#167 l Sunshine 60 Building l TOKYO l 240m l 60fl

[RafflesCity]

Sunshine 60 Building
Tokyo, Japan

HEIGHT: 240m/787 feet
FLOORS: 60 floors
COMPLETION: 1978
ARCHITECT: Mitsubishi Estate Co.

Sunshine 60, formerly known as the Ikebukuro Tower, is one structure in a much larger complex. The tower was the tallest building in Japan at the time of its completion in 1978, as part of a massive, unprecedented urban redevelopment program.

The entire redevelopment complex is virtually a "city within a city." Commercial spaces, apartments, cultural facilities, and urban public spaces (including parks and gardens), surround Sunshine 60.

The complex is located conveniently near a public transit system and major highways. A three-story, skylit retail mall and a park are adjacent to the tower. The rest of the complex consists of a 36-story hotel, 11-story department store, and 12-story bus terminal and cultural facility.

Building heights were restricted to 31m until 1963, when the Japanese Building Standard Law was changed to allow buildings to go higher. Special approval was also given by the Ministry of Construction for earthquake-resistant design of tall buildings using dynamic analysis for checking earthquake response on strength and deformation.

As a result of advances in earthquake-resistant design, the Kasumigaseki Building, known as the first Japanese high-rise, was built in 1968, standing 147m and 36 stories tall. Many others followed, and ten years later, Sunshine 60 was completed.

Sunshine's foundation is of reinforced concrete. The lower segment of the tower is also reinforced concrete, with a steel skeleton. The upper tower is a steel skeleton with "slitted shear walls." These unique slitted walls were inserted between columns in the core, allowing the walls to conform to deformations in the steel frame caused by earthquake and wind shear. This helps assure structural integrity.

A rigid framing structural system creates the frame. The typical story height is 3.7m. Mechanical equipment is located directly above the core of the structure on the rooftop.

Offices occupy floors 10-57. On the lower floors workers have access to a post office, banks, showrooms, cafeterias, a health care center, and a day care center. Restaurants featuring panoramic views are located on the 58th and 59th floors.

From the observation deck located on the 60th floor, visitors can see as far as 100km on a clear day. In order to get to the observation area quickly, one of the tower's 40 elevators takes passengers directly from the lobby at a speed of 600 meters per second. The entire trip takes only 35 seconds to reach the 60th floor.

[Vesle]

Well, I actually like the Sunshine 60 quite a lot. Ok, it's located outside of the CBD, and it isn't the sot of building you fall in love with, however, it has a nice boxy design imo, and no matter how many box-skyscrapers we'll ever get, a box-skyscraper still maintains its somehow original lokk imo. I mean, if anyone copied Sears Tower, the architect was a fake, but although Manhattan (for instance) alone has more box-skyscrapers than you will ever be able to emagine, it's still like something new seing box-skyscrapers u/c. Many box-skyscrapers are actually also very famous! Just to take a few examples from NY: The United Nations NY, Seagram Building, Lever House and World Trump Tower. These boxy buildings are still very different though. Box-skyscrapers can be both slender and vertical (like World Trump Tower), or fat (like The United Nations). Some of them are square seen from above (like Cheung Kong Centre in Hong Kong). Others are very wide on one side, while they are super slender on the other side.

The Sunshine 60 makes a nice massive profile in Tokyo's (unfortunitely way too spread out skyline), and the smaller building also fits well inn in addition to make a small skyline out of the two of them.

Not very inventive, but very functional, and somehow actually good looking. I'll rate it 8/10.

Boxes can sometimes look good, but this one doesn't.

6/10

[SteelCity32]

Box. I don't care for it. But it's ok. 6/10

[Ersh]

A concrete box...5/10

[Caledon1981]

hmmm. . . not bad for its age but not good now .. .5/10

[AG]

Too plain and doesn't really stand out.

4/10

[DamienK]

That's odd, this building was listed as 226 m high in the book 100 of the world's tallest buildings, and other sources too. Suddenly it's bumped up to 240 m? I thought maybe the antennae were included for some reason. . . anyway it's nothing special 6/10

[ryanr]

It looks shorter than it actually is...
4.5, it's a box....

[SUNNI]

8, i like the name of it

[BoresvilleMcYawn]

I think the name is quite horrendous actually....
I give it a 4.5/10
neways.....where is the four seasons in Miami,its already completed at 794ft...

[RafflesCity]

6.5/10

Nothing special about it.

4/10 A box i dont like, looks kinda cheap

The very picture of mediocrity
4

[DrumCorpsAlum]

6/10. A b... b... box.

yuk

5.5/10

[Jeff from Winnipeg]

Looks like alot of other buildings built in the 70's -> 5/10... and that's only because it's got some height.

[TYW]

5.5/10

not nice

[Liz L]

4.5/10 - a concrete box with nothing original or distinctive about it
It has some height, but that's it *YAWN*

[giallo]

Shite. 3.0