Kabuki-za theater to be renovated into high-rise building

Thursday 29th January, 04:36 AM JST

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8 Comments

Scrote at 09:09 AM JST - 29th January

A nice old building will be transformed into yet another featureless, rectilinear office building. Shame.
shouganaika at 09:12 AM JST - 29th January

I hope they paint it in red and white horizontal stripes
Patrick Smash at 10:01 AM JST - 29th January

Kabukiza does stick out like a sore thumb. It is probably the only attractive building in that part of Tokyo, and culture, sophistication and heritage have no place in modern Japan.
oreoreda at 10:16 AM JST - 29th January

It's an historic and charming building and I've seen the kabuki there many times. The facilities are no worse than the modern "Kokusai Forum" in Yurakucho (an ugly venue with poor design inside) and certainly not as bad as the developers are trying to make out. Still, the construction industry will be happy, eh.
dennis0bauer at 03:32 PM JST - 29th January

Japan has a fine "tradition" to throw out tradition when it comes to landmarks and landscapes.
cjapan at 04:21 PM JST - 29th January

Umm renovated don't them mean torn down? Also got to agree with Oreoreda, looks like they got to line the pockets of the concrete company's amakudari friends.
PepinGalarga at 07:16 PM JST - 29th January

where will the new venue be? in Toyosu next to the Fish Market?

Anyway, this building is caught somewhere in between the ancient pre-war buildings of which pracically few remain, and the ultramodern sterile structures. Lots of money to be made here.

Barrier free IS an important point though. In Japan, access for the disabled is extremely limited. You basically have to throw disabled people in parachutes and expect them to land exactly where they need to be. there's no way to wheel them around.
bampaku at 12:04 AM JST - 30th January

Really hard to see the upside of this. I can only hope the new building features a street-level facade of the old one, or at the very least an architectural homage of some kind.
I can't believe even Japan would replace something so culturally important with a run-of-the-mill office tower.