Umeda Sky Building

Hiroshi Hara designed the building, completed in 1993, as two forty-storey towers connected at the top by the Floating Garden Observatory - a ring with an open deck 173 metres up and a circular void in the middle you can look straight down through. The connecting structure, weighing around eight hundred tonnes, was assembled at ground level and lifted into position between the finished towers in a single operation, which was the engineering set piece of the project. Escalators cross the gap diagonally between the towers on the way up, which is the part people remember. The deck is genuinely open to the sky and the wind. In the basement is Takimi-koji, a recreated Osaka street of the 1920s with restaurants, done with more conviction than most such things. The building sits apart from the Umeda cluster with clear space around it.

History

The building was conceived in 1988 as the "City of Air", a plan for four linked towers near the Yodo River. Hiroshi Hara drew on the Grande Arche in Paris and on the idea of a floating city, and Takenaka Corporation completed the towers, 170 metres high, in 1993 (Wikipedia, Umeda Sky Building).

Highlights

• The connecting ring - an 800-tonne top structure lifted into place in one operation.
• An open deck at 173 metres - genuinely open to the sky, with a void through the middle.
• The diagonal escalators - crossing the gap between the towers on the way up.
• Takimi-koji - a recreated 1920s Osaka street of restaurants in the basement.

When to go

All year; sunset and after dark. Two hours.

What to expect

The deck is exposed and cold or wet in bad weather. Sunset slots queue and can require timed tickets. The approach from the station goes under the rail viaducts and is not obvious. Entry is charged and not cheap.

Nearby

Umeda and its department stores are south; Osaka Castle is south-east.

Key facts