One Omotesando

Abstract

This multistory structure, located at the beginning of Omotesando—often called the most beautiful avenue in Tokyo—is the main office building of the French fashion group Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy. A picturesque boulevard lined on both sides with huge zelkova trees, Omotesando leads to Meiji Shrine, the largest Shinto shrine in Tokyo. With his design Kuma intended to echo the trees that line the avenue in the building. In conjunction with a curtain wall, he created a system of 17.7-inch-deep (45 cm) mullions made of laminated larch wood, echoing the trees in the material as well as in the vertical lines of the mullions.