Toyosu Foresia

A 16-story base-isolated office building completed in July 2014 in Toyosu 3-chome, Koto Ward, Tokyo. With 44 percent of its site given over to planted greenery, it earned the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Award and stands as a landmark of the former Tokyo Gas industrial land now remade into a business district.

Use

Office tower

Area

Koto Ward

Completed

2014

Floors

16 above ground, 2 below

A Green Canopy over Tokyo’s Former Gasworks

Toyosu Foresia stands at Toyosu 3-2-24, Koto Ward, Tokyo — a few minutes’ walk from Toyosu Station on the Tokyo Metro Yurakucho Line. Completed in July 2014, the building was constructed by Obayashi Corporation and rises 16 floors above ground with two basement levels. Its name combines “forest” and “Toyosu,” reflecting the project’s defining ambition: to bring dense greenery into a district that spent most of the 20th century as an industrial zone.

The building was constructed with base-isolation technology — a structural system that places a layer of seismic dampers between the foundations and the occupied floors to absorb earthquake energy before it reaches the building’s frame. For a structure on reclaimed bay-front land, a seismic risk category that carries extra scrutiny in Tokyo planning, this choice underlines the engineering priorities of the project. The landscaping went equally far: 44 percent of the site area is given over to planted greenery, a ratio well above typical commercial requirements and one that earned the building the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Award.

The Rebirth of the Toyosu Gasworks Site

The land beneath Toyosu Foresia was once part of the Tokyo Gas Toyosu Plant, a facility decommissioned in the 1980s. Years of soil-contamination surveys and remediation preceded the development of the current Toyosu 3-chome office precinct. The Foresia sits within a cluster of large commercial buildings that share the same reclaimed geography, including the nearby Toyosu Bayside Cross Tower, which was completed in 2020 and rises 36 floors to 177.51 meters.

Toyosu’s dual rail connections — the Yurakucho Line and the Yurikamome monorail — have helped attract major corporate tenants to the district. The Foresia’s green ratio and seismic credentials were positioned as differentiating features in a market where comparable floor plates are available throughout the waterfront precinct.

Summary

Toyosu Foresia was completed in July 2014 in Koto Ward’s Toyosu 3-chome, rising 16 floors with two basement levels. Built by Obayashi Corporation with base-isolation seismic technology and 44 percent site greenery, it earned the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Award. The building stands on former Tokyo Gas industrial land remediated over decades — a history written into the greenery that now surrounds it. A walk through the landscaped grounds from Toyosu Station brings the building’s founding idea into clear focus.