# Ryugyong Hotel, Pyongyang.



## STR (Sep 4, 2004)

I find this building entirely fascinating. It's extremely tall, but it's utterly desolate and empty. It looks absolutely menacing. And it seems like the workers just up and left everything in place when they last left the site.

Some people seem to like this tower, some don't. Share your thoughts.


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## GGG (Aug 1, 2005)

Coincidence?

____________________


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## I-275westcoastfl (Feb 15, 2005)

^Wow that was immature anyway in that winter pic looks like a giant fucking christmas tree. This building woulda looked cool if they put the glass onto it like the rendering but i still like it with its massive, creppy look.


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## NothingBetterToDo (Sep 11, 2002)

i think its scary....it looks post apocalyptic


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## Travis007 (Jul 19, 2004)

It always makes me wonder what if it was completed....but it'll always be my favourite NoKo tower.


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## e888 (Aug 2, 2005)

Looks like an enormous phoenix bird to me!


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## ♣628.finst (Jul 29, 2005)

Triangular shaped! North Korean made it! I love this building, of course.


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## DamienK (Sep 11, 2002)

I like it. It's monolithic. It's sad it's in such a crummy state (in all senses of the word)


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## SE9 (Apr 26, 2005)

NothingBetterToDo said:


> i think its scary....it looks post apocalyptic


i get what u mean!



















brrr


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## Urban Dave (Apr 18, 2004)

It's simply lovely


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## staff (Oct 23, 2004)

Can someone post a pic of that rendering, please?


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## Jaye101 (Feb 16, 2005)

80 stories? MADNESS.


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## Peter The Great (Sep 28, 2002)

The world wouldn't be the same without it...I hope they finish it already.


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## Travis007 (Jul 19, 2004)

staff said:


> Can someone post a pic of that rendering, please?


I don't think a full rendering has ever been released, if there was I would of found it by now. I'm pretty sure the DP of North Korea wants the details of this building hidden.
The closest to a rendering is in this pic, shows that Ryugyong would of been cladded in some sort of metallic blue material and/or blue glass.












> The world wouldn't be the same without it...I hope they finish it already.


It'll probably never be completed. Their government doesn't have the kind of money to complete. NoKo doesn't need something liek this, this was purely built for ego boosting. Kimmy would rather waste the money on cheap hookers, and movies boosting him and his father to his country. And the concrete they used is so poor that the building is totally non-habitable. Oh well, this is the closest the world will get to a true commie monster project.


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## STR (Sep 4, 2004)

Travis007 said:


> I don't think a full rendering has ever been released, if there was I would of found it by now. I'm pretty sure the DP of North Korea wants the details of this building hidden.


I've actually read that they don't even put the tower on city maps and DPRK officials seem to ignore its existance.


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## Imperfect Ending (Apr 7, 2003)

its pretty unique


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## beyond 1000 (Oct 27, 2002)

Unique yes. It would have been good to complete the thing but the crumbling concrete is in disrepair. What I question here is why doesn't the gov't just put the dynamite on this embarassment and cart the heap away? Probably no money for that. 

Built and envisioned by the criminal element. Left standing it is a testament to the failure of the NK dictatorial system. 

Blow the thing up and get rid of it.


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## spotila (Oct 29, 2004)

This building has always amazed me. Yes it's pretty ugly, but it's also damn impressive and empowering. Lets say on the extremely off chance it did get finished, would it really be any better? . I mean it's pretty cool being so desolate and post-apocolyptic looking.


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## BHK25 (Jan 25, 2005)

That's creepy and ugly, the damn thing is gonna collapse any minute. and hopefully kim jong ill is in it.


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## [email protected] (Jun 29, 2004)

Is this building will finished a day ? and if yes when ?


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## The Mad Hatter!! (Oct 27, 2004)

i don't know why but i love this tower,for some reason i'm fascinated with it.


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## Victhor (Sep 11, 2002)

I love it!


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## gargantuas (Jul 12, 2005)

It's a perfect tribute to communism. Pointlessly massive, bloated, and, naturally, unused.


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## gargantuas (Jul 12, 2005)

"We are the borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."


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## Victhor (Sep 11, 2002)

[email protected] said:


> Is this building will finished a day ? and if yes when ?


