A Highway through a
Building !!!!
Gate
Tower Building is a 16-story office building in,
Osaka, Japan. And
what makes it notable is the highway that passes
through the 5th-7th floors of this building.
The Gate Tower Building is
Japan’s first building to have a highway pass
through it. And
it had been nicknamed "beehive" referring to its
appearance as a "bustling place".
The
expressway is the tenant of these floors. The
elevator doesn't stop on floor 5th-7th, floor 4
being followed by floor 8. These
floors consist of elevators, stairways,
machinery and other stuff.
The highway passes through
the building as a bridge, held up by supports
next to the building, making no contact with the
building itself.
The building
has a double core construction, with a circular
cross section and special care is taken by
providing surrounded structure to the highway to
protect the building from noise and vibration.
Generally expressways are built underground, and
passing through a building is an extremely rare
occasion.
It dates back to 1983,
when the redevelopment of this area was decided
upon, "building permits were refused because the
highway was already being planned to be built
over this land. The property rights' holders
refused to give up, and negotiated with the
Hanshin Expressway Corporation for approximately
5 years to reach the current solution."
