The Mori Art Museum is an unprecedented building type: an independent, world-class contemporary art institution located at the top of a 54-story tower. The Mori Art Museum is the jewel in the crown of the new Tokyo district of Roppongi Hills and the primary cultural component of the entire development. The elegant 30m (100 feet) high entry structure of the Mori Art Museum is an iconic element on the landscape of Roppongi Hills, which gives the Museum a powerful presence at ground level. This translucent glass "Museum Cone" anchors the East-West axis across the site, the main organizing element in the design and circulation of the Museum, which corresponds to a major axis of symmetry of the Mori Tower. It allows visitors arriving from any of four levels - the traditional Japanese Garden at B2F, retail at B1F, vehicular drop off at 1F, and the main office plaza at 2F - to ascend to 3F and cross the glass Entry Bridge to enter the dedicated museum lobby in the base of the Tower. The Museum Cone embodies the extreme integration of architectural and structural elements. At its center, a concrete-clad "funnel" contains passenger elevators and provides the main vertical support for the building. Coiling round this is a gentle, sweeping spiral stair, giving views out to the Japanese Garden as it rises to the bridge level. The innovative, ultra lightweight steel and glass facde operates on the principle of a hoop skirt: a diagonal net of 18mm cables acts in tension, suspending and stabilizing horizontal 22mm thick steel rings in compression which hold the elliptical conical form of the facade. Glass shingles printed with a translucent ceramic frit pattern are laid onto this structure, overlapping each other to provide protection against rain and glowing softly at night - like a paper lantern - at the edge of the Japanese Garden. High speed elevators take the visitor from the Entry Lobby to 52F and 53F. On 53F, at the top of the Tower, the Museum's galleries are arranged around a rough sand stone Atrium in the core, forming a sequence of inwardly focused, contemplative spaces. Points of connection between these two contrasting experiences are organized diagonally, along the East-West and North-South axes, and include the two art and technology galleries on 53F. These glowing glass boxes float above the 52F observation decks and extend to the ver y edge of the building, offering a spectacular view of the city. Design Management : Mori Building Co., Ltd. Architecture and Design : Gluckman Mayner Architects Structural Design : Dewhurst Macfarlane and Partners Lighting Design : Shozo Toyohisa (Kiltplan) New York based Gluckman Mayner Architects is designing the Mori Art Museum, the cultural centerpiece of the Roppongi Hills development in downtown Tokyo. The new contemporary art institution is located within the Mori Arts Center on the top two floors of the 53-story Roppongi Hills Mori Tower. Constructed of steel, glass and sandstone, the Museum will feature four large galleries and two translucent glass art and technology galleries on the 53rd floor, three smaller galleries on the 52nd floor and a 30 meter (100 foot) elliptical entry structure. The successor firm to Richard Gluckman Architects, formed in 1977, Gluckman Mayner's practice includes a wide range of residential, commercial and institutional projects throughout the United States, England, Spain, Japan and China. A major component of the firm's practice has been the design of ar t-related facilities and much of the firm's work has grown out of an exchange with artists, curators, and museum directors. Current and past cultural projects by Gluckman Mayner Architects include the expansion of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin; the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe; the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh; the Dia Center for the Arts in New York; a new facility for the Austin Museum of Art in Texas; and the renovation and expansion of the Picasso Museum in Malaga, Spain. Richard Gluckman, FAIA, received his Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Architecture from Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York. In addition to his international practice,Gluckman has been a visiting critic at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University and Syracuse University and has juried competitions at Harvard, Yale, Columbia and the Center for Contemporary Arts in Rome. Gluckman Mayner has received numerous awards from Progressive Architecture, Architectural Record , Interior Design and the American Institute of Architects. The firm also has been included in numerous architectural publications, including a recent monograph Space Framed: Richard Gluckman Architect published by The Monacelli Press, Inc., New York.