ginza sony park opens with vertical promenade linking tokyo's skyline to underground spaces

Ginza Park in tokyo incorporates pieces of the sony building

Sony Group opens Ginza Sony Park as the final phase of its project to reconstruct the Sony Building in Tokyo’s Ginza district. Conceived as an urban park, the space brings rhythm to the city and its people with an open design and a relaxed atmosphere, hosting at the same time an ever-changing range of activities (find designboom’s previous coverage here).

At Ginza Sony Park, the ‘vertical promenade’ carries forward the spirit of the Sony Building’s staggered floors, turning the space into a continuous journey from rooftop to underground. Open platforms, skylights, and staircases weave together indoor and outdoor moments. Moving through the park feels less like navigating a building and more like wandering through the streets, each turn revealing a new perspective, each shift in height and space adding to the rhythm of exploration. History is embedded within the new structure, with remnants of the original Sony Building preserved. Beams, columns, escalators, and even a blue-tiled wall unearthed during demolition offer glimpses into the site’s past, narrating its layered story. The design of the demolition process itself was as intentional as the new construction, ensuring that history and innovation coexist within the space.

all images courtesy of Sony Group

a stainless steel grid facade shields the Ginza Sony Park

Ginza Sony Park also embraces a ‘less is more’ philosophy, proposing openness also in the relationship of the building and the skyline of Tokyo. Its low-rise structure, paired with a stainless steel grid facade, introduces this sense of aerial openness. Visitors look up at Ginza’s high-rises rather than down upon them. The rooftop, envisioned as a miniature urban oasis, immerses guests in the ambient sounds and movements of the city, offering a rare perspective of Tokyo. By treating architecture as public infrastructure, Sony creates a civic space that aims to become a living part of the city.

The design preserves and evolves the Japanese multinational company’s signature ‘junction architecture,’ which becomes one with its surroundings. With access points from Harumi Avenue, Sotobori Street, and Sony Street, as well as direct connections to the subway and underground parking, the park functions as an organic urban node. Its atrium acts as a natural conduit, guiding visitors through fluid transitions between city streets and subterranean spaces. The absence of doors and walls reinforces the permeability of the design, making movement through the space intuitive and unrestricted.

Ginza Sony Park is the final phase of the Sony Building reconstruction

accessibility and openness define the project

The 1966 Sony Building, originally envisioned by co-founder Akio Morita, features the ‘Garden of Ginza,’ a 33-square-meter public space designed as a meeting point within the city. The Ginza Sony Park builds upon this idea, with accessibility and openness at the center of the design approach. Fast-forward to 2013, when the Sony team began rethinking the Sony Building’s future. Initially, a park wasn’t part of the plan. But as the project took shape, the idea of openness—of creating a place that welcomed people in rather than towering over them—became its guiding principle. Before constructing the new building, the site was temporarily turned into an experimental park (2018–2021), drawing 8.54 million visitors even amid the pandemic.

Ginza Sony Park opened with its first program, ‘Sony Park Exhibition 2025,’ a creative, hands-on experience featuring collaborations with six artists—mainly from Sony Music Group—based on the company’s six business divisions. ‘Openness allows parks to bring in lots of different things and pass them on. Such openness allows the space to be ever-changing. This is why Ginza Sony Park has so much openness,’ says Daisuke Nagano, leader of the Ginza Sony Park Project. As the project developed, the team realized that openness was a defining element of parks, allowing them to welcome diverse experiences and continuously evolve. This philosophy became central to Ginza Sony Park, ensuring its lasting role as a dynamic and inclusive space in the heart of Ginza.

conceived as an urban park, the space brings rhythm to the city and its people