HOTEL REVIEW


T


okyo’s newest hotel opening bears instant comparison with another famous station hotel: The success of Marriott’s St.


Pancras Renaissance looms heavily over this project. The hotel staff and management talk about it in revered terms and it is telling that there’s a large coffee table book on the London hotel in this hotel’s library. The similarities are obvious. Both are formidable brick-buildings forming the long façades of two very busy stations (Tokyo Station is the terminal for most of Japan’s shinkansen high-speed trains, as well as serving underground and regional lines). Both are old buildings – the Tokyo hotel initially opened in 1915 designed by Meiji-era architect Kingo Tatsuno – and both fell into states


of disrepair, in Tokyo’s case due to a 1923 earthquake and the Second World War. It reopened in 1951, but with temporary


roof structures replacing the original domes, which lasted until its closure in 2006. After a six-year renovation to restore it to its original design – including the two North and South cupola domes – the hotel debuted in October 2012, owned and managed by Japan Railways. And similar to St. Pancras, although their architectures are different, they have both been heralded proudly by their cities as successful regeneration projects. It is Tokyo’s newest tourist attraction, which perpetual scores of people taking pictures outside can attest to. London-based Richmond International was charged with the project’s interiors:


070 MARCH / APRIl 2013 WWW.SLEEPERMAGAZINE.COM


ABOVE: A 9-metre atrium located in the roof of the hotel is used as a breakfast room and lounge ATRIUM RIGHT: The living room area of one of the Junior Suites


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