High Art

edited by Sheila Kim -- Interior Design, 9/1/2003 12:00:00 AM

Real-estate developer Minoru Mori's new mega-project, Roppongi Hills, has a hefty agenda. To revive downtown Tokyo as a 24-hour live-work community, Mori has built apartments, shops, restaurants, cinemas, a hotel, an amphitheater, parks, and—high above it all—a museum of art and design.

Located on the 52nd and 53rd floors of the 54-story Roppongi Hills Mori Tower by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, the Mori Art Museum announces its presence at street level with a 100-foot-high elliptical entrance set into the building's facade. "It's an iconic presence for the development," says Richard Gluckman of Gluckman Mayner Architects, which designed the 32,000-square-foot museum.

The seven galleries, deployed around a sandstone-faced atrium, are opening with "Happiness: A Survival Guide for Art and Life." The exhibit spans 15 centuries, from ancient Vietnam to contemporary Japan. Not represented is Mori's art-star niece, Mariko. October 18– January 18; mori.art.museum.