Shinjuku Sumitomo Building

Shinjuku Sumitomo Building
General information
Location	Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan
Coordinates	35°41′29″N 139°41′33″E / 35.691265°N 139.692605°E
Completed	March 6, 1974
Height
Roof	210.3 m (690 ft)
Technical details
Floor count	52

Shinjuku Sumitomo Building (新宿住友ビルディング Shinjuku Sumitomo Birudingu) is a highrise building in the corner of Shinjuku Shintoshin in Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo. It houses the head office of Sumitomo and is a prominent piece of the Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan skyline.

Design

The building's three-sided construction makes good use of available space, yet the building's design sacrifices valuable floor space by including a massive atrium running the entire height of the building. The building's most recognizable characteristic is its shape and structure. It is most simply described as triangular (a more apt description would be a triangle with all the corners cut off), hence why one of its nicknames is 'the Triangle'.^[1] Also distinctive is the visible emergency elevator, which is used to transport cargo and not everyday passengers.

Development

Construction began in November 1971 and was finished on March 6, 1974. At the time of its completion, its elevators were the fastest in the world at 540 meters per minute. It was the tallest building in Tokyo from March to September 1974 when it was surpassed by the Shinjuku Mitsui Building which is located just to the east of the Sumitomo building. It is run by Sumitomo Realty & Development. It is usually called the Shinjuku Sumitomo Building or the Sumitomo Building, but it is also known as Bill and the Triangle. A pioneering skyscraper in Shinjuku, many companies are tenants of the building, including management, which has a restaurant and an observation room that serve as tourist attractions. The observation deck on the 51st floor has free admission and is open from 10:00 to 22:00, all year round (except on the first Sunday of February, fourth Sunday of August, December 31, and January 1, when the building is closed).^[1]

Popular culture

In the 1984 film The Return of Godzilla, the Sumitomo Building was knocked over by Godzilla, crushing and breaking the Super X.^[2] Also, in the Doraemon film Doraemon: Nobita and the Steel Troops (ドラえもん のび太と鉄人兵団 Doraemon: Nobita to Tetsujin Heidan), the building was accidentally destroyed in the World Inside the Mirror by the huge robot Zanda Claus.

See also

References

1. Shinjuku Sumitomo Building Floor Guide (Brochure) (in English, Japanese, and Korean). Shinjuku Sumitomo Building Merchants Association Office. December 2013. Retrieved 25 June 2014.
2. "Sumitomo Building: Godzilla and The Dark Atrium". japan-talk.com. Retrieved 17 January 2015.

External links

• Official web site of the building (in Japanese)
• Shinjuku Sumotomo Triangle Street (in Japanese)