Shiodome Tower

Completed in 2003, this 38-story, 172-meter Kajima-designed tower in Shiodome Sio-Site stacks Shiseido offices on the lower floors and a hotel on the upper, exemplifying the mixed-use formula of the district's redevelopment.

Use

Office tower

Area

Minato City

Completed

2003

Floors

38 above ground, 4 below

Height

172 m

Developer

Kajima Shiodome Development

Architect

KAJIMA DESIGN

A Kajima tower where cosmetics meet hospitality

Higashi-Shinbashi 1-chome, Minato City, Tokyo. The Shiodome Tower, completed in April 2003, occupies one of the development blocks that make up Shiodome Sio-Site. At 38 stories above ground (plus four basement levels) and 172 meters tall, it was designed by KAJIMA DESIGN — Kajima Corporation’s in-house design studio — and built by Kajima’s Tokyo branch, with Kajima Shiodome Development as the project entity.

The building’s mixed-use stacking places Shiseido Shiodome Office on floors 4 through 21, while floors 24 and above are occupied by The Royal Park Hotel Iconic Tokyo Shiodome, offering 490 rooms. Shiseido’s decision to consolidate functions in Shiodome marked one step in the cosmetics company’s gradual shift from its long-established Ginza territory toward a newly built district.

Kajima’s integrated approach on a freight-yard site

In the Sio-Site development, each block was assigned to a different developer and architect. Shiodome Tower stands on the Kajima-led block, and the design-build continuity between Kajima’s design studio and construction arm is legible in the building’s structural choices. The tower uses CFT columns — concrete-filled steel tubes — which provide high rigidity at reduced weight, a useful response to the challenging soft ground of a former freight yard.

The 172-meter height places Shiodome Tower close to its neighbor, Shiodome Media Tower, and well below the district’s tallest, the Dentsu Headquarters at 213 meters. Together these towers replaced a flat, largely invisible freight zone with a cluster of high-rises visible from considerable distance across central Tokyo.

Summary

Shiodome Tower was completed in 2003, with 38 floors above ground and a height of 172 meters. Its vertical stacking of Shiseido offices and a premium hotel is one of the more distinct programs in the Sio-Site cluster. A short walk from Shimbashi Station, the tower is a tangible example of how a once-inaccessible industrial site was restructured into an address that large corporations and hotel guests now share.