Taunustor Japan Center
Photo: Epizentrum / CC BY-SA 3.0, modified.
Overview
The Japanese garden at Taunustor belongs to the Japan Center, a postmodern office tower in Frankfurt’s banking district. The building was completed in 1996 and opened in March 1997; its form is widely described as inspired by a Japanese stone lantern, with red granite cladding and a broad dark roof cap. The garden itself is documented only briefly: visitor and local city-guide sources refer to a small Japanese stone garden at the building, either in the ground-floor interior or in front of the tower.
History
The Japan Center was built between 1993 and 1996 at Taunustor 2–4, in the centre of Frankfurt’s banking district. It was developed by Jowa Japan Center GmbH and designed by architects Joachim Ganz and Walter Rolfes. The building was conceived as a Japanese-themed commercial high-rise, using a strict square plan, geometric façade rhythm and lantern-like massing to evoke Japanese architectural references in a Frankfurt skyscraper context.
The Japanese garden at the Japan Center in Frankfurt was created in 1996 as part of the Japan Center development at Taunustor. The garden is listed in the overseas works of Shunmyō Masuno and Japan Landscape Consultants under the title “Japanese Garden for Japan Center at Taunustor in Frankfurt,” confirming Masuno / JLC as the designer. The garden should therefore be treated as a modern Japanese corporate / architectural garden attached to the Japan Center office tower, rather than as an anonymous office-building stone garden.
Design features
The documented garden feature is described as a Japanese stone garden / Steingarten. Available sources do not provide a plan, plant list or designer attribution. Given the sparse evidence, the safest description is a small modern stone-garden feature forming part of the Japan Center’s Japanese-themed architectural identity.
Garden elements
Stones
Current status
Small Japanese stone garden associated with the Japan Center office tower. Available sources describe a Japanese stone garden either in the ground-floor area or in front of the building, but I did not find a detailed current official garden record confirming its exact present condition.