One hundred forty-three freshmen in architecture and civil engineering at Tokyo Institute of Technology visited Palaceside Building on April 8, touring the building for an hour and a half each and listening closely to staff.
The visit answered a request from Associate Professor Ryo Murata of Tokyo Tech; it was the second, after 2014. On February 13 about 80 students and alumni of Nihon University’s architectural history and theory laboratory also came. Something of a “mecca” for architecture people in Tokyo,
(a little self-flattery, but…)
The Tokyo Tech students came in three chartered buses, just under 50 each, so at times and places it felt like rush hour. The plan was three groups rotating among three sites including Meguro Sky Garden (atop the Shutoko Ohashi Junction) and Palaceside Building, but traffic meant two groups arrived at nearly the same time — extra crowding.
Palaceside Building is the celebrated work the late architect Shoji Hayashi designed as chief architect at Nikken Sekkei around age 35. It has won many prizes and is well known to architecture students. So seeing the work of Hayashi, a great senior from Tokyo Tech’s architecture department, first thing after enrollment, the students were keenly interested.
They walked the usual course: rain leaders and eaves on the front facade (photo at upper right), the Dream Stairs in the atrium between B1 and the first
floor (photo at lower right), the brick shaft holding the escape stairs, the white round core (elevator tower), the large west-entrance canopy called the “umbrella,” and the view of the Imperial Palace and central towers from the roof. One group climbed a stepladder and poked their heads into a work window in a corridor ceiling — youthful curiosity.
“This stair is seriously yabee” was a Dream Stairs comment. That phrasing I cannot quite keep up with.
“When a subordinate says ‘the section chief is yabai,’ it is a compliment”
(selected work, 29th Dai-ichi Life “Salaryman Senryu Contest”)
Anyway, a good way to start student life.