Chris · February 01, 2008
Today I received an email tip about a fascinating and strange hotel in North Korea called the Ryugyong Hotel.
Eva Hagberg, a writer for Esquire magazine, recently wrote a story revealing details about the Ryugyong… and it’s not pretty.
Back in 1987 Baikdoosan Architects and Engineers broke ground on this behemoth building. North Korea has poured more than two percent of its gross domestic product to construct the hotel property, but after more than twenty years the hotel still remains unopened and unfinished.
Construction on the Ryugyong hotel, dubbed the “Hotel of Doom” or the “Phantom Pyramid”, stopped in 1992 amid rumours that North Korea ran out of money… and that the building was a victim of poor engineering and can never be occupied. Construction never did resume on the project.
“...the one-hundred-and-five-story Ryugyong Hotel is hideous, dominating the Pyongyang skyline like some twisted North Korean version of Cinderella’s castle. Not that you would be able to tell from the official government photos of the North Korean capital—the hotel is such an eyesore, the Communist regime routinely covers it up, airbrushing it to make it look like it’s open—or Photoshopping or cropping it out of pictures completely.”
Standing over 105 stories high and featuring 3000 (unfinished) rooms the Ryugyong is no small structure. The vacant building is the 22nd tallest building in the world--and is no doubt the tallest, ugliest, and most expensive completely un-usable structure on planet Earth!
Any developer would have to question the viability of a 3000 room hotel in North Korea’s capital city. I don’t have to head over to Tourism North Korea (if it exists) to ascertain that Pyongyang is not likely an uber-popular tourist destination. Perhaps national holidays in North Korea such as the day commemorating the Founding of the Korean People’s Army, or the ever popular Independence War Victory Day are bigger draws than I imagine.
Check out some excellent video footage of this disastrous hotel project:
Linkage
The Worst Building in the History of Mankind [Esquire Magazine]
Hotel photo thanks to flickr [Isaac Mao]
