"Pyongyang 105"... the Ryugyong Hotel

[tony speller]

Man... what a mistake. The DPRK Government now (well, a while ago) has officially "removed" this building from existance. I mean, it's still there... but it's been removed from all city paintings and no one is allowed to talk about it.

I've always found this building and it's history pretty intresting. A perfect model/representation for what kind of country North Korea is. The fact that it looks like (and shares the same dimentions with) the Ministry of Truth is pretty crazy too.

[MJLO]

That's an awsome looking structure. Do they use it? and how tall is it?

[tony speller]

they never finished it. it's been sitting vacant since the early 90s. Google it man... or just Pyongyang in General (tour journals, etc). Weird stuff...and you'll find enough to read for a long time.

It really suprises me that more people don't know about this hotel when its such a failure/eye-sore.

It is 105 stories... how ever many feet that is. The top 7 floors were planned on being rotating restaurants, while the rest of the building filled with something like... 3,000 rooms. North Korea doesn't even get enough tourists in one year to fill that hotel for one day.

God bless Stalinist Communism.

[damus]

Why would they make this building "nonexistant"? This makes no sense to me.

[tony speller]

Why would they make this building "nonexistant"? This makes no sense to me.

because it's obviously an embarasment.

Ever read the book 1984? Yeah... that's pretty much the DPRK. Lifestyle, way of thinking, propaganda, leader worship... everything.

If they say that something's not there, even when you can see it... obviously it's not really there (and never has been).

this is funny

[MJLO]

communism, if the government says it doesn't exist

it doesn't exist.

[dimebag1980]

Very interesting. Considering the way they view this building, I'm not surprised I've never heard of it. Absolutely amazing. That's got to be one hell of a footprint on that thing. Because of its massive width, it doesn't appear to be 105 stories tall. Wow.

[wolverine]

Yep, I've read a lot about this non-existant building. There are some good closeup images I found of it.

The building WILL eventually collapse. It's entirely constructed out of bad concrete, which is one of the reasons why construction was haulted

[Aporkalypse]

Really interesting post, I knew NOTHING about this. It is an oddly ironic architectural metaphor for communism.

[hood]

It's 1,083 ft tall with a maximum width of 525 ft, it's 3,875,386 sq ft and was supposed to have 3,700 guest rooms. It's also listed as the first building outside of Chicago and NYC to be over 100 floors.

[tony speller]

It's also listed as the first building outside of Chicago and NYC to be over 100 floors.

does it really count though when they never finished or used it?

[monsoon]

Pyongyang is a thoroughly depressing city when seen from the air.

Here is a satellite photo of the hotel. Ryugyong Hotel on Google Maps

[Recchia]

Pyongyang is a thoroughly depressing city when seen from the air.

Here is a satellite photo of the hotel. Ryugyong Hotel on Google Maps

Damn, are you right! It's so brown...

[ScheuerJD]

does it really count though when they never finished or used it?

Does it really count since it doesn't exist?

[monsoon]

There is a really good photo of this disaster at this link.

Even if they had managed to complete construction it would have been an economic failure. So few people go to N. Korea each year, they could have all stayed in the hotel and only occupied about 10% of its capacity.

[tony speller]

wow. this is the best close up i have ever seen of this place. i've never seen the base of it before... and from this picture, i'm really suprised that it's still standing. i wonder both when it's going to fall... and when it does, how many people it will kill. I don't look forward to that day.

[MJLO]

if you look at the satelite images, it's pretty isolated, I wonder if when it falls if it will do much damage outside of it's area at all.

[Inkdaub]

It looks like it's just built on a big dirt hill. I hope it never falls down as I like the strangeness of it.

[hood]

What I find hard to beleive is that that much work, effort and money can be put into something just to let it set and rot, it's unimaginable.

[ScheuerJD]

What I find hard to beleive is that that much work, effort and money can be put into something just to let it set and rot, it's unimaginable.

That's communism for you.

[GRDadof3]

wow. this is the best close up i have ever seen of this place. i've never seen the base of it before... and from this picture, i'm really suprised that it's still standing. i wonder both when it's going to fall... and when it does, how many people it will kill. I don't look forward to that day.

When it does fall, and people will probably be killed, it will be covered up. Remember Chernobyl?

What a freakin weird looking place.

[tony speller]

well... i doubt it'll kill as many people as Chernobyl

[GRDadof3]

well... i doubt it'll kill as many people as Chernobyl

I was referring more to the massive coverup by the Soviets than I was the number of casualties.

[tony speller]

I was referring more to the massive coverup by the Soviets than I was the number of casualties.

right! actually, i doubt any of us would even know if it fell.

[NcSc74]

I kinda like it in a strange macbre way. In this world you gatta have strange and quirky to balance out mondane and usual. Besides it does fit the country it is in perfectly. Long live the concrete monolith that doesn't exist......