The Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Gofuku Bridge Building is located on the southeast corner of the Gofuku Bridge intersection facing Sotobori-dori St. and Eitai-dori St. A monument entitled "Connecting Time" is set up in front of it (pictured). This is part of the main building of the former Nippon Mutual Bank, a representative work designed by architect Kunio Maekawa, and conveys pioneering techniques such as Japan's first steel-framed all-welding method.
Kunio Maekawa (1905)-1986 (1986) was born in Niigata City, and after graduating from Tokyo Imperial University, joined the Le Corbusier office in Paris. He has served as chairman of the Japan Architects Association. Major works include Tokyo cultural center, Tokio Marine & Fire Insurance Building Main Building, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, etc. He also studied under Antonin Raymond and led the postwar modern architectural world. The Tokyo cultural center in Ueno, along with the National Museum of Western Art designed by Le Corbusier, is known as a teacher-student confrontation building.
The former Nippon Mutual Bank head office building, which won the Architectural Institute of Japan Award for Works, was built in 1952. In order to reduce weight, the second floor was made of steel-frame reinforced concrete, the third to ninth floors were all welding methods, and the custom-made aluminum sash and lightweight concrete panels, which were expensive at the time, were used for the outer wall. It was the first time in Japan.
Shortly after the war, it was noted that it was an innovative building that challenged the introduction of new technologies such as curtain walls and thorough industrialization. gallery space, a historical material that conveys the historical value of the old building, is located on the first floor of the current building. The old building was dismantled in 2008 (2008) and rebuilt into the current building. @ Akira Makibuchi
