Yeah, it looks eerily deserted in most photos I have seen.

This video taken on April 30th, 2012 shows the Ryugyong Hotel and the streets of Pyongyang.

• Video Link

Fascinating video..........I followed the route on google maps.

In my opinion, this is the most beautiful skyscraper in history, and not even the old WTC, my second favorite buildings, are close to its level. However, the country itself is a shame and a terrible place to live.

Also, that video's pretty cool.

There is no accounting for taste I guess...:sly:

All these pictures have triggered a long-burning question in my mind: how are these pictures getting out in a closed society that keeps out foreigners and restricts photographers?

They don't. They allow tourism. The tourist however will be strictly monitored and watched. They are also not allowed to photograph or record some things, but usually they are allowed to take pictures and record videos of most things.

If there's anything to envy about North Korea, it would be how clean (at least for Pyongyang) the streets are.

^an utter lack of commerce has this beneficial side effect.

Wonderful videos. Someone has finally peeled back a little portion of the curtain. I really enjoyed seeing what the NK Govt doesn't want anyone to see. Normal NK life. Great job!

Looks almost exactly like Northern Scarborough. :D

These are the most recent pictures of the hotel. These were taken by Bruno Decorte on August 15, 2012. Credits belong to him.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27223472@N00/7864166132/
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8285/7...20a9c133_k.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27223472@N00/7864167754/
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7110/7...3f8216c0_k.jpg

The greatest day of this decade for this hotel - the first INTERIOR PHOTOS!!!!
http://www.nknews.org/wp-content/upl...2645787300.jpg
http://www.nknews.org/wp-content/upl...1938004370.jpg
http://www.nknews.org/wp-content/upl...1567994132.jpg
http://www.nknews.org/wp-content/upl...4051324651.jpg
http://www.nknews.org/wp-content/upl...1037061749.jpg
http://www.nknews.org/2012/09/finall...-never-finish/

wow a la Logan's Run!!!!

one question, i don't know if anyone can answer it...why build such a huge hotel there? what's the appeal of this city???

The interior looks like a map one would find on a multiplayer shooter, particularly Halo. That being said, looking up at the facade from the lobby is an impressive view.

Carlos, this is probably more of an (unsuccessful) attempt at status by the North Korean government than anything. When construction started, it would have been the tallest hotel in the world. All the more ironic that it was left incomplete for so long!

I have spend some time reading history books and studying, and one day I stumbled upon the reason why North Korea even built the Ryugyong. The Ryugyong's construction started in the 1980's. At this time their neighbor China was introducing Capitalism into it's economy. North Korea was influenced a lot by China back then so they wanted Capitalism in their country. The Ryugyong Hotel would have been the star of their Capitalist economy. They wanted foreign businessmen and women to invest in the hotel, to build restaurants, and other things with relaxed oversight in the Ryugyong.

It was all going well until the Tianamen Square protests in the late 1980's. Then they got really fearful. This is the time that they closed up to Capitalism. They were scared of the threat to their rule. Afterwards they just closed their country. The country then went downhill after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It has been in the dumps ever since.

This is seriously one of the most impressive buildings in the world.


The appeal is just to have a massively large structure. The MayDay Stadium in North Korea is also the largest enclosed stadium in the world (in terms of capacity) at 150,000. It's also one of the better looking stadiums in the world, IMO.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_iJ0-GU6sR5...ay_stadium.jpg

stunning and awesome now that it finally has its facade on.

The view upwards from the base is as spectacular as I had imagined.
I find it weird how my favourite skyscraper, and one of my favourite stadiums, are in North Korea.

damn, thanks man..this is the future!

http://weather.aol.com/2012/09/27/fi...n-hotel#page=1


http://www.blogcdn.com/weather.aol.c...ghotel-575.jpg

Fascinating. And now the tower is being finished as Kim young-un slowly starts recapitalizing the country with the news that farmers get to keep half their produce.

Still wish the interiors were completed or at least visibly being finished in this update.

Does anybody know when the cone part will start?
http://www.noever-design.com/tl_file...ang-tower2.jpg

:previous: He's kidding, right? :previous:

lol

Another construction pic (sorry for shite quality)
http://i49.tinypic.com/zlbrbd_th.jpg

Ryugyong art:
http://oi50.tinypic.com/jjp5df.jpg

Looking at that art you can almost hear the theme to 'Empire Strikes Back' in the background.

Those trees look frightening

Kind of shocking don't you think?

North Korea Ryugyong 'Hotel of Doom' may open next year

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/image...1_63875228.jpg
The Ryugyong Hotel has become a symbol of North Korea's economic problems

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20178985

^^ Can't there be a single article being a bit kinder to this poor freaking building? :no: It's been through enough, and now that it finally looks beautiful, the west still spits on it for its location and history. It's ironic to still call it a symbol of North Korea's economic problems if it's pretty much finished now, huh? And why do they always keep referencing that esquire comment that was made before reconstruction even started?

maybe because its facade has only been renovated for like 15 minutes? just a guess :rolleyes:

I think this is one GREAT architectural treasure!!! amazing building

Typical article:

North Korean "Hotel of Torture" Set To Finally Open

The Death Star set amidst Pyongyang's destitute and slum-filled wasteland cityscape is set to open some time in the forseeable future. The hotel has been under construction for a whole bunch of years until it was put on hold, presumably because they ran out of people for daily sacrifice rituals due to famine and general fail.

