Japan Marketing News

More cool Tokyo architecture

Here's another example of the many cool buildings that have been going up around Tokyo. This one, recently unveiled, houses one of Japan's oldest international supermarkets, Kinokuniya, in the basement. Upper floors are expected to be occupied by international fashion brand retailers and various offices.

The exterior of the structure glows with little flares of light that appear and dissolve at various intervals. If I'm not mistaken, the colors change from day to day (the photo shows green, but I think the building was pinkish last week). The building itself has been called AO, to incorporate two meanings. First, there's a reference to the location: the building is found in the Ao-yama area of Tokyo. Second, the name is meant to beckon consumers. In, Japanese, ao also means "let's get together."

Click the picture for a larger view. To see what it looks like during the day, go here to see the building as it neared completion.

Audi Japan opens sleek new showroom

About two years ago Audi Japan opened its first showroom in a spectacular glass structure, known as the Audi Forum (left), located just 2 minute's walk from Meiji Jingumae subway station in the Harajuku area of Tokyo. The Forum is not only pleasing to look at, it caused a bit of a stir, since auto dealers in Japan are not usually found in such beautiful buildings (click for enlarged view).

While all of Audi's showrooms are not quite so enticing, last week they opened another attractive location in the Toyosu area of Tokyo, which adjoins Tokyo Bay (below). It's hardly comparable to the Forum, but believe me, it's a lot better than the typical dealership in this town.

In Tokyo, every new tasteful building is welcome indeed; for a long time Japan lagged behind other countries in terms of delivering exciting, tasteful, modern and practical architecture for both commercial and residential uses. Thankfully, the latest generation of builders "gets it," and slowly but surely Japan's architectural landscape is improving. Tokyo has been blessed with some pretty spectacular buildings in the past few years (I'll show you a new addition to the Aoyama area next week), and it's been great to see local hotels revamping and modernizing like crazy too.

8 days. . .

Construction of H&M's Harajuku store in Tokyo is nearly complete. I have lived and worked within spitting distance of this location for over 15 years. As a resident, I'm dreading the mob scene that will accompany the opening eight days from now. As a marketing pro, I'm looking forward to it.

The mega-posters are advertising the H&M / Commes des Garçons collaboration products that will apparently be available when the shop opens.

Bulgari: New jewel to grace Omotesando

In case you've been wondering what they've been building on Omotesando next to DIOR over in Harajuku, the architect's designs were finally released a few days ago. It's a cool new structure called GYRE that's going to house a two-story Bulgari shop, an outdoor café, and several other high-end brands. Not only does this building further raise the bar on great architecture in the Harajuku area, given the dearth of good cafés on Omotesando in recent years, that outdoor café will be very welcome indeed.

Tokyo is ever building and rebuilding and it's mind-boggling how many changes that particular location has seen in the last 20 years. For a very long time, it was home to Vivre 21, a fashion complex with several trendy apparel shops. A few years ago, it was gutted, renamed Esquisse and repopulated with a number of luxury brands including Chanel, Gucci, Alexander McQueen, Yves Saint Laurent and Theory.

More important to many, however, were the many changes that occured on the first floor. In the late 80's, it was a hotspot café that was home away from home for many of Tokyo's most beautiful models (those were the days). In the mid 90's, it became the Haagen Daz Café, and a few years later, Per Bacco!, an authentic Italian café, moved in to the cheers of many (who had tired of the myriad French cafés* that had sprouted up in the neighborhood by then). But the joy was short-lived because after the Equisse remodeling the spot was taken over by CHANEL. A second-floor café was opened in consolation, but it paled in comparison to its predecessors.

For residents of the neighborhood (like me), GYRE has sparked a bit of hope. Both the architectural drawings and the list of tenants inspire expectations of a tasteful, high-quality facility. But quite a few of us have our fingers crossed that the café delivers as well.

GYRE opens in November of this year.

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* Sadly, almost all of Harajuku's authentic French cafés have also closed.

Café des Pres Omotesando: replaced by the Anniversaire building and the much inferior Anniversaire Café
Café des Flore: replaced by the TODS building
Café des Pres Meiji Doori: torn down and replaced by a retail complex
Aux Baccanales Café: torn down along with the huge Palais France building. An enormous new structure is being built on the site, but it's not clear whether the café will return.

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