Japan Center (San Francisco)

The Japan Center complex stands as a defining project of the city's urban renewal efforts in the nineteen sixties. Designed by Minoru Yamasaki, who is also known for creating the original World Trade Center in New York City, the site opened in nineteen sixty-eight as the Japanese Cultural and Trade Center. The development was built to provide a modern commercial hub, though it was part of a broader redevelopment program that resulted in the displacement of many long-standing residents and businesses from the historically Japanese American neighborhood.