St. Luke's Garden

A mixed-use skyscraper complex completed in May 1994 in Akashicho, Chuo City, Tokyo. The main office tower rises 51 floors to a height of approximately 220 meters beside the Sumida River, neighboring St. Luke's International Hospital.

Use

Office tower

Area

Chuo City

Completed

1994

Floors

51 above ground, 4 below

Height

220 m

Developer

Mitsui Fudosan

Architect

Nikken Sekkei

Two Towers Along the Sumida River

On the banks of the Sumida River in Akashicho, Chuo City, Tokyo, a high-rise complex was completed in May 1994. St. Luke’s Garden comprises a principal office tower — St. Luke’s Tower, 51 floors above ground with a height of approximately 220 meters — along with an adjacent residential tower, together forming a distinct presence along the right bank of the lower Sumida River.

Walking through the narrow streets of Tsukiji and Akashicho, the twin silhouettes appear suddenly at the end of an alleyway. From the surface of the Sumida itself, looking downstream, these towers stand out unmistakably. Alongside the riverfront redevelopment at nearby Kachidoki and Tsukishima, St. Luke’s Garden has become part of the landscape that defines this stretch of the river. The office tower was designed by Nikken Sekkei and developed primarily by Mitsui Fudosan.

A Redevelopment Tied to a Historic Hospital

The story of this building’s origins is unusual. Directly adjacent to the St. Luke’s Garden site stands St. Luke’s International Hospital, an institution with a history stretching back to the Meiji era. The redevelopment was made possible by a group of private developers utilizing land connected to the hospital’s holdings, resulting in a rare urban configuration where a medical facility and a high-rise commercial and residential complex sit side by side.

St. Luke’s Garden was completed in the early 1990s, a period when large-scale redevelopment projects were reshaping the Tokyo waterfront and Sumida River corridor. The earlier Rivercity 21 development at Okawabata, built on the former site of an Ishikawajima shipyard, had already begun to transform this stretch of the river. St. Luke’s Garden followed in that trajectory, adding new height to the Akashicho waterfront.

The office tower remains active today. The riverside promenade along the Sumida allows a full view of the complex from across the water, where the combination of hospital low-rises and a soaring tower offers a compressed lesson in how Tokyo’s central wards have been layered over time.

Summary

St. Luke’s Garden was completed in May 1994, with St. Luke’s Tower at 51 floors above ground, 4 below, and a height of approximately 220 meters. Designed by Nikken Sekkei and developed under Mitsui Fudosan’s leadership, it rose on land adjacent to the historic St. Luke’s International Hospital in Akashicho. The pairing of a centuries-old medical institution and a modern skyscraper in a single district is unusual even by Tokyo’s standards — reason enough to include this riverbank in your next walk along the Sumida.

Related: Rivercity 21 (Okawabata) / Park Tower Harumi

Looking for a hotel near the Sumida River or Tsukiji? Browse options on Rakuten Travel.