I readed in an older thread about this building that the structure has fails, and/or the concrete was of a poorer quality than the expected, so they should repair the entire structure if they want to use the building, maybe it's better to demolish it and build it again.




JayeTheOnly said:


> 80 stories? MADNESS.


no, 105 stories!

http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=130967
- The building has reached it's full structural height, but it's currently no more than a massive concrete shell. 
- Construction was halted in 1992 because of financial problems, and the building's future still remains undecided. 
*- The North Korean government is currently trying to invite a foreign investment of 300 million US dollars for a new structural system. *
- The pyramid-shaped building has a 75-degree slope. 
- The building has been incorrectly listed with a height of 300 m for the past several years. The updated height of 330 m makes it the world's tallest building intended for hotel use. 
- It would have surpassed world's tallest building in purely hotel use at time of scheduled completion and ranked 7th tallest building in the world. 
- First building outside New York & Chicago with over 100 floors


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## Jose Luis (Jun 15, 2004)

Its awesome, i prefer the creepy look than seeing it completed.


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## Zarkon (Dec 22, 2004)

dunno but it has something unique and irresistible..


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## STR (Sep 4, 2004)

This is the best picture of Ryugyong I've ever seen. It almost makes it look not ugly.


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## empersouf (Mar 19, 2004)

I like it eventough it's ugly as shit.


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## Chad (Oct 10, 2002)

*The Ryugyong Hotel*

quoted from http://shapeofdays.typepad.com

The Ryugyong Hotel is, in my opinion, the single most unsettling structure ever erected by the hand of man. It's 1,082 feet tall, has 105 floors, and encloses 3.9 million square feet of floor space.

And it is completely empty. It doesn't even have windows.

The North Korean government began construction of the building in 1987 at an estimated cost of $750 million, or 2% of the country's GDP. For comparison, 2% of the US GDP would be about $220 billion. Ryugyong was a massive undertaking for such a poor country.

Work was halted in 1992, and nobody knows exactly why. Some say that it was for financial reasons; the DPRK economy was a disaster even then, and 1992 was about the time that widespread famine and electricity shortages began to kick in. Others say that the building isn't structurally sound due to the use of poor-quality concrete, and that it literally cannot be completed. At one point it was rumored that the North Korean government was trying to raise foreign capital to pay for major structural renovations, so the truth might lie somewhere in between.

The Ryugyong Hotel looms over Pyongyang like some kind of slumbering bat. Something deep inside my brain tells me that the 75° angle of the hotel's outer walls is exactly the wrong angle; it says sinister, it says creepy, it says get away.

Okay, so tastes differ. I think it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up; maybe the North Koreans think it's sweet as punkin' pie. That still begs the question of why. The DPRK maintains strict control over tourists and other visitors. The Ryugyong was designed to have 3,000 rooms, but at the time it was built only a few thousand people were allowed into the country per year, and almost none of them were destined for Pyongyang. Even today, after the establishment of the Kŭmgang-san tourist region, the DPRK only sees about 130,000 tourists per year. Every single one of them could book a week-long stay in the Ryugyong and the hotel would still be significantly under capacity.

I'm no expert on North Korean psychology, but it seems to me that there's only one plausible answer: Building the Ryugyong was a matter of national pride. The North Korean government put the Ryugyong on city maps before ground was even broken; they even put it on a stamp. The Ryugyong was to be a monument to the North Korean virtue of juche, or self-reliance.

The same sense of pride that drove them to build the Ryugyong has driven the North Koreans to an almost pathological level of denial about the building. It's no longer on the city's maps. Guides claim not to know where it is. No one speaks of it. This state of affairs is made all the more surreal by the fact that the almost incomprehensibly massive Ryugyong is visible from every part of Pyongyang. It hangs over the horizon, never far out of sight. The ultimate expression of the idea of the elephant in the corner.

To get an idea of the scale of the Ryugyong in relation to the rest of Pyongyang, consider this photograph. You can click it to see a much larger version. The Ryugyong looms there at the right side of the frame, casting its long shadow on the psyche of every North Korean. It's a monument not to juche, but to juche's imminent collapse.


