Nakanoshima Festival Tower West

Completed in April 2017 on the narrow island between Osaka's Tosabori and Dojima rivers, this 41-storey, 199-metre tower houses Conrad Osaka in its upper floors and pairs with the 2012 East Tower to complete Asahi Shimbun's twin-tower redevelopment of Nakanoshima.

Use

Office tower

Area

Kita Ward, Osaka City

Completed

2017

Floors

41 above ground, 4 below

Height

199 m

Developer

Asahi Shimbun

Architect

Nikken Sekkei

Completing the Twin Towers of Nakanoshima

Nakanoshima — the long, narrow island at the heart of Osaka — has seen its skyline transformed in two acts. The first was the completion of Nakanoshima Festival Tower (East) in 2012. The second came in April 2017 with the opening of Nakanoshima Festival Tower West: 41 storeys, 199 metres, designed by Nikken Sekkei and built by Takenaka Corporation under the stewardship of Asahi Shimbun.

The two towers share the same height and sit west and east of the rebuilt Festival Hall, the classical music venue that originally opened on this site in 1958. When the original hall closed in 2008, Asahi Shimbun conceived a redevelopment that would preserve and rebuild the hall while stacking a high-rise above it — a formula applied once to the east and again, five years later, to the west. The West Tower’s upper floors (33rd to 40th) became Conrad Osaka, a luxury hotel offering panoramic views over the Osaka Bay and the Nakanoshima riverscapes.

Culture, Commerce, and the City’s Waterways

The lower floors of the West Tower are not merely corporate space. Floor 4 is home to the Nakanoshima Kosetsu Museum of Art (opened October 2018), which exhibits works from the personal collection of Asahi Shimbun’s co-founder Murayama Ryohei. The combination of a luxury hotel, a museum, offices, and a premier concert hall in one riverside complex reflects an ambition to make Nakanoshima a cultural destination as well as a business address.

From the riverside promenade that runs along Tosabori River, both towers mirror in the water and form a symmetrical composition with Festival Hall between them. The 199-metre silhouettes are identical by design — a gesture toward the urban completeness that comes from pairing rather than competing.

Summary

Nakanoshima Festival Tower West was completed in April 2017 as a 41-storey, 199-metre tower in Nakanoshima, Osaka. Designed by Nikken Sekkei for Asahi Shimbun, it houses Conrad Osaka on its upper floors and the Nakanoshima Kosetsu Museum of Art on the fourth floor. Together with the East Tower completed in 2012, it defines the contemporary face of one of Osaka’s oldest and most distinctive urban islands. Walk the Tosabori riverside to see both towers reflected in the water.

Related buildings: Nakanoshima Festival Tower / Grand Front Osaka

Looking for a hotel in Nakanoshima or Umeda, Osaka? Browse options on Booking.com.