Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka
| Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka | |
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| General information | |
| Coordinates | 35°40′48″N 139°44′14″E / 35.6798825°N 139.7372472°ECoordinates: 35°40′48″N 139°44′14″E / 35.6798825°N 139.7372472°E |
| Completed | 1982 (new tower) |
| Opening | 1955 |
The Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka (グランドプリンスホテル赤坂 Gurando Purinsu Hoteru Akasaka) was an upscale hotel in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The site of the former hotel is now the location of a mixed-use development named Tokyo Garden Terrace.
A design of Japanese architect Kenzo Tange, the hotel was well known for its "distinctive saw-toothed facade" of aluminium and glass. Following closure it became notable for being deconstructed in a top-down approach, the building appearing to shrink in height over time.
The original hotel, opened in 1955, was located in the Kitashirakawa Palace, built in 1930 as the residence of Yi Un, the last crown prince of Korea. The newer tower building designed by architect Kenzo Tange and completed in 1982 was 40 storeys tall and laminated in aluminium. Because of its proximity to Nagatachō Station and the National Diet buildings, it was often used by Japanese politicians for meetings and press conferences.
For most of its life, the hotel operated as the Akasaka Prince Hotel, but in 2007 the hotel was renamed Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka following the reorganization of the Prince hotel group.
When its closure was scheduled, Akasaka Prince Hotel tower was relatively new, being expected to last further decades with proper maintenance and renovation, it was one of the buildings that "fell victim to the vagaries of commercial real estate here, where high property values, changing design standards and other factors have conspired to create a bull market for demolition". It had low ceilings like many office contemporaries built in the 1970s during the country's economic boom (height standards were increased in the 1990s to accommodate information technology infrastructure). In recent years it faced competition from upscale hotels run by foreign companies.
Although it closed as a hotel in March 2011, after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, the Akasaka Prince Hotel housed evacuees from Fukushima prefecture.
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Wikipedia