Nakanoshima Festival Tower

Completed in November 2012, Nakanoshima Festival Tower rises 39 storeys to approximately 199 metres on Nakanoshima island in central Osaka. Developed by Asahi Shimbun and designed by Nikken Sekkei, it is best known for preserving and rebuilding the legendary Festival Hall — a 2,700-seat concert venue — within its base.

Use

Office tower

Area

Kita Ward, Osaka

Completed

2012

Floors

39 above ground, 3 below

Height

199 m

Total floor area

approx. 145,602 m²

Developer

Asahi Shimbun

Architect

Nikken Sekkei

A Concert Hall Reborn Inside a Skyscraper

On Nakanoshima island in Kita Ward, Osaka — the narrow strip of land between the Dojima River to the north and the Tosabori River to the south — Nakanoshima Festival Tower completed in November 2012. At 39 storeys above ground and three below, with a rooftop height of approximately 199 metres, the tower was designed by Nikken Sekkei and developed by Asahi Shimbun. Total floor area is approximately 145,000 square metres.

The building’s identity is shaped by what its lower floors contain. Festival Hall, the original concert venue it replaced, had opened in 1958 and over the following decades became one of Japan’s most celebrated performance spaces for classical music, opera, and large-scale events. When the ageing structure was demolished to make way for the new tower, the central challenge was how to carry forward the acoustic and spatial qualities that musicians and audiences had valued for half a century. The rebuilt Festival Hall, which reopened in April 2013, seats approximately 2,700 and is fitted with acoustic systems designed to meet contemporary performance standards while honouring the reputation of its predecessor.

Nakanoshima’s Changing Skyline

Festival Tower arrived on an island that had long been defined by civic and historic architecture — Osaka City Hall, the Prefectural Nakanoshima Library (an Important Cultural Property), and the Central Public Hall (also a Cultural Property) all stand within walking distance. The addition of a near-200-metre tower noticeably raised the height datum of this part of Nakanoshima, and the building now forms a prominent element in the views along both rivers from east and west.

The development also has a neighbour that completed a few years later: Nakanoshima Festival Tower West, a separate project that rises slightly higher and fills the adjacent site, creating a twin-tower composition at the western-central part of the island.

Summary

Nakanoshima Festival Tower was completed in 2012, reaching 39 storeys and approximately 199 metres. Designed by Nikken Sekkei for Asahi Shimbun, it gave Nakanoshima both its tallest tower and a rebuilt Festival Hall that continues one of Osaka’s most important concert traditions. The nearby Nakanoshima Daibiru (2009) and Grand Front Osaka (2013) together frame the pace of Osaka’s central redevelopment over the same period. Hotels on and around Nakanoshima can be found on Rakuten Travel.