A rendering of the twin towers in Nakanoshima

The Nakanoshima district is in central Osaka. The Osaka City Hall and the Osaka International Convention Center are also in Nakanoshima and the area teems with office buildings. For the past few years, the district has been undergoing a major construction boom, with a string of tall buildings being built. Further change is afoot with the Keihan Electric Rail’s Nakanoshima Line slated for opening by the spring of 2009. The Asahi Shimbun thus decided to keep pace with the overall redevelopment now taking place.

The three buildings to be reconstructed are The Osaka Asahi Building that was built in 1931 and The Asahi Shimbun Building that was built in 1968 ago both on the west side of Yotsubashi-suji avenue, and the Shin-Asahi Building that was built in 1958 that stands on the east side.

The Shin-Asahi Building that houses the Festival Hall will be demolished during fiscal 2009. A new building is slated for completion in fiscal 2013.

The new building will house the new Festival Hall in its lower floors and The Asahi Shimbun Osaka Head Office in its middle level floors. Details such as total floor space and the height of the building will be decided through discussions with the Osaka city government and other relevant bodies, and be finalized following review by the city’s urban development council. According to project plans, a soaring pair of towers, which will be among the tallest in Osaka’s downtown area, will emerge in Nakanoshima.

The two buildings on the west side of the Yotsubashi-suji avenue will be reborn as a multi-story office building by the late 2010s. The printing factory that is currently tucked inside The Asahi Shimbun Building will be relocated to a new factory to be built at a new site, together with all printing functions. With the commencement of the reconstruction project, the Festival Hall will be temporarily closed during 2008. A new Festival Hall with the same 2,700 seating capacity, revamped with state-of-the-art acoustics and stage facilities, will be reopened in the new building on the east side.

The Festival Hall was opened in 1958. The hall is world-renowned for its superior acoustics and has served as the venue for The Osaka International Festival sponsored by The Asahi Shimbun Foundation, the Osaka International Festival Society and The Asahi Shimbun. Conductor Herbert von Karajan, who once conducted at the Festival Hall, was immensely impressed by the facility. We will endeavor to recreate the superior acoustic quality in the new Festival Hall. In the spring of 2008, a commemorative 50th Osaka International Festival will take place. Whether the festival will be held during the time of reconstruction has not yet been decided.

The twin skyscraper buildings will incorporate a design that makes the most of the scenic waterfront, while incorporating the latest disaster prevention and quake resistant engineering techniques. The buildings will also serve as the disaster prevention base for the region. The underground arcade that connects the new Watanabebashi Station to be opened on the Keihan Nakanoshima Line and the Higobashi Station on the Osaka City Subway will be revamped to create additional “pizzazz” for the area.