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Western architects increasingly active in Japan

By Edmund Mander

Baltimore-based architectural firm RTKL' International's Japanese activities include the recently completed Hiratsuka Olympic Shopping Center, south of the Tokyo suburb of Yokohama, built for Tokyo-based supermarket-developer/operator Olympic. The 365,300-square-foot site houses 100 retail tenants on two levels, and includes a multiplex cinema.

The firm also designed the recently opened Yokohama Bayside Marina (SCT, May 1998), a complex of factory outlets and restaurants in Yokohama built in the style of a Nantucket, Mass., port community, for retail developer Mitsui Fudosan. It is working on three more entertainment-themed factory outlet centers for the same developer, said Ronald LaVoie, managing director of Japanese operations for RTKL.

Mitsui Fudosan also has hired RTKL to design a 350,000-square-foot expansion for its 1.5 million-square-foot Lallaport Shopping Center, in Minami Funabashi, a Tokyo suburb. Construction has begun and is scheduled for completion next summer.

In Osaka, RTKL has designed a 1.08 million-square-foot center, Diamond City Itami Shopping Center, scheduled to open in 2001. The center, which will include a multiscreen cinema, is going up on a brownfield site formerly occupied by a rubber plant. Diamond City is a joint development venture put together by JUSCO, a developer and department store operator, and Mitsubishi Corp.

Meanwhile, in downtown Tokyo, RTKL is working on converting an old Seiko watch factory into a 2.6-million-square-foot mixed-use retail, office and residential complex.

Another international design firm, The Jerde Partnership of Los Angeles, also is involved in several projects in Japan.

The Jerde Partnership saw the completion in the spring of Mycal Otaru, a hotel, retail and entertainment destination, located in Otaru, on the island of Hokkaido. Traditionally, fishing and logging have sustained the economy of this town of about 185,000 people, but more recently it has become an international tourist destination, attracting visitors from Russia, Korea and Taiwan, as well as from the rest of Japan.

Mycal has built several retail entertainment projects in Japan but this one, at 3.5 million square feet, is the largest. Besides the hotel, it comprises 1.8 million square feet of retail and 250,000 square feet of amusement space that includes hot spas, bowling, and an 85,000-square-foot health club.

Looking ahead, The Jerde Partnership is also overseeing the renewal of a large mixed-use urban area in the district of Roppongi, Tokyo. The 28-acre site is going to see new retail, restaurants and entertainment that includes a concert hall, a park and a museum. The project, which also includes offices and a hotel, is expected to be completed in 2002.