The news last year that the Hotel Okura, one of Tokyo´s “Modernist gems,” was to be demolished was met with widespread disappointment. Built in 1962 under the design direction of Yoshiro Taniguchi, Hideo Kosaka, Shiko Munakata, and Kenkichi Tomimoto, the hotel has long been a significant architectural landmark. With only a week to go until the hotel closes, Monocle were recently granted exclusive access “to capture on film the gracious ways of this much-loved building” on film.
Last year Monocle launched a Save the Okura campaign protesting it’s demolition, garnering over 9000 signatures from around the globe. Monocle’s Editor-in-Chief Tyler Brule printed and presented the petition to every member of Hotel Okura’s board last month, sadly to no avail. He has commented that “given Japan spends so much time and money talking up ‘coolness’, it seems oddly ridiculous that there have been no moves made to preserve something that is the embodiment of ’60s Japanese cool and has had so many close-ups in various pop-culture channels – fashion shoots, movies, architecture journals, and more.”
Find out more about Hotel Okura on Monocle.
