Illustrated Masterpiece Architecture Tour with Hiroshi Miyazawa & the Heritage Business Lab
Episode 2

"The six tower brothers are not listed in order of height, but in order of completion. The eldest, Nagoya TV Tower, was completed in 1954. It was Japan's first radio tower, and at 180 meters tall, the highest in Japan at the time. The second “son” is Tsutenkaku Tower in Osaka (c. 1956, 108m). The third is Beppu Tower in Oita Prefecture (c. 1957, 90m). No. 4 is Sapporo TV Tower (c. 1957, 147.2m). The 333m Tokyo Tower surpassed them all upon its completion in 1958.

"There were six brothers in all, so one more was yet to come. The youngest, completed six years later in 1964, is the 100-meter tall Hakata Port Tower. Born in 1886, Tachu Naito was 78 years old by then. After this, he exited the cutting edge of the tower design business, and died in 1970 at 84.

If Tachu Naito saw the six tower brothers today, he would probably be most surprised and pleased with the Nagoya TV Tower, which underwent major renovation between February 2019 and the fall of 2020, during which the former“mid-air space”broadcasting facility was converted into a hotel.

What does it mean to have a "hotel in a tower"?　That’s the main point of this report.

Once again, Takao Nishizawa of the Nikken Sekkei Heritage Business Lab took us on a tour of the site. Mr. Nishizawa's company, Nikken Sekkei, was the main designer of the renovation work. But since the firm was not in charge of the hotel interior design, this was Mr. Nishizawa’s first time to see the guest rooms. THE TOWER HOTEL opened in October 2020. Both of us were excited to take the new elevator to the 4th floor.

What a surprise, there was a steel column in the middle of the guest room!　And at a slanted angle ......quite amazing. "I asked Ms. Ryoko Toyoda, director of THE TOWER HOTEL, "Is this a special room where you can see the steel column?” "Please take a look at the other rooms," she said with a big smile on her masked face.......

In the interest of covering the story, I opened the doors of the guest rooms one by one. It was a series of surprises. Every room had a steel column running through it, and the position and angle varied from room to room.

"The interior decorations and artwork change according to the way the pillars stand and the shape of the rooms. There are 15 rooms in total, and no two are alike," said Ms. Toyoda. I can certainly understand why people would want to try staying at all the rooms.

Steel columns are not only exposed in the guest rooms, but also in the hotel reception and lobby on the 4th floor and in the restaurant on the 5th floor.

When I asked Ms. Toyoda, “Does anybody says the columns are in the way?” she replied, “Most of the people who make reservations know about the columns. Even so, they are delighted by the boldness of the design. People who are so boorish as to look at the columns and say, ‘They're in the way,’ won't bother to stay here.”

This hotel is a member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH), a global hotel brand group headquartered in the UK. According to Ms. Toyoda, there are many enthusiasts around the world who only visit SLH member hotels, and some of the member hotels are old castles in Europe that have been converted into hotels. I see…the special feeling of this hotel, including the view of the greenery from the window…is like that of an old castle.

The new hotel was attractive, but this“eldest son” had “treasures" that only he could possess. One of them is the Sky Balcony located on the roof of the indoor observatory, 90 meters above ground. It is a large birdcage-like space surrounded by thin steel bars. The roof is also in the shape of a birdcage and is mostly outdoors. I was amazed at the flair for entertainment that went into the idea of creating such an open observation space for a tower of unprecedented height in Japan.

Incidentally, there are two elevators that take you up to the observatory, one of which (on the right side of the boarding platform) has been in use since construction began. I was impressed by the way the female guide opened and closed the doors by hand. It is said that the elevator is only used during the peak season, but that those who are able to ride it are lucky.

A "treasure" exists that can be enjoyed even without using the facilities -- the square at the foot of the tower.

Among the six brothers, this is the only one where the foot of the tower has such a wide open space. This is emphasized by the huge concrete arches that crisscross overhead. From the outside, the design looks linear, but when you look at it from under the tower, it looks so elegant. To the north and south of the arches is Hisaya-odori Park, which stretches for about 2km – a scene reminiscent of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Mr. Nishizawa, our guide, told us that the designer, Tachu Naito, moved the elevators for the lower floors from the center to the west side and reduced the number of structures in the plaza as much as possible because a subway was scheduled to open right underneath the tower after it was completed. Fascinating ......

Hiroshi Wakayama, Managing Director of Nagoya TV Tower Corporation, has been involved in the operation of the tower for many years. "In this latest renovation the most important thing was to not change the way the tower looked at its base,”he recalled.

What did he mean by this? This may sound a bit technical, but allow me to finish with a brief description of the renovation process. The Nagoya TV Tower began operations on June 19, 1954. It was built for TV broadcasting and to promote tourism. About 50 years later, in 2005, it became the first tower in Japan to be designated as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property. With the end of analog broadcasting in 2011, the tower’s role as a broadcast platform ended, and its transition to a tourist facility began in earnest.

The renovation of the tower, which took about a year and a half to complete in preparation for the next 100 years, was a large-scale project that introduced underground "seismic isolation”technology.

There were several ideas for reinforcing the tower, including the underground seismic isolation plan (that was eventually adopted), an intermediate seismic isolation plan, and a centralized vibration control plan. A previous plan that was adopted to reinforce Osaka's Tsutenkaku Tower proposed intermediate seismic isolators (which would involve cutting the tower’s legs at ground level). But this would have altered the view of the tower base and created an oppressive feeling over Nagoya's unique open plaza.

So the underground portion of the four column legs were cut, and the seismic isolators inserted there. The existing elevator for the lower floors was cut off under the second floor, and a new elevator was built on the west side of the tower.

Seismic isolation is a technology that reduces the shaking caused by earthquakes by the insertion of large pieces of rubber or rolling/sliding mechanisms underneath the pillars. In other words, the Nagoya TV Tower is prepared for earthquakes by placing its entire footprint on rubber. The sight of people sitting on the reinforced concrete "benches”at the tower base – totally oblivious to the massive underground work that was done – is heartwarming.

I’m sure that the spirit of "Dr. Tower" looks down from the sky with great satisfaction that the landscape of this square is being preserved and used in a more attractive way.

Nagoya TV Tower
Location: 3-6-15 Nishiki, Naka-ku, Nagoya City
Completed: 1954
Design: Tachu Naito
Supervision: Nikken Sekkei Ltd (then Nikken Sekkei Komu Co., Ltd.)
Contractors: Takenaka Corporation, Kobe Shipyard & Machinery Works of New Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Miyaji Corporation, others.
Structure: Steel structure, partially steel-reinforced concrete

Construction period: February 2019 - August 2020
Ordered and operated by: Nagoya TV Tower Corporation
Architect: Nikken Sekkei Ltd
Contractor: Takenaka Corporation
Number of floors after renovation: 1 basement floor, 5 above ground floors (observation deck is a structure)
Opening date: September 18, 2020

Chubu Electric Power MIRAI TOWER (Nagoya TV Tower): Open weekdays and Sundays from 10:00am to 9:00pm (last admission 8:40pm), Saturdays from 10:00am to 9:40pm (last admission 9:20pm; illumination from sunset to around midnight). The museum is open year round (excepting maintenance work done twice per year). For more information, please visit https://www.nagoya-info.jp/en/spot/detail/9/
THE TOWER HOTEL: For more information, please visit https://thetowerhotel.jp/

Photo 4 Source: Nagoya City Transportation Bureau / 50 Years of Nagoya's Subways