Tokyo's skyscrapers are a modern engineering marvel. The city is filled with 40 and 50-story buildings housing apartments and businesses that crowd out the older, traditional buildings that were squat and flat, intended to withstand earthquakes. More residential high rises are in the works, towering to new heights. Like Manhattan and Hong Kong, Tokyo is following the example of cities scarce on land by developing upward as opposed to outward.
Among Tokyo's most famous skyscrapers are the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, measuring 243 meters tall, and the Sunshine 60 Tower at 240 meters tall. The Roppongi Hills, towering at 238 meters, is in a fashionable district filled with nightclubs, while the Tokyo Opera City Tower (234 meters high) is the star attraction of one of the city's beloved cultural institutions. The Shinjuku Park Tower, at 233 meters high, offers stellar views. Near Tokyo Station, there is the Shin Marunouchi Building, measuring 198 meters . Although not a skyscraper, the Tokyo Tower is the city's tallest structure, extending 333 meters.
Tokyo skyscrapers have a recent history. Developers began planning them in the 1990s, after engineers came up with improved architectural measures for preventing earthquake damage. This was also the time when the Japanese economic bubble popped, and land prices plummeted, making high rise development an attractive investment. These days, planners in Tokyo are constructing skyscrapers at a faster rate than any other city in the world.
From a tourist's point of view, one of the key benefits of Tokyo skyscrapers is that they offer great viewing platforms for seeing the city and its environs. Climb to the 45th floor of Shinjuku's Tocho, in the government building's towers, to catch surprising angles of the surrounding skyscrapers. At night, the city lights are beautiful. On a clear day in the winter, it is possible to see Mount Fuji. Take in a gourmet meal on one of the two top floors of the Marunouchi Building, offering views of the Imperial Palace, Nihombashi and Ginza. At the Shiodome City Center, enter the viewing platform atop the Detsu Building for free, or pay a high-rise price for a drink at the bar in the city center's main building to catch the best vistas.
In "Secret Gardens Hide Under Tokyo Skyscrapers," Adam Frucci writes about a modern phenomenon. On the street level and underground floors of many Tokyo high-rises, planners have incorporated gardens. Rooms are filled with plants and vegetables, tended by students who wish to learn about agricultural practices in an urban environment. These gardens are prototypes for the urban gardens of the future that can serve as food sources for city dwellers, eliminating the need for shipping produce over long distances, and fending off food shortages.
