# Sojang-Dong - Ryugyong Hotel - 105 - 330m - 1083f



## devilsadvocate (Apr 7, 2007)

I found it so amazing 










The Ryugyong Hotel (or Ryu-Gyong Hotel or Yu-Kyung Hotel or the 105 Building) is a towering, empty concrete shell that was once intended for use as a hotel in Sojang-dong, in the Potong-gang District of Pyongyang, North Korea. The hotel’s name comes from one of the historic names for Pyongyang: Ryugyong, or “capital of willows.” Its 105 stories rise to a height of 330 m (1,083 ft), and it boasts some [[1 E+5 m²|360,000 m² (3.9 million square feet)]] of floor space, making it the most prominent feature of the city’s skyline and by far the largest structure in the country. Construction started in 1987 and ceased in 1992. Had it been completed, it would have been the world's tallest hotel.

Construction on the pyramid-shaped hotel began in 1987 by Baekdu Mountain Architects & Engineers.[1] The reinforced concrete structure consists of three wings, the face of each wing measuring 100 m (328 ft) long and 18 m (59 ft) wide, which converge at a common point to form a pinnacle. At the top is a huge 40 m (131 ft) wide circular structure which contains eight rotating floors, topped by a further 6 static floors. A construction crane is perched at the top, and has assumed the role of a permanent fixture. The hotel is surrounded by a number of pavilions, gardens, and terraces.

The building’s plan for a 105-story height was reportedly a Cold War response to a South Korean company’s completion of the Westin Stamford Hotel in Singapore the previous year. North Korean leadership envisioned the project as a channel for Western investors to step into the marketplace. A firm, the Ryugyong Hotel Investment and Management Co., was established to attract a hoped for 230 million dollars in foreign investment. A representative for the North Korean government promised relaxed oversight, saying, “The foreign investors can even operate casinos, nightclubs or Japanese lounges if they want to.”[2] It was added to maps and North Korean postage stamps before it was half-finished.

The Ryugyong’s planned 3,000 rooms and 7 revolving restaurants were scheduled to open in June 1989 for the World Festival of Youth and Students, but problems with building methods and materials delayed it. Japanese newspapers estimated the cost of construction was $750 million[3]—2% of North Korea’s GDP—and it is generally assumed construction came to a halt in 1992 due to lack of funding, acute electricity shortages, and the prevailing famine. Official pictures of Pyongyang often show the building illuminated at night, but this is due to photo manipulation[citation needed].

The basic structure is complete, but no windows, fixtures, or fittings have been installed, and it has never been certified safe for occupancy. According to Emporis,[4] the building will never open as presently constructed. The concrete used to build the hotel was very poor, making the structure unsafe, and it has worn down even more over the years. The North Korean government is trying to invite foreign investment of $300 million to improve and finish the hotel. In the meantime, it has removed the Ryugyong from maps and stamps and built a newer five-star hotel of more conventional design on the Taedong River.


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## Tom_Green (Sep 4, 2004)

I also find it very interesting. 

I think it will collapse in some years.


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## BlackSmith! (Dec 20, 2006)

It will be worlds largest pile of rubble upon collapse I dont think this is the right place for this thread. Here goes talk about supertalls U/C, and Ryugyong Hotel is going nowhere!


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## CULWULLA (Sep 11, 2002)

i found it interesting back in 1992. its looking very sad.


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## SA BOY (Mar 29, 2003)

well its technically still U/C


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## PresidentBjork (Apr 29, 2007)

I was amazed too when I found out about it, 

all you can say is - only in North Korea! :nuts:


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## ZZ-II (May 10, 2006)

they should destroy it


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## devilsadvocate (Apr 7, 2007)

I would love to go inside and explore it :cheers:


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## BrooklynNYC (Apr 10, 2007)

I hope it does fall. Commies.


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## isaidso (Mar 21, 2007)

hno: 

Sad that there are people like this. I suppose you want China's Olympic Stadium to collapse too. What an atrocious disgusting thing to say. That type of mentality has more in common with the Taliban and Al-Queda than that of a civilized person. Destroy those we don't agree with? Infantile and sad!


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## satit28 (Mar 9, 2005)

hmmm........i some how find this U/C very fascinating..........
i kinda like it........
but i wanna know what it'll be like in 20 years..........
completed??.......or demolished.............??


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## Saigoneseguy (Mar 6, 2005)

> Sad that there are people like this. I suppose you want China's Olympic Stadium to collapse too. What an atrocious disgusting thing to say. That type of mentality has more in common with the Taliban and Al-Queda than that of a civilized person. Destroy those we don't agree with? Infantile and sad!


