Omotesando Hills

This guide to Omotesando Hills in Tokyo follows the ground from the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake through the 1927 Dojunkai Aoyama Apartments, Japan's first cooperative housing, to their demolition and Tadao Ando's 2006 replacement. It covers the backlash the new building drew as a betrayal of history, and the compromises Ando made to keep it low against the avenue's trees, including a long interior ramp that copies the street's own slope. Listen for how the escalators trace that grade as you move through the building.