Hiroshi Hara designed the current station, which opened in 1997 to commemorate Kyoto's 1,200th anniversary. It replaced a Renaissance-inspired building of 1914 and a concrete station of 1952 built after a fire in 1950. The first station opened in 1877. The article names no start date or cost for the current building.
It is 230 feet (70 m) high and 1,542 feet (470 m) wide from east to west, with about 2.6 million square feet (238,000 m²) of floor area. The introduction describes a 15-story roof. It is Japan's second-largest station building, after Nagoya Station. The article links the design to futurism, with a slightly irregular, cubic facade of plate glass over a steel frame.
In the mid-1990s locals were reluctant to accept so ambitious a structure in a city known for its cultural heritage. Its completion reportedly started a wave of high-rise development, culminating in the 20-story Kyocera Building.
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