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## DarkFenX (Jan 8, 2005)

It is extremely ugly. Why did they even approve this? What, were they trying to mimick mountains?


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## samsonyuen (Sep 23, 2003)

It intrigues me so much. Was it meant for foreign tourists?


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## enjoi (May 2, 2005)

bleh, i hate it from the first sight.

it's extremely ugly and big, and this shape with all those concrete everywhere make it looks like something built after a nuclear war...

and i don't think people would feel good there... i myself, would feel like a termit or an ant. :O


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## The Boy David (Sep 14, 2004)

samsonyuen said:


> It intrigues me so much. Was it meant for foreign tourists?


Me too, mate! I have been fascinated by this construct from the second I saw it a a couple of years ago. 

Incredible - such a behemoth of a structure, only paralelled in size by the idiocy of its conception.


But fascinating none the less - that first picture that STR posted reminds me of the egyptian pyramids - maybe this will become the great pyramid of the 20th Century.

I bet its haunted. Honestly. Just looking at it makes me shiver. Its just terrifyingly big, brash, and strangely archaic looking.

I love it.


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## firmanhadi (Aug 3, 2005)

Hideous! Bizarre! This can only be from the mind of Kim Jong Il!


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## newyorkrunaway1 (Nov 21, 2004)

ugh, im sorry, but that is hideous


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## namreg20 (Jun 10, 2005)

wow, fascinating...
very communist indeed


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## boots (Mar 13, 2005)

Its fascinating its size and never ending construction, the building is jus unique!
hope they never tear it down


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## Trances (May 19, 2003)

same i would love, love to see it


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## SGoico (Sep 5, 2005)

It's a monster but I find some attaction on it. It might be the scary looks or the unusual unfinished shape


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## Facial (Jun 21, 2004)

STR said:


> No one in the free world knows, but reports I've read says it's aging poorly. Deep cracks have already formed.


I doubt it. Most concrete hardens with time. The only way it can truly crumble is if it was subject to a lot of sulfur attack.


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## MIKERU Z (Nov 7, 2005)

It would be good for a scary movie.


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## EtherealMist (Jul 26, 2005)

Holy crap what the hell is that thing. Impressive but not that beautiful haha.

That first pic makes it look like an ancient pyramid.


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## SkyLerm (Nov 26, 2005)

Fascinating


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## sharpie20 (Nov 5, 2005)

It's not a building, it's an alien ship that has landed in Pyongyang and taken over Kim Jong Il's mind, They isolate their country so that no one can find their plans for World Domination!! Muahahaha


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## SebasvandenBrink (Feb 27, 2005)

That thing is fabulous in a sick, megalomaniacal, demented kind of way I guess. Seen from space it's almost Aztec!


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## dogyears (Aug 11, 2005)

conquest said:


> the towe is the most beautiful building in the world but the fact that it was going to be a hotel pussyfies it!!!!!!! i would be cooler if it was a giant commie palace!!!


amen !


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## Avatar (Sep 11, 2002)

Facial said:


> I doubt it. Most concrete hardens with time. The only way it can truly crumble is if it was subject to a lot of sulfur attack.


That may be true but they may have not built with the right mix and or not braced it correctly with tensile steel.

I love this building would loved to have seen it here instead ... finished also.


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## NiceGuy (Nov 21, 2004)

The building looks rock solid, almost like a hollowed-out mountain. I doubt the structure was unstable to begin with, but the combination of cracks, water, and sub-zero temperatures may have partially damaged the structure. I think they should cover it as soon as possible to prevent further decay.


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## Vertigo (Oct 23, 2002)

It's even more impressive in real life. The Koreans don't seem to be very happy about it though, because requests by me to come close to it were not granted. I managed to take these pics from my hotel though:


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## LordMarshall (Jun 26, 2005)

^^ great pictures


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## MandarinManMark (May 3, 2004)

wow, those are amazing pics!


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## samsonyuen (Sep 23, 2003)

Great pictures. Did you feel safe while you were there? Is that construction crane permanently there on top of the hotel?


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## I-275westcoastfl (Feb 15, 2005)

samsonyuen said:


> Great pictures. Did you feel safe while you were there? Is that construction crane permanently there on top of the hotel?


Its probably the thing keeping it from falling down :rofl:


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