You can't compare the Olympic stadium with this. This thing is a monster. The Taliban are deemed to kill people and spread fear, not to determine ugly buildings. 

And yes I want to see it demolished.


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## ZZ-II (May 10, 2006)

satit28 said:


> hmmm........i some how find this U/C very fascinating..........
> i kinda like it........
> but i wanna know what it'll be like in 20 years..........
> completed??.......or demolished.............??


i'm sure they'll demolish it. the corrosion of the tower is dangerous i think


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## BrooklynNYC (Apr 10, 2007)

isaidso said:


> hno:
> 
> Sad that there are people like this. I suppose you want China's Olympic Stadium to collapse too. What an atrocious disgusting thing to say. That type of mentality has more in common with the Taliban and Al-Queda than that of a civilized person. Destroy those we don't agree with? Infantile and sad!


Haha I was just kidding. In fact, I am a member of the Communist Party in the United States.


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## BrooklynNYC (Apr 10, 2007)

Just kidding I would never join those reds.


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## nicouru (Feb 8, 2006)

It is interesting that in Pyongyang the building is so prominent but those who go there to visit are not told about it by their guides, its as if it doesn't even exist yet it does...double-speak I know but its a reality. From what I read the building's concrete isnt sound and obviously the country cannot afford to spend such an outrageous amount of money on this building, I am sure the nuclear program sucked up much of the surplus cash the NK gvt has. What is really interesting is if you look at the building on GoogleEarth...very Star Wars.


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## D J M K (Feb 12, 2008)

*'Phantom hotel' freed from development limbo in Pyongyang*

JON HERSKOVITZ

Reuters News Service

July 18, 2008

SEOUL -- North Korea's phantom hotel is stirring back to life.

Once dubbed by Esquire magazine as "the worst building in the history of mankind," the 105-storey Ryugyong Hotel is back under construction after a 16-year lull in the capital of one of the world's most reclusive and destitute countries.

According to foreign residents in Pyongyang, Egypt's Orascom group has recently begun refurbishing the top floors of the three-sided pyramid-shaped hotel whose 330-metre frame dominates the Pyongyang skyline.

The firm has put glass panels into the concrete shell, installed telecommunications antennas - even though the North forbids its citizens to own mobile phones - and put up an artist's impression of what it will look like.

An official with the group said its Orascom Telecom subsidiary was involved in the project but gave no details.

The hotel consists of three wings rising at 75-degree angles capped by several floors arranged in rings supposed to hold five revolving restaurants and an observation deck.

A creaky building crane has for years sat unused at the top of the 3,000-room hotel in a city where tourists are only occasionally allowed to visit.

"It is not a beautiful design. It carries little iconic or monumental significance, but sheer muscular and massive presence," said Lee Sang Jun, a professor of architecture at Yonsei University in Seoul.

The Communist North started construction in 1987, in a possible fit of jealousy at South Korea, which was about to host the 1988 Summer Olympics and show off to the world the success of its rapidly developing economy.

A concrete shell built by North Korea's Paektu Mountain Architects & Engineers emerged over the next few years. A proud North Korea put a likeness of the hotel on postage stamps and boasted about the structure in official media.

According to intelligence sources, then North Korean leader Kim Il-sung saw the hotel as a symbol of his big dreams for the state he founded, while his son and current leader Kim Jong-il was a driving force in its construction.

But by 1992, work was halted. The North's main benefactor, the Soviet Union, had dissolved a year earlier and funding for the hotel had vanished. For a time, the North airbrushed images of the Ryugyong Hotel from photographs.

As the North's economy took a deeper turn for the worse in the 1990s the empty shell became a symbol of the country's failure, earning the nicknames "Hotel of Doom" and "Phantom Hotel."

Yonsei University's Mr. Lee and other architects said there were questions raised about whether the hotel was structurally sound and a few believed completing the structure could cause it to collapse.

It would cost up to $2-billion to finish the hotel and make it safe, according to estimates in the South Korean media. That is equivalent to about 10 per cent of the North's annual economic output.

Bruno Giberti, associate head of California Polytechnic State University's department of architecture, said the project was typical of what has been produced recently in many cities trying to show their emerging wealth by constructing gigantic edifices that were not related in scale to anything else around them.

"If this is the worst building in the world, the runners up are in Vegas and Shanghai," Prof. Giberti said.

