Kyūkyoryūchi 38 Ban-kan, Historic bank building in the former foreign settlement, Chūō-ku, Kobe, Japan
The Kyūkyoryūchi 38 Ban-kan is a three-storey steel-reinforced concrete building completed in 1929, with one basement level. Its south front carries four Ionic columns, the east side seven pilasters, and the exterior is clad in stone in the American Renaissance manner. It stands on Akashi-machi-dōri next to Daimaru Kobe's Taishō-era No. 2 and No. 3 buildings, forming a 100-metre run of classical facades.
Built in 1929 as the Kobe branch of City Bank, the building was designed by William Merrell Vories' office and erected by Takenaka Corporation. City Bank occupied the ground floor, German dye and Bayer pharmaceutical firms the second, and Teikoku Oxygen the third. Later used as a warehouse and office by Daimaru Kobe, it was renovated in 1988 and opened to shoppers.
The name comes from plot number 38 of the former foreign settlement. In March 1987 Sotheby's opened the combined shop "Live Love West" here, after its president saw the building during a visit to Kobe; the project then spread to other Daimaru stores. Since 1988 the building has housed part of the Daimaru Kobe store.
The building stands at Akashi-machi 40 in Chuo Ward, Kobe, next to Daimaru Kobe's No. 2 and No. 3 buildings along Nakamachi-dori. It is a few steps from Kyukyoryuchi-Daimarumae Station on the Kaigan subway line and about five minutes on foot from Motomachi Station. The facade is lit from sunset until 22:00.
The "38" in the name is the lot number from the foreign settlement era, when this plot was part of the grid of numbered blocks. From 1987 the building housed Sotheby's Japan branch, whose mixed shop "Live Love West" opened here on 1 March 1987 after the auction house's president saw the structure during a visit to Kobe.
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