Omotesando was originally built as a front approach to Meiji Shrine in 1920. In those days, downtown Tokyo was located in the east part of today’s Tokyo; Omotesando and its neighborhood were considered to be the suburbs.
After the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, new apartment houses were constructed in many places. One of those, (it included the most up-to date facilities) was Aoyama Apartments in Omotesando. It was a high-class apartment where only the elite (high government officials, company directors, and university professors) lived. As a result, this area developed an image as Tokyo's most sophisticated residential area. Then in the 1960s, Omotesando, and the surrounding Harajuku and Aoyama districts became a fashionable trend-setting area because the main stadium of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics was located in near-by Yoyogi.
Aoyama Apartments had been the symbol of Omotesando for more than 80 years. But in 2006, it was taken down and reborn as a a modern commercial facility called Omotesando Hills, designed by world famous architect, Tadao Ando (1941-).
