Highway Goes Through a Building in Japan | Gate Tower Building

Smack dab right in the middle of Osaka, Japan the the Ikeda Route of the Hanshin Expressway diverts off onto the Umeda Exit which passes right through the Gate Tower Building. Spanning from the 5th to 7th floor of the tower, the highway oddly enough is the tenant of those 3 floors that has to pay rent just like anyone else.

The history of this building dates back to the Meiji period, around 1868 to 1912 when a wood and charcoal business held the property rights for this plot of land. In 1983 redevelopment of the area was approved but the building permits were refused because the highway was already planned. Owners of the land refused to give up the land to a highway so they negotiated over it for 5 years. In 1989 city planning laws were loosened to allow the unified development of highways and buildings in the same space. These laws were originally designed to facilitate the construction of the second Ring Rond in Tokyo but in the end wasn’t applied there. The Gate Tower Building put this system into full effect becoming Japan’s first building to have a highway pass right through it.

The Gate Tower Building is a 16 floor building that has double core construction with a circular cross section. The highway has a structure around it that helps prevent noise and vibration going into the building. This structure along with the highway doesn’t actually touch the building and floats through it. This was achieved by building it as if it were a bridge, having supports on either side of the building. To top things off, no pun intended there is a helipad on the roof of the gate tower building.

Watching cars drive through, looks bizarre every time. Do you think it would be cool to have an office right above the highway or would the passing cars be too distracting let us know in the comments down below.

Driving Footage:
Only in Japan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5gRAMFdO_Y

Images:
Kimon Berlin
https://www.flickr.com/photos/81943113@N00/8982737358/in/photolist-eFLSS3-7RocfK

Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gate_Tower_Building

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Intro music thanks to Machinmasound:
Rallying the Defense:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruPk4RD19Nw

#japan #construction #building