers have plummeted in the aftermath of the disaster and the nuclear crisis it sparked.
“The construction was originally scheduled to finish in December 2011 but was delayed due to a shortage of supplies after the disaster,” said a spokeswoman for the operator, adding that the finished structure is sound.
Construction of the 634-metre (2080-foot) tower near the already popular Asakusa traditional district on Tokyo’s eastern side began in July 2008.
The Tokyo Sky Tree tops the 600-metre Canton Tower in China’s Guangzhou and the 553-metre CN Tower in downtown Toronto.
Some 580,000 construction workers were engaged in the construction, which cost 65 billion yen (US$806 million) for the tower alone, the spokeswoman said.
The Tokyo Sky Tree is expected to overshadow landmarks in the capital’s upscale western parts, including the 333-metre Tokyo Tower, which was built in 1958 and became a byword in Japan for the country’s rapid post-war growth.
It hosts two observation decks – at 350 metres and 450 metres above ground – as well as restaurants and office space and sits at a former freight shunting yard along the Sumida river. – AFP
Tickets for TOKYO SKYTREE are by reservation only with the day/time assigned.
TOKYO SKYTREE TOWN will open on May 22, 2012There are 5 ways to purchase tickets to TOKYO SKYTREE Observation Deck.
1. Online advance reservation of "TOKYO SKYTREE Web Ticket" starts from March 22 (by drawing).
Credit cards issued in Japan is required for online reservation.
2. Advance purchase may be made at Tobu Travel Box Office from March 22 (by drawing).
3. Tickets from May 22 to July 10 are by Advance Reservation Only. No day tickets will be sold during this period. Day tickets will on sale from July 11.
4. "TOKYO SKYTREE Group Reservation Center" takes reservations for groups of 25 or more.
5. Use travel plans of various travel agencies or accomodation plans offered by TOKYO SKYTREE Official hotels/TOKYO SKYTREE Friendship Hotels.
Website in other languages will be ready very soon. Please visit the renewed pages for details.
About Tokyo Sky Tree
"Tokyo Sky Tree" will appear in the Narihirabashi/Oshiage area of Sumida Ward, Tokyo in 2012. Boasting a height of 634m, the tower will be one of the world's tallest.Digital Terrestrial Broadcasting and the Role of the New Tower
In July 2011, the current analog broadcasting will end and a complete transition made to digital broadcasting.Five commercial stations and NHK took this as a turning point to advance preparations towards digital broadcasting from a TV tower with a height of around 600m and decided on the Sumida/Taito area as the site for construction of the tower.
In addition, for "one-segment broadcasting (one-seg)," a digital broadcasting service for mobile devices that was launched in April 2006, it is ideal to have transmissions from a height that is not very vulnerable to the forest of super high-rise buildings that stand at heights of around 200m in downtown Tokyo.
Expectations are also on the tower to serve the role of a tower equipped with disaster prevention features.
Birth of a Town with a Tower
At the foot of the new tower will be a "town with a tower" spans about 400m from east to west, connecting Oshiage Station and Narihirabashi Station, and encompassing an area of about 3.69ha.
A networking plaza leading from Oshiage Station to the
tower lobby on level four of the facility, three plazas in front of the
station and along Kitajukken River, and Shinsui Park will form a
community environment where visitors and nearby residents will gather.
Location
Located about 1km east of Asakusa - a town filled with the atmosphere of a shitamachi (the traditional name for the area of Tokyo that extends from Taito, Chiyoda and Chuo Wards east of the Sumida River where many merchants, craftsmen, etc. reside) - and about 2km northeast of Ryogoku - a town famous for sumo wrestling.The new tower stands in a major traditional international tourism zone of Japan.
*Address: part of Oshiage 1-chome and part of Mukoujima 1-chome of Sumida Ward in Tokyo
Development Schedule
- Fiscal 2006
- Basic design
- Fiscal 2007~8
- Execution design
- July 2008
- Start of construction
- December 2011
- (Scheduled) Construction completion
- Spring 2012
- (Scheduled) Grand opening
Overview of Facilities
- Height of tower: 634m
- Facilities: Observatory (First Observatory at 350m and Second Observatory at 450m), broadcasting facilities, stores, restaurant, etc.
- Initial investment: Approx. 60 billion yen Pre-opening costs: Approx. 5 billion yen
*Architectural and artistic design and
facilities are those envisioned at this point in time, and are subject
to further review and change.
You can check the updated information of Tokyo Sky Tree in the PDF brochure.
Japan builds Tokyo Sky Tree, world's tallest tower
Standing 2,080 feet tall, the Tokyo Sky Tree is a new digital
broadcast tower built on reclaimed land in the Japanese capital.
Engineers are confident it won't topple in an earthquake.
(Credit:
Tim Hornyak/CNET)
TOKYO--Nearly a year after the magnitude-9.0 quake that pummeled Japan,
construction of the world's tallest tower, the Tokyo Sky Tree, is now
complete.
Builder Obayashi, which recently announced plans for a space elevator to start services by 2050, declared the Sky Tree complete ahead of a ceremony Friday. While the world's tallest man-made structure remains the Burj Khalifa in Dubai at 829 meters (2,720 feet), the Sky Tree tops the list of the tallest free-standing towers at 634 meters (2,080 feet).
It's 34 meters taller than the Canton Tower in Guangzhou, China, and nearly twice the height of its predecessor, Tokyo Tower (333 meters). Operated by Tobu Railways and a consortium of media companies, the Sky Tree will serve as a digital terrestrial broadcasting center for Tokyo and the surrounding Kanto region.
The achievement came amid snowy weather in Tokyo. Falling ice from the structure has been a problem for nearby companies and residences in Sumida Ward, a heretofore quiet district on the eastern bank of the Sumida River.
