Imperial Hotel, Tokyo

The Imperial Hotel, Tokyo is a hotel in Tokyo. It was built in the late 1880s at the request of the Japanese aristocracy to increase Western visitors to Japan. It was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The hotel site is located just south of the Imperial Palace grounds, next to the previous location of the Palace moat. The modern hotel overlooks the Palace, the 40-acre (16 ha) western-style Hibiya Park, and the Ginza neighborhood. Three buildings have stood on the hotel site, each of which embodied the finest western design of its era. The hotel eventually slipped into decay as time took its toll. In a controversial decision, it was decided to demolish the old hotel and replace it with a high-rise structure, to maximize the use of land. References Other websites Imperial Hotel, Ltd. Archived 2009-02-21 at the Wayback Machine (株式会社帝国ホテル; Kabushiki Gaisha Teikoku Hoteru). Main Entrance Hall and Lobby of Imperial Hotel in the Museum Meiji-Mura Archived 2009-06-01 at the Wayback Machine Old Tokyo - Imperial Hotel (Wright) Legacy of oya stone used in the Imperial Hotel