Section 1. Creating New Urban Spaces

This was the first time that Daibiru had demolished and rebuilt a building that was still in use in downtown Tokyo, and the project was undertaken with a strong sense of urgency. Construction proceeded smoothly, and assembly of the steel frame up to the top floor of the 21-story building was completed in March 1989. The frame-raising ceremony took place on the 17th of that month.

The completed Hibiya Daibiru Building used steel-frame construction aboveground and steel-frame reinforced concrete and reinforced concrete construction underground. It had 21 aboveground floors, three underground floors, and a penthouse floor. The exterior had a checkerboard pattern with four types of materials, including black South African granite with a flame-burnt and water-polished finish, white South African granite with a water-polished finish, and heat-absorbing reflective floating glass windows. This gave the building a clean, high-grade appearance. The completion of the new building allowed Daibiru to significantly increase both the total floor area and the rental area compared to the old building, which increased the company’s revenues.

The original plan was to begin phase II construction immediately after phase I construction, but the demolition of Building No. 2 and the start of phase II construction were delayed until March 1990 due to a request from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to preserve the building as a historic structure—a request that took some time to accommodate.

On November 29, 1991, phase II construction, which involved constructing an entrance hall on the site of the old Building No. 2 along with a retail floor to extend the first underground floor of the high-rise building, was completed as planned, and a completion ceremony was held. An all-glass entrance hall connected to the east side of the main building was completed, and all of the space on the site of the old Building No. 2, with the exception of the entrance hall, was made open to the public. A greenbelt consisting of densely planted boxwood was established next to the hall, along with a waterfall 13.7 meters in width. A thick wall was built at the top of the waterfall, and six lion masks were attached to it, with the ingenious idea of using them as gargoyles with the mouths as water spouts. The sculpted animals and animal masks that had decorated the old Building No. 1 were also mounted on the new building and were widely covered by the news media as an impressive spectacle within the city. A high-class Japanese restaurant began operating in the underground portion of the open public space.