A live music venue filled with sound, light and wind. A town filled with adults chatting and music.

planning & design ─Create a symbol of the town

BLUE NOTE PLACE

Shibuya Ward, Tokyo

Cities are living things that change with the times. As time passes, what people want from a city changes.
Cities will also change their position and reassess the value they provide.
So where on earth should this city be heading?
There is a city that has thought through its future and created a symbol of what it aspires to be.

Changing the concept to "a town for consumers"

Those who have not visited Yebisu Garden Place for a long time are sure to be a bit surprised. At first glance, the scenery remains the same, with cafes, restaurants, shops, hotels, cinemas, art museums, office buildings and other facilities arranged around a large covered plaza, but the content of the town itself has changed significantly.

Its symbol is the classical brick building at the entrance on the JR Ebisu Station side. Previously it operated as a beer restaurant, but since the end of 2022, BLUE NOTE PLACE has opened for business. If you walk around the building to the plaza, you will see a row of large arched windows from which you can see live music being played inside. The sight of people passing by in the plaza stopping to listen to the music coming from the open windows gives you a sense of the culture of the adult city.
Yebisu Garden Place opened in 1994 and will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2024. During this time, the number of competing facilities has increased, intensifying competition in the area. Due to changes in the surrounding environment caused by the development of the local area of Ebisu, work has begun to review the concept of the entire facility ahead of its 25th anniversary in 2019.

At the time, Kishi Yusuke (currently head of new business development at Sapporo Beer), who was in charge of planning at Sapporo Real Estate Development, felt that it was necessary to shift from looking at Yebisu Garden Place alone to looking at the town of Ebisu as a whole.

"Thirty years ago, the first foreign luxury hotel to open in Japan was fantastic, the department store it was located in was thriving, and people were coming to see movies. That was the era. So it made sense to gather popular content in one place and complete the area as a town. However, competing facilities are popping up one after another. With so many different types of content, it's no longer meaningful for a facility to compete on its own. When I think again about the value that only Yebisu Garden Place possesses, I think it really comes down to the people living in the town of Ebisu."

Yebisu Garden Place is a spacious design, with 60% of the site being open to the public, including the central plaza. There are two apartment buildings on the same site, and residential areas extend to the surrounding areas of Shirokane, Hiroo, and Nakameguro, giving it a strong residential feel. The image of a "Yamanote lifestyle" on high ground with a blue sky, like an urban resort, is a feature not found in competing facilities.

"So we started thinking from the consumer's perspective and thought about what kind of content was lacking. Not just something with economic value, but something with social value. We wanted to include music and things that foster emotional education. From this discussion, Blue Note's name came up as a possible next tenant for the building where Beer Station Ebisu had closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic," says Kishi.

However, they didn't narrow it down to Blue Note from the beginning. Naohiko Sugita (currently East Japan Group Leader, FBS/FKG Division, Food Service Business Division, Food Service Division, Sapporo Beer), who worked with Kishi at Sapporo Real Estate Development to create the plan at the time, said they considered a number of options.

"The vacant building had two floors, with a total floor space of about 1,320 m2. It was designed to be able to host large banquets. There was talk of dividing the upper and lower floors into separate tenants, or of whether to do retail, food, or wellness. However, as the building is at the entrance to Yebisu Garden Place, we wanted it to have a symbolic presence. Considering our connection with the local area, we thought something like entertainment or culture would be appropriate. So we narrowed down our candidates to Blue Note and began our approach."

Let's make it a city like New Orleans

The first person to be consulted about attracting Blue Note was Ryu Kosaka, executive creative director of NOMURA AND. As a designer, Kosaka has worked on several Blue Note-related facilities, including the bar at Blue Note Tokyo in Aoyama and HAMACHO DINING&BAR SESSiON in Nihonbashi Hamacho. He is also such a music lover that he formed his own band. He has even performed on stage at Blue Note Tokyo for a private event.

However, Kosaka, who was visiting the site for the first time, stated categorically that it would be impossible for Blue Note to open a store there if the building remained in its current state.

"The building itself is a bit old, but has a nice atmosphere, but the first and second floors are clearly separated. If Blue Note were to use the whole building, even if they had a live performance on the first floor, it wouldn't be audible on the second floor. It wouldn't work as a store. So let's make a hole in the floor on the second floor and renovate it so that the upper and lower parts are connected. If they're willing to do that, I'll introduce you to Blue Note and I'll make a plan. That's what I said."

Later, through Kosaka's introduction, Blue Note Japan's President Yosuke Ito and its Board Directors and Store Development Manager Takanori Matsuuchi visited the site. At that point, it had not been decided whether to remove the floor from the second floor, but after hearing Kosaka's plan, Ito thought that if it could be realized, it would be an attractive store.

"Most live music venues are underground, so there aren't many places in Japan where you can make music on the first floor like this. I thought it was great that we could make music. Like the other venues we've opened so far, we don't just want to open a pretty shop or a cool restaurant. We want to create a town where music takes root as a culture. I thought we could get closer to that ideal."

Matsuuchi was also attracted to the town's desire to actively embrace music.

"It's rare for a facility to allow us to make noise, so this was a dream come true for us. The building has a really nice appearance, so we could imagine it would be fun to hold an event here."

As they discussed their ideas, all those involved envisioned in their minds not a closed-off live music venue, but a city where music overflows from the buildings.

"It's a town where you can hear music coming from all over as you walk around, like New Orleans in the US. If you go to New Orleans today, you'll find historic jazz clubs, but also many rock bars, so it's a pretty diverse town (laughs). It has the image of good old New Orleans," says Matsuuchi.

"It feels good to be in a city where you can see and hear the music being played from the street corners. But there are no commercial facilities like that in Japan. As we all talked, the name New Orleans came up, and that became a common goal for all involved," says Kosaka.

Photo = ©Satoshi Nagare