Tange Kenzo

Tange Kenzo

(born Sept. 4, 1913, Osaka, Japan—died March 22, 2005, Tokyo) Japanese architect. Tange worked in the office of Maekawa Kunio before setting out on his own. His first major commission involved the reconstruction of Hiroshima. In addition to planning the city, he helped design Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park, and its peace centre (1950) and museum (1952) are among his best-known early works. His Kagawa prefectural offices in Takamatsu (1958) were a particularly fine blend of the modern and traditional. In 1959 Tange and his students published the Boston Harbor project, launching the Metabolist school. His work in the 1960s took on more boldly dramatic forms, and he became a master at manipulating complex geometries; his National Gymnasiums for Tokyo's 1964 Olympic Games are exemplary. During 1966–70 he designed the master plan for the Japan World Exposition (Expo 70), which was held in Osaka. More-recent works include the New Tokyo City Hall Complex (1991) and the Tokyo Dome Hotel (2000). Also influential as a writer, teacher, and town planner, Tange was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1987.