Tokyo Skytree, World's Tallest Tower, Opens to the Public
Tokyo Skytree, the world's tallest tower, opened to visitors today and it was expected to draw tens of thousands of people the first day.
The building, which is owned by the Tobu Railway Company, cost $1.8 billion and will not only be a transmission tower, but it will also include over 300 shops as well as an aquarium and planetarium.
"There are so many stores in one place, and it's easy to shop," Miho Yabe, a 24-year-old fitness-club employee, told Bloomberg.com. "I'll come back again when it's not as crowded."
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The Skytree is the tallest tower in the world, reaching 2,080 feet into the sky, but it is not the tallest building. That distinction goes to Dubai's Burj Khalifa, which stands 2,717 feet. The distinction is between the amount of livable or usable space a building has.
Anything less than 50 percent is considered a tower and any structure that uses more than 50 percent of the usable floor space is considered a building, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.
The Skytree was incorporated with a unique "vibration-controlling" technology which is designed to be able to withstand earthquakes, which are common to the region.
The tower was constructed with steel tubes encompassing a central concrete column which are structurally separate from one another throughout the tower's interior.
The concrete columns and the steel tubing were designed to offset each other in order to minimize the tower's motion in the event of an earthquake.
Designers of the Skytree state that the tower was built to withstand a magnitude 7.0 earthquake in the event the quake struck directly under the tower, according Sho Toyoshima, spokesman for Tobu Tower Co.
The Skytree is expected to enhance both television and radio transmissions in and around the capital and its owners also hope that it will encourage tourism in the Tokyo region.
"We particularly want tourists from abroad to be able to take time to enjoy the Skytree. We encourage them to stay in the vicinity of the Skytree and enjoy it over the course of two days, say, instead of just one," Toyoshima said.
