Driving Through Buildings

Thursday, 5th June 2008 by

In Japan's "second city" of Osaka, space for offices is severely limited. So limited that the 16 story 'Gate Tower Building' had to lose the 5th, 6th and 7th floors to a raised highway!

The story goes that back in 1989 the office block was to be rebuilt, but the space was also needed for an off-ramp of the highway.

So after a few years of back and forth negotiation a compromise was reached: the building was rebuilt and the Hanshin Expressway Company took out a lease on 3 office floors to redecorate them in an unconventional way - they put in a road.

There's some good ground level pictures (and more info if you can read Japanese) on the Japanese Wikipedia page.

Thanks to Paul Watabe.