Tokyo Tower is located in Shiba Park, Minato–ku, Tokyo, completed in 1958 and standing 332.6m high it is the tallest man manmade structure in Japan. Whereas the Eiffel Tower in Paris acts as a central landmark, the Tokyo Tower is not quite as successful, despite being an almost exact copy.
The Eiffel Tower’s strength as a piece of iconic architecture is underpinned by the ability to stand directly underneath the tower in a grand statement to public place. Tokyo Tower, on the other hand, has built directly under the Tower to provide entertainment facilities and shopping, this greatly distracts from the Tower’s structure and thus the impact compared to the Eiffel.
View the quicktime panorama of Tokyo Tower (2Mb) – Note the shopping complex underneath the towers expanse. Its not to say we dident like it – it is a fantastic structure – its just that the pressures on landuse have taken away the chance to walk under the tower and thus have taken away the power of its architecture.