I was intrigued and amused to read an article about the Gate Tower Building in Osaka, Japan. It's a 16-story office building with an expressway off-ramp driven clear through it! The Sun reports:
The fifth, sixth and seventh floors of the building are taken up by the Umeda Exit of the Ikeda Route of the Hanshin Expressway system.
The highway is the tenant of the floors and actually pays rent.Gate Tower Building, Osaka, Japan (image courtesy of Wikipedia)
The lifts in the building pass through the floors without stopping, floor 4 being followed by floor 8.
The motorway does not make contact with the building and it passes through as a bridge, held up by supports next to the building.
There's more at the link. Here's what it looks like to drive through the building.
I have to admit, it's a neat way to make use of the space available for road transport . . . but the thought of a road paying rent to a building is a bit mind-boggling!
Peter
It's ALL about space utilization over there... triangular buildings, odd sized buildings, buildings built OVER things etc...
ReplyDeleteSo how would you go about evicting the road if it falls behind on the rent? ;-)
ReplyDeleteThe ramp from west bound Maine Ave. to south bound 14th St. in Washington, D.C. runs though a building. Printing and Engraving Bldg. I believe. Don't know if they get rent.
ReplyDeleteConversely, several buildings in Chicago (and elsewhere I'm sure) pay "air rights" rent to both railroads and road owners for buildings over their land.
What a great idea.
ReplyDelete