The demolition of the No. 2 Jingu Baseball Stadium has begun, and the large-scale redevelopment of the Meiji Jingu Gaien area, which took 13 years, began in earnest on the 22nd.
On the 22nd, in the Meiji Jingu Gaien area of Tokyo, the demolition of the Jingu No. The Gaien area has been protected as a scenic area in central Tokyo for almost 100 years, but with the Tokyo Olympics as an opportunity, the Tokyo metropolitan government relaxed its building regulations. With this redevelopment, even more skyscrapers will be installed, and the historic landscape will change significantly. (Tomoyuki Morimoto)
◆ 743 trees were cut down Construction of 190 meter office buildings, etc.
There are four redevelopment companies, including Mitsui Fudosan and Meiji Jingu. With the aim of turning the Gaien area into a world-class sports cluster, the dilapidated Jingu Stadium and Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium sites will be replaced and rebuilt. At that time, a number of tall buildings such as 190 meter and 185 meter office buildings will also be built. Completed in 2036.
In the process of administrative procedures for starting redevelopment, Professor Mikiko Ishikawa of Chuo University’s Research and Development Institute noted that nearly 1,000 trees could be cut, and a large number of trees fell to the surface. The operator has reduced its felling forecast by 20% from the original 892 trees, but is now 743 trees.
Concerns remain that the growth of the ginkgo trees, the symbol of the Gaien, will be hindered, and the Tokyo Environmental Impact Assessment Council’s debate over the impact of the redevelopment on the natural environment has been long. The start of the project was later than originally planned.
Residents of the area filed a lawsuit against the metropolitan government in February, demanding that the redevelopment approval be revoked. More than 122,000 people have signed an online petition to review the redevelopment.
◆ The Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which is supposed to protect the “scenic beauty”, relaxed the “15 meters high” regulation on the occasion of the Olympic Games.
Demolition has begun, the second Meiji Jingu Stadium surrounded by fences
The redevelopment of the Meiji Jingu Gaien area began in 2013, when Tokyo was chosen as the host city for the Olympic Games.
In the Gaien area, buildings taller than 15 meters were restricted by the city’s scenic area ordinance, but this year the Tokyo Metropolitan Government suddenly relaxed the height to 75 meters in order to rebuild the National Stadium as the main venue for the Olympic Games. Although the capital was in a position to protect the scenic beauty, the ban lifted itself.
Benefiting from this deregulation, skyscrapers and hotels housing the Japan Olympic Committee (JOC) and the Japan Sports Association were built before the Tokyo Olympics. The Toei Kasumigaoka Apartments were demolished in a series of redevelopment projects, and there was a movement against them.
Meiji Jingu No. 2 Stadium, where full-scale demolition work has begun, seen from the headquarters helicopter “Otsuru”
In 2010, the building restrictions on height and use were further relaxed. The redevelopment, which will take place after the Olympics, is in the second phase. Including the first phase, 10 buildings were made possible through deregulation.
The National Stadium was criticized by Zaha Hadid for being too huge, but it was withdrawn due to rising construction costs, the height was reduced to 47 metres, saying it was the most specific. However, all nine buildings except the National Stadium are taller than that height.
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