Strange buildings are sometimes brought about by unusual stories.
In this case, the Gate Tower Building in Osaka was an odd compromise
between a local business that wanted to put up an office tower on their
land and the Hanshin company who had planned to build a highway running
through that exact same spot. Naturally, neither party gave in to the
other, and so negotiations took place. After five years they finally
reached an agreement: the highway would run right through the building.
Both the building and the highway were built simultaneously. In order
that the highway could pass through the building, the fifth, sixth, and
seventh floors were set aside for a tunnel to pass through. This tunnel
was specially designed to muffle noise and vibrations and does not come
in contact with the building itself.
When the 16-storey Gate Tower Building opened in 1992, workers on the
fourth and eighth floors were surprised to hardly notice the traffic
occurring just a few feet overhead and underneath. For a building
erected in the 1980′s, the Gate Tower Building displays Japan’s
unmatched talent in engineering coupled with its signature touch of
oddity
