Shin-Maru Building (1952-2004) [From hotel planning to office space]

Maru Building and Shin-Maru Building are thought of as twins, separated by Gyoko-dori Street in front of Tokyo Station, but the current buildings don't look alike either. You may wonder why. However, if you look into history, you'll see that they were never thought of as twins in the first place. In this article, we'll look into the design history of the old Shin-Maru Building and get to the bottom of the mystery.

Shin-Maru Building was planned as the "Japan Hotel" around 1918, and in 1930, two uses were considered: a hotel and an office. Seven hotel proposals and five office proposals were created. The hotel proposals included a comb-shaped plan with an opening on the courtyard side, a floor plan with two courtyards like the Maru Building, a twin tower plan for a hotel and offices, and a two-building plan with a department store. A variety of plans were considered, but since all of the proposals had guest rooms densely arranged, it is likely that the matching between the guest rooms was a concern. The office proposals had an arcade on the first floor, and on the upper floors, there were three courtyards, and a comb-shaped plan, all of which were plans for a deep site, and at that time, the floor plans still relied on light from windows. An interior sketch of the office proposal B has also been left, depicting a stately office entrance. Looking at the various plans for the hotel, it can be seen that they were studies on how to arrange as many guest rooms as possible at a time when there were absolute height restrictions. It is likely that planning a hotel would have been difficult given the building's depth and the height restrictions in place at the time, and as demand for office space increased, the idea was abandoned. Starting in 1936, full-scale design began for the building as offices, taking into consideration how it would harmonize with the Marunouchi Building, and construction was scheduled for March 1940, but due to wartime financial controls, construction was halted after only the foundations had been built. The building's prewar name was "Tokyokan," but after the war it became "Shin-Marunouchi Building," and it was completed on January 18, 1952. The name of the building also suggests that the original aim was to create a building different from the Maru Building.