Tokyo Garden Terrace Kioicho

A mixed-use tower completed in 2016 on the site of the former Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka in Kioi-cho, Chiyoda City. The 36-storey, 180-metre Kioi Tower, designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates with Nikken Sekkei as executive architect, houses The Prince Gallery Tokyo Kioicho hotel in its upper floors.

Use

Office tower

Area

Chiyoda City

Completed

2016

Floors

36 above ground, 2 below

Height

180 m

Developer

Seibu Properties

Architect

Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (design architect), Nikken Sekkei (executive architect)

A Glass Tower on the Three-Estate Hill

In Kioi-cho 1-chome, Chiyoda City, the neighbourhood’s name carries the memory of three Edo-period daimyo estates — the Kii Tokugawa, Owari Tokugawa, and Ii clans — compressed into the syllables ki, o, and i. On part of this historically layered hilltop site, Tokyo Garden Terrace Kioicho opened in July 2016. The development was led by Seibu Properties and replaced the former Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka (previously the Akasaka Prince Hotel) through an urban redevelopment project.

The centrepiece of the complex is Kioi Tower, rising 36 storeys above ground (two below) to a height of 180 metres. The design was led by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF) as design architect, with Nikken Sekkei serving as executive architect. The tower’s upper floors house The Prince Gallery Tokyo Kioicho, a luxury hotel whose high-floor rooms look out over the Imperial Palace Outer Garden and, in the other direction, the towers of Shinjuku. The total gross floor area across the entire complex reaches approximately 227,200 square metres.

Gardens That Echo Edo Topography

The former Akasaka Prince Hotel opened in 1955 and was rebuilt in 1983 as a glass tower designed by Kenzo Tange — a structure long associated with the Akasaka skyline. In redeveloping the site, Seibu Properties chose to reinstate the natural terrain of the hillside as a designed landscape: the gardens within the complex reference the contours of the Edo-era estate grounds, providing seasonal greenery for hotel guests and visitors to the commercial floors below. The result is a complex that carries both a high-rise presence above the Kioi-cho roofline and a ground-level continuity with the site’s topographic history.

The location — close to Hotel New Otani, the Shimizudani Park, the National Diet Building, and the Prime Minister’s Official Residence — places the tower at the heart of the city’s political and cultural geography. KPF’s glass curtain wall, which reflects the sky and the surrounding greenery, was calibrated to blend into rather than dominate this particular corner of Chiyoda.

Summary

Tokyo Garden Terrace Kioicho was completed in 2016 as a 36-storey, 180-metre mixed-use tower on the former Akasaka Prince Hotel site in Chiyoda City. Designed by KPF and Nikken Sekkei for developer Seibu Properties, it brings a luxury hotel and a carefully designed hilltop garden to a neighbourhood with one of Tokyo’s deepest historical layers. A walk from here toward the Imperial Palace moat or along the Aoyama-dori passes some of the city’s most storied addresses. For hotels in the Kioicho and Akasaka area, Rakuten Travel offers a wide selection.