However, the hotel is finally nearing completion. Take a look at our horribly out-of-date construction photos that show a derelict concrete hunk, though this is no longer the situation. But who cares, you can't tell the difference - you can't even find North Korea on the map, so you'll eat up whatever sensationalist BS we serve you. On this note, we would also like to remind you how terrible North Korean reporting is, especially contrasted with our fair and balanced reporting with no skewed agenda.

The hotel's official name is "Hotel of Doom". Well, maybe it's not, but we don't care enough to ask North Korea for its actual name, so we'll include some bogus sensationalist name in the headline over and over again so it sticks in your mind. Who cares what the North Koreans think, they're the bad guys. The hotel is clearly beyond repair, as confirmed by some obscure commission 15 years ago, but some shifty Egyptians called "Orascom" decided to finish it anyway. They're probably the bad guys from the whole Tahir Square Revolution business, who, upon losing a battle for evil in their homeland, had to commit evil deeds elsewhere.

This report was brought to you by some media outlet that feels that North Korea is not doing a good enough job of discrediting itself on its own

Every picture I see of this building makes me think of a roller-coaster ride. I half expect to see some cars hurtling down one of the edges.

@ Lecom
Maybe BBC will hire you as their next writer, now.

Really, I don't understand any defense of it, other than that it may look better than some of the other aging communist monuments in that concentration camp of a nation. If it did have some architectural merit, I would award it some, perhaps it were in some Jetson's style futuristic city. The glass is kind of pretty, but there are thousands of building's that have that aspect covered.

Can you really picture any other use for it other than having some tyrannical, Communist Despot, scheming from the top ala the Emperor's tower on the Death Star, in Return of the Jedi. Probably not, or at least not as good(or evil....muahahaha!

If it were in Vegas you would like it.

But it's North Korean, therefore it's bad.

http://www.visitingdc.com/images/lux...el-address.jpg
http://www.visitingdc.com/images/lux...el-address.jpg

+

http://photos.lasvegassun.com/media/...eau01_t618.jpg
http://photos.lasvegassun.com/media/...eau01_t618.jpg

=

Some more pics of the original construction. They were taken from a video still which was probably recorded with a stapler.
http://oi50.tinypic.com/2442nol.jpg
http://oi50.tinypic.com/34qo0ie.jpg
Concrete pouring at the top
http://oi46.tinypic.com/1zmo8r5.jpg

It was voted "Worst Building in the History of Mankind" by Esquire magazine in 2008.

The American publication called it "hideously ugly, even by communist standards."


That's just because Esquire is owned by Hearst, and so they would of course neglect to mention the REAL "Worst building in the History of Mankind" which as everyone knows, is 4 Times Square AKA "The Conde Nast-y Tower" :yuck::koko:

The Hearst Tower itself is definitely a contender for fugliest building as well...

Ryugyong Hotel beats both soundly in terms of good looks.

'American' is the key word there...

Contrarians are just adorable.

I love Hearst and Ryugyong. :yes:

One interesting fact about this building is that it was only the 2nd supertall in the world outside of the US.

Officially the first was the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong in 1990, followed by the Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang and Central Plaza in Hong Kong both in 1992. Ryugyong Hotel though, broke ground 2 years before Central Plaza did - 1987 vs 1989.

If Ryugyong Hotel had had a 3 year construction schedule like Central Plaza did without construction delays, it would have been tied with Bank of China Tower for the title. Ryugyong Hotel and Bank of China each took 5 years to complete while Central Plaza took just 3.

When you think about the fact that when these buildings were built there were only 10 other supertalls in the world - all in the US. 2 of those were under construction, Library Tower in LA and Franklin Center in Chicago, plus Atlanta's Bank of America Center hadn't been built yet, that's pretty amazing. Think of how many supertalls there are today. There are more of them planned in New York alone today than existed in the world at that time.

Love it or hate it, but the Ryugyong Hotel is one of the world's first supertalls.

But the Ryugyong hotel is still under construction!

I'm sure we'll be hearing more about this building the western media as it gets closer to completion/opening/whatever, but I have to say that for a building that was commissioned and built by a communist dictatorship, I'm amazed that a) it finally got built and b) it could have looked a LOT worse. . . proportionally it's not too bad, despite the unusual shape of the structure. . . I also think the use of highly reflective monolithic glass curtain wall is effective. . . surely the only thing they could do to hide the years of imperfections that crept in after initial construction was put on hold. . .

. . .

got to tell you, i love this tower. i dont give a rats ass that someone else says its crap. i think it is pure art.

http://i.imgur.com/c8Eos.jpg
http://instagram.com/p/S-jHdZFmAQ/

From August:


Decades to Launch by Porter Yates, on Flickr

http://www.uniqhotels.com/media/hote...n%20holden.jpg
uniqhotels.com

Friggin mods deleting my posts...:rolleyes:

I'm waiting for the top to snap back like a Pez dispenser and out comes an ICBM.