Nidec Kyoto Tower
Slender steel observation tower shaped like a candle flame, rising above the tiled rooftops of an ancient city.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Nidec Kyoto Tower follows the 1964 construction of Kyoto's tallest structure, raised on the site of the city's old central post office right across from the station, despite fury from scholars and preservationists guarding a skyline of low tiled roofs and centuries-old pagodas. It traces architect Mamoru Yamada's defense of the design as a giant candle, engineer Makoto Tanahashi's work to make it withstand earthquakes and typhoons, and writer Alex Kerr's later, blunter verdict on what the tower did to the city. Ride the elevator up before you decide who was right.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Kyoto Station Building
Fifteen-storey glass-and-steel terminal shaped like a man-made valley, with a light-strewn grand staircase to a rooftop garden.
The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
Granite-and-glass modern art museum whose height was capped by a shrine gate next door.
Shōseien Garden
Pond garden rebuilt after two nineteenth-century fires, now framed by a modern tower on the skyline.