Asahi-seimei Ōtemachi building, Commercial skyscraper in Ōtemachi, Japan.
The Asahi-seimei Ōtemachi building is a rectangular skyscraper at the northeast corner of the Edo-dori and Eitai-dori crossing, with a light grey facade of aluminium panels — 4 mm thick on the lower floors, 2.5 mm above — set as vertical piers and horizontal bands around a dense grid of square windows. A narrow recessed channel runs down the front left of centre, a small element projects from the left side partway up, and a thin antenna stands at the left corner of the flat roof. It rises from a lower base with a curved, layered corner and larger ground-level openings.
Completed in July 1971 as the Asahi-Tokai Building, it was the first skyscraper in the Marunouchi area and the first built by Shimizu Corporation. Asahi Life Insurance and Tokai Bank developed it on the former site of a Tokyo Metropolitan Sewerage Bureau facility. Tokai Bank sold its share in 1998, and Asahi Life moved its head office here in December 2004. In March 2009 Asahi Life sold the building to a Mitsubishi Estate special-purpose company for about 80 billion yen, which led to the TOKYO TORCH redevelopment; demolition began in October 2022.
The building sits at a crossroads in Tokyo's financial district where office workers move through its lobbies and passages daily. These spaces connect different parts of the neighborhood and serve as gathering points for the business community.
The building is located near multiple transit stations and stops, making it easy to reach by public transportation. Visitors can enter the building directly through Ōtemachi subway station without needing to go outside.
The rooftop carried a weather-forecast board whose symbols were lit by halogen lamps. At opening, lasers were fired from the tower, but the practice was stopped because it affected night flights. The facade used 4 mm aluminium panels on the lower floors and 2.5 mm above, with deep-set windows for shadow.
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