Matsushita IMP building, High-rise building in Chūō-ku, Japan.
The Matsushita IMP Building is a mixed-use complex in Osaka Business Park with a high-rise tower on the east side of its site and a low-rise block on the west. The low-rise block holds the International Market Place on floors one to three, a mall with a row of about 200 meters of cylindrical columns, and a four-story atrium at its center. The exterior uses pale purple porcelain tiles and horizontal ribbon windows.
The building was completed in March 1990 and served as the second major structure in the Osaka Business Park development by Matsushita Enterprises. Its construction was part of a broader modernization effort in the business district during that period.
The name IMP stands for International Market Place, the retail zone on floors one to three. A roughly 200-metre colonnade of cylindrical columns runs east-west through the mall, with a four-storey atrium at its centre. On the second floor, the 857-seat IMP Hall hosts concerts, lectures, exhibitions and martial arts events; Morrissey, Björk, Green Day and Iron Maiden have played there.
The building connects directly to Osaka Business Park Station and links to the Twin 21 building via an elevated walkway. These connections make it easy to move around and navigate the business complex without hassle.
At the building's west end, the basement holds a platform structure built during construction for a planned subway link. When the Nagahori Tsurumi-ryokuchi Line opened in 1996, six years after the building, Osaka Business Park Station was built directly beneath with new platforms, so the earlier structure was never used as a station and became known as the phantom platform.
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