That's true. . . but shouldn't be much of a surprise to anyone. . . Marina City, here in Chicago, was left unattended for years (while occupied) and had major 'concrete crumbling' problems. . . I remember walking down Dearborn Street and seeing chunks of concrete along the sidewalk the size of bricks. . . they managed to repair that and get the return the complex to it's original state so I don't see any reason why they can't do that with this building in North Korea. . .

. . .

Speaking of, heres an satellite image:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=e...15278&t=h&z=17

It looks more like a really tall prison than a skyscraper.

Google Earth's imagery is not updated frequently. One of us will have to risk life and limb to travel to Pyongyang and capture a few good photos of the progress. :tup:

I'd love to go and photograph it (and check out the Mass Games at the same time). And Pyongyang is not supposed to be dangerous to tourists at all. Much less so than any place in North America for example.

Its very safe because you are on 100% guided tours with many, many people surrounding you. You are not allowed to just go and see stuff. I have seen a dozen reviews of trips to the city, and the people all go to the same places and see the same things. Not like you can just go to the building site and see what is up. However, if they were actively rebuilding the tower, they might be thrilled to take you there so you could take pictures for the world to see. I also imagine the foreign construction firms will be encouraged to talk about this project as much as they want if things are going well.

I imagine NK will be making a very big deal about this project to show the world what it can do - assuming its really going to happen.

^Yeah. . . seems like everyone that goes to NK ends up at the same places. . . be that as it may, I doubt NK is any more or less dangerous than anywhere else. . .

Pyongyang would be a great host site for a Formula Gran Prix Race. All the streets are already empty! :D

Haha :cheers:

Seriously, only a few cars are seen on the major streets in the google maps imagery

Probably because they haven't made an attempt of doing so.

Shouldn't they have looked at repairing the structure before resuming construction?

Yeah, haha! Don't we all just love laughing at other people's misfortune? North Korean suckers! :rolleyes:

Maybe one could pretend to be from a construction company interested in doing business. This is assuming they would allow such a thing to happen.


They could just dump dirt at the opening to every window and allow the wind to blow seeds in and eventually cover this thing in green. This would eventually happen naturally as leaves and other organic debris landed inside and decomposed.

What they do seems to be all for show. A huge unused building to go with the unused roads that only serve an illusion that there is some sense of civilization there.

Sure. . . but who's to say they aren't in fact doing that. . .

:rolleyes:

Looks like we need another reminder to the trolls coming into this thread. . . once again we'll remind you that your posts must be on topic and within the guidelines of this forum. . . trolling, baiting, name calling and off topic rants will not be tolerated. . .

:eek: I can't believe they are actually going to start re-building this thing. Does anyone know if this is private investment or if the government decided to start building the thing again after 15 years?

Either way, I do wonder about the state of that exposed concrete. The erosion of the weather and climate on this shell can't be good. I wouldn't trust the structure of this thing any further than I could throw it. Now as for the updated glass facade, it would look great if they ever got to that.

With North Korea entering yet another bad famine (worst since the 90's) I don't think re-starting construction on the RH should be a top priority for this gov't. Glass, or bread? :rolleyes:

Architectural Record

Construction of “World’s Worst Building” Resumes?
August 07, 2008

Article


Does mention the need for frame repair, but not very specific. :shrug:

The article says that it's a false report that they started construction and it's unlikely they will finish the tower.

Ah the power of unsubstantiated reports. . . typical of what you find on these messageboards, "For those fascinated with the “Phantom Pyramid,” as some have called Ryugyong, the rumor might be a case of wishful instead of rational thinking."

I suspect this thread will once again be shelved. . . as it appears this building might well be. . . but then who is shoreing up the top floors? Who installed the panel of glass on the side of the building? Wishful or not, the fact remains that something's going on. . .

. . .

^Hard to tell. The photos could be photoshopped, although multiple sources of pics from different angles make me think they actually did put glass up on part of it. The shoreing up is hard to prove or disprove. It is what is so fascinating about the country and this project. No one really knows the truth about the building and even reasonably reliable news sources seem clouded and jaded in the facts they report on it. There's just so much overall negativity involved with North Korea.

I'm rather surprised this thread has remained unclosed for so long now.

The article says the report "appears to be false". This is why the author put a question mark at the end of his headline. Indication of uncertainty.