Ueno Frontier Tower

A 23-storey mixed-use tower of approximately 117 metres completed in November 2017 on the site of the former Matsuzakaya Ueno Store South Building in Taito City. Developed by J. Front Retailing and designed by Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei, it combines commercial floors, a cinema complex, and offices on the Chuo-dori in Ueno.

Use

Office tower

Area

Taito City

Completed

2017

Floors

23 above ground, 2 below

Height

117 m

Developer

J. Front Retailing

Architect

Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei

A New Tower on an Old Department Store Site

On Chuo-dori in Ueno, a 23-storey tower stands where the south building of the Matsuzakaya Ueno department store once rose. Ueno Frontier Tower was completed on 4 November 2017 at Ueno 3-chome, Taito City. The developer was J. Front Retailing, the parent company of Daimaru Matsuzakaya department stores, and the architect was Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei. The building rises to approximately 117 metres above ground across 23 floors with two basement levels.

The south building of Matsuzakaya Ueno was a long-established presence on the Chuo-dori. When J. Front Retailing redeveloped the site, the programme shifted from a single retail floor-plate to a vertical mix: commercial tenants on basement one to floor ten, a cinema complex occupying its own zone, and rentable office floors from twelve to twenty-two. The result is a building that channels Ueno’s foot-traffic — from tourists heading to the park, commuters at Ueno Hirokoji and Okachimachi stations — into a multi-purpose tower on a prime urban corner.

Ueno Between Museum Hill and Market Street

Ueno Frontier Tower sits at the intersection of two very different registers of the neighbourhood. To the north-west, Ueno Park concentrates the National Museum, the National Western Art Museum, the Zoo, and Shinobazu Pond into one of Tokyo’s densest cultural districts. To the east, Ameyoko market fills the space beneath the elevated rail tracks with a compressed, nonstop street life that has survived generations of redevelopment pressures. This tower stands at the point where those two registers meet on Chuo-dori, reflecting the retail and commercial logic that has always characterised the avenue between them.

The proximity of JR Ueno Station and JR Okachimachi Station ensures a steady flow of commuters through the lower floors, while the upper office floors draw on the accessibility that makes this corridor one of the few in the city where commercial and cultural Tokyo overlap directly.

Summary

Ueno Frontier Tower, completed in November 2017 on the site of the former Matsuzakaya Ueno Store South Building in Taito City, rises to approximately 117 metres across 23 storeys above two basement levels. Developed by J. Front Retailing and designed by Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei, it replaces a single retail building with a mixed programme of commerce, cinema, and offices. Walking south along Chuo-dori from Ueno Station and looking up at this tower, it is easy to see the logic of the transformation: the department store format adapted into a vertical urban mix for the neighbourhood’s evolving role.

Related: Akihabara UDX

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