P.M. BRIEFING : NTT Picks Cesar Pelli-Yamashita for New Head Office in Tokyo

TOKYO — Bowing to growing U.S. pressures, Japan’s domestic telecommunications company NTT announced today it has selected a U.S.-Japanese joint venture for construction of its new head office in Tokyo.

Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. said Cesar Pelli & Yamashita Associated Architects have been selected as contractors from among seven applicants.

The contractors are a joint venture of Cesar Pelli & Associates Inc. of New Haven, Conn., and the Japanese engineering company Yamashita Architects & Engineering Inc.

Cesar Pelli, professor of architecture at Yale University, has designed many buildings in the United States.

The Cesar Pelli-Yamashita venture was selected after NTT’s Evaluation and Screening Committee has carefully studied proposals submitted by applicants, the company said.

NTT’s project calls for a 30-story head office in Tokyo’s expanding business center of Shinjuku.

NTT said it had originally planned to select contractors from among Japanese companies but made the change in light of repeated U.S. calls on Japan to open up its construction market.