Atago Green Hills Mori Tower

A redevelopment tower at the foot of Mt. Atago, planned together with its greenery.

Use

Office tower

Area

Minato City

Completed

2001

Floors

42 above ground

Height

187 m

Developer

Mori Building

A 187 m tower standing in Atago, Minato City

Atago, Minato City, Tokyo. Around the hill where the Atago Shrine — dating back to the Edo period — sits, a single high-rise office building was completed in 2001: Atago Green Hills Mori Tower, a building of 42 floors above ground and a height of 187 m.

The development was led by Mori Building. Even before this, the company had accumulated mixed-use district developments in central Tokyo, and this project is positioned within that context. As the name “Green Hills” suggests, it is said to have been a development mindful of the relationship between greenery, the hilly terrain and the building.

The place called Atago has a distinctive topography despite being in the city center. Mt. Atago is known as a particularly high natural hill within Tokyo’s 23 wards, and with a 187 m tower built around it, the urban landscape of this area was greatly updated. Looking up from the ground, the greenery of the shrine and the exterior wall of the high-rise coexist in your field of view — an urbanistically interesting scene.

The context of redevelopment in western Minato City

The completion year of 2001 overlaps with the period in which central-Tokyo redevelopment accelerated. In the western part of Minato City — especially around Kamiyacho and Toranomon — large office buildings and mixed-use facilities were developed in succession around this time. Atago Green Hills Mori Tower can be seen as a building that appeared within that flow.

A scale of 42 floors was a height with real presence even in the Minato City of the day. With the addition of this office-centered building, the character of the Atago and Kamiyacho area as a business base is said to have become clearer.

In terms of large-scale development by Mori Building, you can also sense a continuity with other projects the company has undertaken. The stance of raising urban density while paying attention to the relationship with public open space and surrounding greenery is an approach commonly seen in such developments.

Summary

Atago Green Hills Mori Tower is an office building standing where historical topography and modern high-rise architecture intersect. That it was completed in 2001 — a milestone period — in Atago, Minato City, an area that, though in the city center, holds a distinctive historical context, is an important point for understanding the background of this building.

The figures of 187 m and 42 floors directly indicate the scale of the building, but more than that, the impact this building had on the city can perhaps be read only within its relationship to the terrain and the existing blocks. Walking the Atago hill, I think about such things each time I look up.