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.

True. These facts obviously point to construction of some sort going on at the building. That's really all that can be said right now.

It looks like people just don't know how to behave. . . gonna shut it down once again until we hear some more news. . .

. . .

Quite a lot of progress visible. This picture was posted on SSC today:

http://i41.tinypic.com/2gwf5fn.jpg

XXL version: http://www.flickr.com/photos/imresol...01633/sizes/o/

Looks like they really resumed construction!

As I said before, I think that the end result will actually look pretty decent once the entire structure is clad with black glass.

This looks so ridiculous. Cladding in the middle of nothing... :koko:

That's a weird place to start putting on the façade, but I guess they wanted everyone in the city to see it? The best place to do that would be higher up on the building.

Wow, this might actually turn out really nice! I like the idea of having the tallest abandoned building in the world but good for NK. The cladding looks more of a dark-green-musky water color to me rather than a black. It could be the lighting. They must've reinforced most of the structure if they wanted to restart construction after such a long time.

Totally lost track of this. Talk about random, look at the pattern of the fireproofing (assuming that's what the white stuff is). Looks like they're working down from this point. Although you can see they have covered the top, so something is happening up there. Time will tell, but I think this will look good once it's clad.

It will make the perfect home for Dick Cheney after he leaves office.

I would scared that the concrete is so bad that it's not really that stable.

do they fireproof concrete?

I wonder if the North Korean government will be as strict with photography of the hotel now that its construction has resumed.

from one of the ugliest buildings in the world to and ok building with cool clading:D :D :D but only because of the clading

I thought this building couldn't be finished cuz it was structurally unstable. Did they retrofit it? Or is the cladding and fireproofing merely for show?

Nevermind

Here is the same pic with a few tweaks, to bring out more detail:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y15...c5efc9_o-1.jpg

I think I wouldn' take the risk to sleep in that hotel. I' not sure the structure is really safe ;)

Anyway, even if they finish the work, the hotel will be nearly empty. Maybe there will be 3 or 4 rooms with tourists inside and everything else will be free. I don't really think it will be profitable.....

Merry Christmas!

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y15...gwf5fnxmas.jpg

Rendering:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3230/...b3c5ee86_o.jpg

^Looks nice, much better than the concrete monster it is today.

Good to see work on it being restarted...

Bizarre. As the Architectural Record article said, something like only 2,000 westerners visited North Korea all last year. No way they're going to be able to make a 3,000 room hotel even remotely profitable.

Also interesting that the article said that Orascom Group says they have nothing to do with the project as was said in that initial bit of news.

Too bad North Korea is still a communist sinkhole in the earth. :slob:

Well at least we now know food aid money is being well spent, sigh.

^^^wrabbit. That's really funny. Thanks for the laugh. :)

The glass actually looks kind of good.

from flickr

http://i42.tinypic.com/2ebbvgy.jpg
http://i44.tinypic.com/2qnp2iu.jpg

originally posted on ssc

Can they finally let that poor woman come down from the crane??

I remember reading blogs from people who had traveled to NK and toured the area around this building. I laughed when I read the part where the tour guide said that this building would be the tallest hotel when completed. I thought "How delusional can one be to think a building that has been on hold for 16 years can resume construction?'' I feel kind of stupid now.
Anyway, I hope it's safe and that the concrete hasn't been compromised.

New pics

http://i42.tinypic.com/2ebbvgy.jpg



http://i44.tinypic.com/2qnp2iu.jpg


from ZimasterX at SSC.

I still can't believe this is happening, has to be the most striking news about supertalls of the year, and we're actually liking the building

It's interesting to think that this building started construction 9 years before SkyscraperPage was founded. We've all set here looking at the unfinished project and have sort of mocked it. It's strange seeing it actually being worked on after all these years. This thing started construction in 1986! I was 7 years old when they started it.