A room with a different view? / Noguchi Room faces relocat.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun/Daily Yomiuri)

A room with a different view? / Noguchi Room faces relocation

Shogo Hagiwara / Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer

Yomiuri

In a remote corner of Keio University's Mita campus in Tokyo stands a rather discreet Modernist building. This structure--called Banraisha and completed in 1951--contains a conversation room known as the Noguchi Room, which world-renowned sculptor Isamu Noguchi designed in memory of his father Yonejiro, who had lectured at the school for about 40 years.

The Banraisha building's days are numbered, as the university has decided to demolish the entire structure to erect a new building where graduate law school programs will commence in 2005.

While the building itself is to be destroyed, however, the Noguchi Room will survive--only barely, though, as the room is to be moved from the location where it has stood for half a century to the new building--a decision that has drawn opposition and criticism from many concerned parties.