Newly built in the Tokyo Metropolitan Waterfront Sub center, the product of Hazama's broad range of strengths

From Tokyo to the world; from the world to Tokyo.
The finishing touches have been put on this splendid new building in the Waterfront Sub center, where an urban complex befitting the 21st century is being built. The Congress Tower is an all-Hazama project, reflecting the firm's command of every facet of construction technology. The Tokyo International Exhibition Center has attracted wide interest as the world's largest project to use the lift-up construction method. From start to finish, it has been a technological challenge accepted and met.

With the canceling of the World City Exposition, the Tokyo Metropolitan Waterfront Sub center may seem to have receded from the public eye. The 440 hectare site encompasses the districts of, Ohme, Ariake Minami and Ariake Kita. Many of the parcels remain bare land. Riding the Yurikamome automated train providing transportation in the area, one comes upon a building that looks like an inverted pyramid. The glittering silver building is covered with glass and titanium panels. Dubbed the Tokyo Big Site, the Tokyo International Exhibition Center is the waterfront's undisputed landmark. The lift-up ceremony took place June 30, 1994, with former Tokyo Governor Shunichi Suzuki doing the honors. It took three days to raise this three-level structure, which is 90 meters square and weighs 6,500 tons. It now has an aerial escalator. The escalator, 51 meters long and weighing 250 tons, was first assembled and then put in place by a slide-and-lift-up method, never before tried anywhere in the world. In the space under the Congress Tower is an anchor made up of 100 glass screens. Its location can be moved freely, with one use being for holding ornamentation put up at events. The grounds of the International Exhibition Center extend over 240,000 m2 , and the total floor space of the building is 230,000 m2, making it 1.5 times larger than Makuhari Messe. It is the number one combined convention and exhibition facility in the Orient, representing Japan and all of Asia as an information base. Anyone who sees it will marvel at what is truly one of the greatest construction feats in the world. Besides the dynamic shape of the building itself, another attraction is the collection of art objects located throughout the complex. Paintings and other works by six international artists are displayed in the Congress Tower vicinity. They include an art garden based on a conception by Hidetoshi Nagasawa, a Japanese artist living in Italy. By the entrance plaza and banquet hall are a fountain with seven marble pillars and a pond shaped like Tokyo Bay. Visitors can also enjoy the observation deck and walkways. Likely to attract special attention is the pond with its light fantasia, created by beaming light emitting diodes at a mist of water. To generate a realistic mist, 350 high-powered nozzles propel water granules at 70 kgf/cm2. What makes the Tokyo International Exhibition Center so appealing is the balance it achieves between the precise geometric shapes of the architect and the free expression of the artist.

Project Summary Project name: Construction of the Tokyo International Exhibition Center Congress Hall Location: Ariake 3-12, Koto-ku, Tokyo, Japan Contracted by: Bureau of Finance, Tokyo Metropolitan Government Construction period: October 1992 to October 1996 Construction by: Hazama, Shimizu, Nihon Kokudo, Arai, Matsui, Fudo, Imanishi, Tokai Construction Joint Venture Corporation Amount of contract: 40,392 million yen (Hazama: 45% of this total) Description: Steel reinforced concrete and steel building, 8 floors above and 1 floor below ground, one rotunda floor Site: 60,735 m2 Building area: 34,856 m2 Total floor space: 67,057 m2 Max. height: 56.95 m