Is Marunouchi Building "Marunouchi Birudingu" or "Marunouchi Building"? The answer today is of course "Marunouchi Building." Before rebuilding, however, "Birudingu" was correct. Palaceside has been "Building" since birth.
As imported-word notation, neither is right or wrong in itself — it is what associations the sound carries. In the Marunouchi and Otemachi area over the past decade, ten "Birudingu" signs have disappeared and ten "Building" signs appeared — suggesting "Birudingu" feels retro.
Building owners and managers belong to "Birukyo," short for the Japan Building Association and Tokyo Building Association — naming that conveys the industry's long history, with no move to change it.
The "Dai-Nagoya Birudingu" sign visible to the right just after the Tokaido Shinkansen passes Nagoya Station recently vanished. Mitsubishi Estate is demolishing the tower for a 34-story replacement due in 2015 — its first regional project after the 1959 Ise Bay Typhoon, completed in 1965. With fifth-year Midland Square (Mainichi Building Co. and Towa Real Estate), it was the old and new face of Nagoya Station.
Given recent Marunouchi examples, rebuilds might have switched to "Building," but Nagoya citizens and Chubu business circles insisted on keeping "Birudingu" — a symbolic name for regional revitalization and national familiarity from Shinkansen windows.