13 Jul 2018
Hotel Okura Tokyo lives twice with rebuild scheduled for September 2019
BY Luke Cloherty
The iconic Hotel Okura Tokyo, which was demolished in 2015, is set to be rebuilt and will reopen in September 2019 as the Okura Tokyo.
The hotel, which featured in Ian Fleming’s James Bond novel and subsequent movie – starring Sean Connery – You Only Live Twice, has been redesigned by Yoshio Taniguchi – the son of the original Okura architect of the same name – to be more earthquake-proof. The hotel’s safety issue was the reason behind its original closure.
Fleming's novel was first published two years after the hotel’s original opening and saw the British spy stay at the Okura, while the 1973 movie adaptation saw the hotel's lobby star as one of the sets.
Taniguchi is designing the new lobby as an updated version of the one his father created in 1962 for the original hotel.
The new hotel will incorporate fixtures salvaged from the original, but the structure itself will be a complete reimagining as two glass towers, as opposed to the original’s 1960s modernist aesthetic. The famously low-lit Orchid Bar on the fifth floor of the original will be recreated by Taniguchi for the update and again placed on the fifth floor.
"The original lobby designed by my father was extremely popular," Taniguchi said. "So I felt a special responsibility to create distinctive Japanese designs that would similarly inspire guests for years to come."
Meanwhile, Toshihiro Ogita, president of the Hotel Okura chain, added: "It was sad to put our much-adored Hotel Okura Tokyo to rest, but I am fully confident that The Okura Tokyo will be equally loved by our worldwide guests and visitors."
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