Akasaka Prince to come a-tumblin' down

[Bucky]

[Mulboyne]

The architect for the Akasaka Prince was the late Kenzo Tange, who also designed the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. Given his renown, there will likely be a few people upset to see one of his buildings go.

[Kuang_Grade]

I stayed there once about 8 or 9 years ago and I wasn't impressed....The room I had was quite large but not in functional way (there was probably a 3.5x5 meter empty space in the middle of the room) and I thought it odd that they had gone to the trouble to put a sticker on the sink tap saying the water was safe to drink. The room looked pretty well worn and dated...and I thought it odd that it seemed that there were only gaijin on the floor, judging by the people I saw and the all the newspapers I saw outside the rooms were in English. They also had an odd 'eco bonus' or something along those lines where they gave you a discount if you didn't want your sheets and towels replaced every day...nothing new in that, but this was the first and only place I've been at that also extended that to not picking up trash as well.

[Behan]

The Makuhari Prince changed its name some years back. I did a quick internet search and couldn't find the reason. Maybe the Prince chain sold it.

[dimwit]

Sheesh, I recall when the tower was opened in about 1982. They just don't build stuff to last.

Built in '82 so it comes in at the tail end of the lousy design period of Japanese architecture. We have a Tange eyesore in our city too, the prefectural concert hall, and it is one big piece of ugly with lots of wasted empty space and poor design.

[Coligny]

[Bucky]

I don't usually do math... But something tells me that 1982 + 55 don't equal 2010...

The tower was built in the early '80's the hotel dates back farther back I think.