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Save the Tokyo Okura, A Wonderful Modernist Hotel – Sign the Petition

Posted: July 17th, 2014 | 1 Comment »

I read with interest Tyler Brule’s recent Fast Lane column in the FT about the impending fate of Tokyo’s Okura Hotel. Apparently developers (probably with an eye on the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 – why is it Olympics lead to more destruction than just about any other mega-event?) want to start pulling down the hotel, which Brule rightly describes as ‘one of the most loved modernist hotels in the world’ in 2015 and replacing it with something that looks rather uninteresting, to say the least. The destruction of the hotel would be a major architectural loss to a city that has already lost much due to war, fire, earthquake and crazy urban planners.

Personally I have sheltered in the lobby of the Okura a number of times from both Tokyo’s cold and heat. It is a hotel of nooks and crannies and unexpected surprises, not least the geometric Seiko timezone map of the world (see below) – which could hang in a museum as a piece of art quite easily. The Okura was built largely for the Tokyo Olympics of 1964.

Monocle (Brule’s publication) has launched an online petition and microsite with some lovely photos of the hotel here.

It only takes a moment to sign and, if you’re in Tokyo, do visit the hotel, us the bar, wander the lobby, eat at the restaurants and generally enjoy the structure, just in case the worst happens….

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One Comment on “Save the Tokyo Okura, A Wonderful Modernist Hotel – Sign the Petition”

  1. 1 David Fieldman said at 8:37 am on July 17th, 2014:

    Hello Paul. Many thanks for bringing the shocking news of the impending destruction of this magnificent hotel to the attention of your readers.
    I have exceptionally fond memories of Hotel Okura, which became my home when I lived in Tokyo for close to five years in the 1980s.
    I just signed Brule’s petition.
    Regards,
    David


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