Standing along Tokyo's Omote-sando Dori leading up to Meiji Shrine, the glassy, glittering, five-story Hanae Mori Building has been a landmark in the swanky Aoyama shopping district for 30 years.
But now the building, designed by famed architect Kenzo Tange, who died in 2005, is facing demolition. Obayashi Real Estate Corp., owner of the structure, plans to raze it and redevelop the site.
Tenants and architects oppose the plan. The building, they argue, is an example of 1970s Japanese modernist architecture and it houses one of the largest antiques malls in the country.