Umeda Sky Building - Osaka, Japan - Odd-Shaped Buildings on Waymarking.com

The building was originally conceived in 1988 as the "City of Air" project, which planned to create four interconnected towers in northern Osaka. Eventually, the Japan economic bubble of the 1980s burst and brought the number of towers down to two.

The 173 m (568 ft) building was designed by Hiroshi Hara. It was constructed by Takenaka Corporation and was completed in 1993.

The building features a rooftop observatory, the Floating Garden Observatory. In the basement, there is a restaurant floor that replicates a town of the early Showa Period, while offices occupy most other floors. At the foot of the towers is an urban garden with walking trails and water features.

The observatory offers great views of the city through its windows and from its open-air deck. Visitors take a glass elevator from the 3rd to the 35th floor, before taking a spectacular glass covered escalator (the highest in the world), 45 meters long and seeming to be suspended in the air.

Our first two photos show two diagonal beam-like structures crossing the wide atrium-shaped space near the top of the two towers. These are the two glass covered escalators that connect the 35th floor of the East Tower to the 36th floor of the West Tower, carrying visitors up and down.

Sources: Wikipedia (visit link) and (visit link)

Building Address: 1-1-87 Oyodonaka, Kita Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan 531-6023 Is it open to the general public?: yes When was it built? (Approximate if you must.): 03/01/1993 What is the name of this building?: Umeda Sky Building

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   08/30/2008 YONEYAMA visited it