Sumida / New Tokyo Tower
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Intended to be complete in 2011, this 2,000 ft tower will be the largest free-standing antenna in the world, and will utterly dwarf the rest of the tokyo skyline. In a landmark arrangement, it will push out all of the digital audio and television signals for Tokyo, replacing entirely the current analog signals which are being blocked by new construction.
What I find most fascinating about the structure is The changing shape of the cross-section as you follow it up, from a triangle-shape to a circular cross-section. I wish I understood how this sort of shape would behave in wind and earthquake, compared to either fully rounded or traditional square shapes. Well, I can guess when it comes to wind, it’s really the stability I’m interested in.
This is a pretty interesting development to me. The original Tokyo tower was generally disliked by the Japanese public; the primary reasons attributed were the cost and the fact that it obscured the skyline. This public dislike is the reason it was so often mauled in Godzilla/monster movies (and possibly others).
The fact that now the original Tokyo Tower is obscured enough to warrant a new tower, for the purposes of broadcasting, speaks to the “upward” progression of cities, does it not? And I wonder how the Tokyo public will react now and once it is finished…
Everything I’ve read so far points to this being a big giant penis of technological might and sophistication (if one can use penis and sophistication in the same sentence) – I think in today’s world, not only are people more accepting of such things (particularly in technophile tokyo), but that modern marketing will make it much easier to convince people that having it in their city reflects well on them, personally.