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Despite protests, Japan closes doors on landmark
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THE Hotel Okura, a favored Tokyo lodging for US presidents, movie stars and other celebrities, is closing the doors of its landmark half-century-old main building to make way for a pair of glass towers ahead of the 2020 Olympics.
The redo raised an outcry from those who love the Okura’s unique melange of modernism and traditional Japanese aesthetics. But social media campaigns, a petition and other efforts to “Save the Okura” just underscored the futility of resisting Tokyo’s flood-tide of pre-Olympics urban renewal.
Other major landmarks, such as the decades-old fish market in Tsukiji and the National Stadium also are being replaced over the protests of many who are sad to see them go.
Andrew Lindsay, a Deutsche Bank executive who took part in a “Save the Okura” Facebook campaign, spent hours exploring the hotel during his first visit to Tokyo in the 1990s.
During his last visit, he sat in the lobby, with its round, red lacquer tables and chairs arrayed like plum blossoms, soaking it all in one last time. “It had this hushed elegance about it,” said Lindsay.
“The Mandarin Oriental, Peninsula, Raffles, some of the old hotels have been restored, but there’s nothing quite like the Okura. It’s the blend of Japanese aesthetics with mid-century design you just don’t find it elsewhere,” he said.
But enthusiasm for 1960s era design is less intense in Japan, where “Mad Men” doesn’t resonate, than in the West.
And in a city where much downtown real estate is still super high, the commercial imperative is inexorably skyward. The horizontal lines of the 11-story Okura main building, with its “sea cucumber” tiles, are dwarfed by nearby residential and office towers.
Despite the appeal of the building’s lavish furnishings and subtle lighting, it does not meet modern earthquake standards and is struggling to compete with newer luxury hotels, such as the recently opened Andaz, just down the street.
The Okura’s management says a new structure is needed to keep the hotel one of Japan’s best, and to retain its status as a mainstay for diplomacy and business dealing since the building opened in 1962, ahead of the 1964 Games.
Then, it had “state-of-the-art infrastructure, incorporating the most advanced electrical, communications and building technologies available,” the company said in a statement.
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