SOM

Master Architect

Midtown Tower, Midtown East, Midtown West Design

Established in Chicago in 1936, SOM is one of the largest and most influential architecture, interior design, engineering, and urban planning firms in the world. Landmark projects include the One World Trade Center and the Time Warner Center in New York City, and the Canary Wharf in London. For Tokyo Midtown, SOM architects were particularly fastidious about creating a complex that embodies the Japanese-style sense of harmony

Nikken Sekkei Ltd

Since its foundation in 1900, Nikken Sekkei has undertaken more than 20,000 projects, continuing to excel as a team of experts who have set the benchmark for social environment design in Japan. With the focus on design, supervision, and urban planning, this is a total design office devoted to research, planning, and consulting operations across the full life cycles of buildings and cities alike. Nikken Sekkei Ltd. is a company that continues to pursue the development of cutting-edge technology, and through all stages of a project mobilizes integrated responses.

Tadao Ando Associates

21_21 DESIGN SIGHT

Osaka-native Tadao Ando founded Tadao Ando and Associates in 1969. Ando’s leading works include Church of Light in Ibaraki and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. The 1995 Pritzker Prize winner was decorated for distinguished services in culture in 2003, earned the Gold Medal from the Union of International Architects (UIA) in 2005 and has been presented with numerous other awards and distinctions. For 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT, Ando worked to create a space promoting the sharing of culture through the potentiality of design.

Kengo Kuma and Associates

Gardenside Wing: Suntory Museum of Art and Commercial Wing

Yokohama native Kengo Kuma founded Kengo Kuma and Associates after graduating from the University of Tokyo Faculty of Engineering and completing a visiting research fellowship at Columbia University (New York). Major creations include Water/Glass (winner of the Benedictus Award of the American Institute of Architects), Bamboo Wall House in China, Besançon Art Center in France and the New National Stadium, Tokyo, which was built for the 2020 Summer Olympics. With the Suntory Museum of Art, Kuma’s aim was to create a space instilled with innate human warmth. With the Gardenside commercial wing, the theme was a seamless fusion with nature.

Sakakura Associates

Gardenside Residential Wing: Interior Design and Gate Design for Underground Passageway Takenosuke Sakakura, current representative director and chairman of Sakakura Associates, joined the company (founded by Junzo Sakakura) after graduating from the Nihon University College of Science and Technology (Department of Architecture). He was appointed president and CEO in 2002. Major projects include Kanagawa Prefecture Museum of Modern Art
(honored with Kanagawa Prefecture Prize for Architecture) and Salesian School Don Bosco Memorial Church (recipient of Japan Art Academy Prize and other honors). For the Gardenside passageway interior design and gate, Sakakura Associates’ goal was to realize a residential environment that, while sandwiched between commercial zones facing out onto the park and town, would preserve privacy, be composed and dignified in appearance, and bask in verdant green surroundings.

AECOM

Landscape Design

AECOM is an American multinational engineering firm that provides planning, design, engineering and project management services for infrastructure, urban development, and environmental projects of all scales worldwide. AECOM’s landscape architects design influential urban regeneration and ecological restoration schemes. Recent projects include Fukuoka’s Canal City Hakata and the Millennium Park in China’s Suzhou Province. At Tokyo Midtown, the goal of AECOM designers was to stress the beautiful continuity between the scenery and space, creating a space where visitors will relish the maximum pleasure of strolling through the park or moving free of restraints between buildings.

Communication Arts, Inc.

Galleria Design (Commercial Space)

Launched in Colorado in 1973, Communication Arts, Inc., whose major works included JFK International Air Terminal and Madison Square Garden in New York and Bugis Junction in Singapore. At Tokyo Midtown, designers drew from traditional Japanese architecture to design a “corridor linking city and greenery.”

Frank Nicholson, Inc.

The Ritz-Carlton, Tokyo Park Residences Interior Design

Frank Nicholson, Inc., a charter member of the Interior Design Hall of Fame since 1987, specializes in award-winning design for hotels, resorts, spas, country clubs, and luxury residences, providing the design for many Ritz-Carlton Hotels throughout the world. For the park residences at The Ritz-Carlton, Tokyo, the ultimate goal throughout the project was to conceive space steeped in an atmosphere of deep and all-encompassing warmth.