As, much as it pains me that this will be taller than our cN tower in Canada, this tower is still better, great design idea, and good for Tokyo!!!

Because it's a com tower.

Where is this building relative to Downtown?

It really depends what your definition of "downtown" is. If you are talking about Shinjuku (where most of the tallest buildings in Tokyo are), then it's only about 7ish miles away.

...but it definitely looks like it's well outside of the area where skyscrapers might approach its height. It's going to be a very stand-alone structure. Is that correct?

Oh, definitely. I don't know what the tallest building in Sumida is (the ward Tokyo Sky Tree is being built in), but I do know that there is nothing over 180m tall there. And this is going to be 611 - 634m... so this thing is going to tower over everything in the area.

whats with all the teddy bears?

Updates

nice. thanks for the update. looks already giant

Damn! The Japs sure know how to build stuff; this is going fast!

Bloody hell, that is massive already. Is there anything going inside the structure? It seems like an awful waste of space if not.

From the design standpoint it is just a tower....all that massive area is just wasted space. This tower just seems like it does not belong in that area, I wonder how out of place it will look when finished.

Maybe this will promote further development in the immediate area in the future?

Id be interested in some pictures of this from downtown Tokyo. It is only a few miles away so I am sure it will be able to be seen from it when completed. Still just seems like a really odd spot for it to be placed.

And yes, hopefully this would spur some similar development in the area since it seems rather run-down.

The area is actually fairly typical Tokyo and not really rundown, and while it is away from the official "Tokyo Midtown", it is near to arguably the most famous (aside from Tokyo Tower) tourist attraction, Asakusa Shrine. It could be said that Tokyo really has MANY downtowns, as there are 23 densely populated wards, and each has a "central" station that has extremely high density built around it, and all of them connect to this area very easily.

And even if that weren't true, it is a broadcast facility first ;)

Looks cool.

To people who say it looks out of place...you have not seen the trash incinerator chimneys (500+ feet tall) that just pop out of nowhere around the city. Things seem to be build in the city out of need/best location - not looks alone.

I took this shot Sunday

Photo by me

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f1...09Tokyo109.jpg

It's moving along.

People keeping talking that the want pictures of the Sky Tree from downtown Tokyo. They've obviously never been there. I guess you could consider Shinjuku "downtown Tokyo" but that's just where some tall skyscrapers are concentrated... There isn't a downtown Tokyo. There are however many different "boroughs".

Tokyo is about 40 or 50 square miles of the "rundown" areas you're seeing in the current picture.

Well they say mixed ethnic kids are the best looking. :)