Telecom Center Building

A twin-towered, arch-topped office building completed in 1996 in Aomi, Odaiba. Rising 21 floors and approximately 99 metres, it was developed by Tokyo Teleport Centre as a flagship facility of the Tokyo waterfront sub-centre and remains one of the bay area's most recognisable landmarks.

Use

Office tower

Area

Koto City

Completed

1996

Floors

21 above ground, 3 below

Height

99 m

Developer

Tokyo Teleport Centre

Twin Towers by the Bay

Alight at Telecom Center Station on the Yurikamome line and the building greets you before you reach the exit. Two towers, joined at the top by an arch, rise 21 floors above ground and three below, to a height of approximately 99 metres. The Telecom Center Building was completed in January 1996, developed by Tokyo Teleport Centre, a public-private company established to anchor the information-technology ambitions of the Tokyo waterfront sub-centre development.

The arch connecting the two towers at their crown is the building’s most distinctive feature. It gives the structure a gateway quality, framing a view of the sky above the bay, and sets it apart from the rectangular blocks common elsewhere in the sub-centre. An observation space was fitted within the arch, offering views across Tokyo Bay toward the city skyline — a reminder that the building was designed not just to function but to become a landmark for an entirely new urban district on reclaimed land.

A Waterfront Sub-Centre’s First Decade

The Telecom Center Building opened in the same period that the Yurikamome automated transit line began provisional service (1995), and the two are inseparable in the story of Odaiba’s emergence as a public destination. The waterfront sub-centre had been planned since the 1980s with lofty ambitions: a new international business district, residential neighbourhoods, exhibition halls, and a cluster of telecommunications industries, all on landfill in Tokyo Bay.

The collapse of Japan’s asset bubble in the early 1990s curtailed much of that vision, but construction continued on the infrastructure and key facilities already committed. The Telecom Center Building was one of those committed projects — a purpose-built base for communications and technology companies, positioned beside a brand-new transit station in a district that was still largely empty when it opened. Three decades later, the reclaimed land has filled in, the Yurikamome carries steady commuter and leisure traffic, and the building’s twin arched towers have settled into the visual identity of Odaiba as firmly as the Fuji TV Building or the Rainbow Bridge.

Summary

The Telecom Center Building was completed in 1996, with 21 floors above ground and a height of approximately 99 metres. Developed by Tokyo Teleport Centre, its twin-towered arch silhouette is one of the defining shapes of the Odaiba waterfront. Ride the Yurikamome to Telecom Center Station and look up as you exit — the building is a physical record of Tokyo’s 1990s ambition to build a new city on the bay.

Related: Fuji TV Headquarters Building / Tokyo Big Site (Tokyo International Exhibition Center)

Visiting Odaiba? Rakuten Travel lists accommodation across the waterfront area.