*****

The Ryugyong Hotel

Stalled during North Korea's economic decline, the "Hotel of Doom" is under construction once again.

-Construction began in 1987.

-The hotel contains 3.9 million square feet of floor space.

-It should have opened in 1989, at which point it would have been the tallest hotel in the world and the 7th largest skyscraper.

-North Korea has spent $750-million (U.S.) or 2% of the country's GDP on the building.

-It was designed to have 3,000 rooms, seven revolving restaurants, casinos, nightclubs and Japanese lounges.

The opening was delayed until 1992 due to construction problems, including crumbling concrete, but by then construction was halted because of a lack of funds, electricity shortages and a famine.

-Today it would cost up to $2-billion to finish the Ryugyong Hotel and make it safe.

SOURCES: REUTERS; ESQUIRE; ABC


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## charmedone (Aug 31, 2007)

why is this like counted as one of the tallst buildings in the world when it hasent been compleated yet ??? all it is is a building thats falling apart


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## guajero (Jul 2, 2008)

*wow*

I wonder if its usefullness as a telecommunications tower has saved it the way that radio saved the effiel tower.

Something that ugly must be seen to completion.


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## whitefordj (Feb 18, 2006)

in some weird way its very cool if you ask me.


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## Jim856796 (Jun 1, 2006)

Since the other thread on the Ryugyong Hotel closed, I'm going to make this my official Ryugyong Hotel discussion thread. Construction is still going on in this hotel even after the thread in the Supertalls section closed.


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## Alpha/S. (Aug 24, 2008)

One of the world's most interesting buildings. Putting everything else aside, the design is quite nice, but its execution and fate is quite sad. I've seen a lot of questions raised about the resumption of construction and issues with its feasibility but unfortunately there doesn't seem to be much in the way of verifiable information on any of it.


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## iDRAFT (Aug 20, 2008)

It is the pimple on the ass of the Earth. The ass referring to North Korea.


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## Jim856796 (Jun 1, 2006)

This may be off-topic, but how come most concrete skeletons of skyscrapers in the world look like crap?


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## charmedone (Aug 31, 2007)

i have one thing to ask why is it on the list of the worlds tallst buildings when its not even compleated yet thats what i wanna know


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## urbanfan89 (May 30, 2007)

Just safely demolishing the bitch will be a great engineering challenge in itself.


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## backupcoolmen (Jul 24, 2008)

i think they should leave it up as a wildlife sanctuary , it will allow for the housing of rats, birds of all types, and maybe they can even start growing bamboo in it, and then put some panda bears in it, it will be amazing like the hanging zoo of Sojang-Dong


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## DamienK (Sep 11, 2002)

...


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## DamienK (Sep 11, 2002)

Found a rendering of the tower after completion on flickr:


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## Indictable (Sep 23, 2008)

Could be used as a concentration camp, run up to the top from the bottom, I mean, when would 105 stories in North Korea ever be filled?


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## south (Nov 26, 2005)

wow, even in the 'completed' rendering it still looks like an Evil Robot Overlord.
i can imagine red death rays shooting 360 degrees from those rings at the top, targeting anyone who spoke against the Dear Leader.


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## Donkie (Mar 5, 2003)

Unfortunetly theres do not exists elevators.


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## NorthWesternGuy (Aug 25, 2005)

south said:


> wow, even in the 'completed' rendering it still looks like an Evil Robot Overlord.
> i can imagine red death rays shooting 360 degrees from those rings at the top, targeting anyone who spoke against the Dear Leader.


:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol Yeah, I can imagine it too


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## the spliff fairy (Oct 21, 2002)

I like it alot, once its cladding will be up, if ever.


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## Ice Storm (Sep 28, 2008)

It does have an eerie quality to it. It would make a great platform for a horror movie!


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## Mazepa (Sep 16, 2008)

Yes.. please refrain from the constant politicization of this subject.. I want to see what will become of this eerie mammoth building and it doesent matter if its in NK.


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## DamienK (Sep 11, 2002)

The glass cladding is spreading:


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## Amuse2000 (Nov 15, 2008)

jesus christ


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## DJZG (Aug 2, 2007)

i found a few months old picture taken by KFA on their regular visit to PyongYang... 
there is a crane on top... does that mean they started working?


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## Mazepa (Sep 16, 2008)

Maby it will become the burial tomb of the ruling elite? Some grand idea of a new 1000 year old empire maby 

It will surely look weird when finished. Just like a spaceship parked in the middle of a Soviet concrete-town.


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