The land is known to be relatively unstable and much of the area was reclaimed from Tokyo Bay long ago. But engineers say the Sky Tree will be able to withstand even the strongest of earthquakes. They point to a traditional building technique that was incorporated in the structure.
The Sky Tree makes use of a shinbashira, a central column that
features in the architecture of Japanese pagodas. The column acts as a
stationary pendulum to counterbalance seismic waves, greatly reducing
the sway in the surounding structure.
Indeed, there are virtually no records of pagodas being toppled in quakes in Japanese history. The tallest wooden tower in the country, the 55-meter (180-foot) pagoda of Toji temple in Kyoto, has been standing firm since 1644.
The Sky Tree's shinbashira is a hollow concrete tube housing elevators and stairs. It's structurally separate from the exterior truss but is joined by oil dampers, which help reduce quake shaking.
"The anti-quake measures in this structure can reduce quake vibrations by 50 percent," Hirotake Takanishi, PR manager for Tobu Tower Sky Tree, told me. "We've run simulations showing the Sky Tree will withstand an 8.0-magnitude earthquake, and can withstand even stronger ones, but we can't say definitely what its upper limit is."
The building suffered virtually no damage in the March 2011 quake, though supply interruptions delayed its completion.
Opening in May, the Sky Tree will have several cutting-edge attractions, including a special observation deck at 450 meters (1,476 feet) that will have an "air corridor" that snakes around the exterior for vertiginous thrills.
Stunning panoramic views
When I visited the Sky Tree on a press preview late last year, I rode the high-speed elevator to the first observation deck at 350 meters (1,148 feet) above ground. I couldn't feel the car's acceleration because it's engineered for a very smooth ride, but I was whisked up in less than a minute.
The view that greeted me was a stunning panorama of Tokyo spreading out in all directions over the Kanto plain. The world's largest metropolitan area, home to some 30 million people, seemed infinite.
Though Tokyo suffers from haze, on clear days in winter Mt. Fuji, Japan's iconic volcano, is visible to the southwest. The 360-degree deck also has a reproduction of a folding screen painting from Japan's feudal period that bears a remarkable resemblance to the panorama. It's a bird's eye view of Edo, the shogun's capital that was the precursor to Tokyo.
Indeed, the past is never far away at the Sky Tree. In Japanese, its height of 634 (meters) can be pronounced "mu-sa-shi," which refers to Musashi, the ancient province that was home to Edo.
Check out more pics in our gallery above, as well as the time-lapse video below of the Tokyo Sky Tree being built.
(Credit:
Tim Hornyak/CNET)
Builder Obayashi, which recently announced plans for a space elevator to start services by 2050, declared the Sky Tree complete ahead of a ceremony Friday. While the world's tallest man-made structure remains the Burj Khalifa in Dubai at 829 meters (2,720 feet), the Sky Tree tops the list of the tallest free-standing towers at 634 meters (2,080 feet).
It's 34 meters taller than the Canton Tower in Guangzhou, China, and nearly twice the height of its predecessor, Tokyo Tower (333 meters). Operated by Tobu Railways and a consortium of media companies, the Sky Tree will serve as a digital terrestrial broadcasting center for Tokyo and the surrounding Kanto region.
The achievement came amid snowy weather in Tokyo. Falling ice from the structure has been a problem for nearby companies and residences in Sumida Ward, a heretofore quiet district on the eastern bank of the Sumida River.
The land is known to be relatively unstable and much of the area was reclaimed from Tokyo Bay long ago. But engineers say the Sky Tree will be able to withstand even the strongest of earthquakes. They point to a traditional building technique that was incorporated in the structure.
Indeed, there are virtually no records of pagodas being toppled in quakes in Japanese history. The tallest wooden tower in the country, the 55-meter (180-foot) pagoda of Toji temple in Kyoto, has been standing firm since 1644.
The Sky Tree's shinbashira is a hollow concrete tube housing elevators and stairs. It's structurally separate from the exterior truss but is joined by oil dampers, which help reduce quake shaking.
"The anti-quake measures in this structure can reduce quake vibrations by 50 percent," Hirotake Takanishi, PR manager for Tobu Tower Sky Tree, told me. "We've run simulations showing the Sky Tree will withstand an 8.0-magnitude earthquake, and can withstand even stronger ones, but we can't say definitely what its upper limit is."
The building suffered virtually no damage in the March 2011 quake, though supply interruptions delayed its completion.
Opening in May, the Sky Tree will have several cutting-edge attractions, including a special observation deck at 450 meters (1,476 feet) that will have an "air corridor" that snakes around the exterior for vertiginous thrills.
Stunning panoramic views
When I visited the Sky Tree on a press preview late last year, I rode the high-speed elevator to the first observation deck at 350 meters (1,148 feet) above ground. I couldn't feel the car's acceleration because it's engineered for a very smooth ride, but I was whisked up in less than a minute.
The view that greeted me was a stunning panorama of Tokyo spreading out in all directions over the Kanto plain. The world's largest metropolitan area, home to some 30 million people, seemed infinite.
Though Tokyo suffers from haze, on clear days in winter Mt. Fuji, Japan's iconic volcano, is visible to the southwest. The 360-degree deck also has a reproduction of a folding screen painting from Japan's feudal period that bears a remarkable resemblance to the panorama. It's a bird's eye view of Edo, the shogun's capital that was the precursor to Tokyo.
Indeed, the past is never far away at the Sky Tree. In Japanese, its height of 634 (meters) can be pronounced "mu-sa-shi," which refers to Musashi, the ancient province that was home to Edo.
Check out more pics in our gallery above, as well as the time-lapse video below of the Tokyo Sky Tree being built.
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