Posted on 11/03/2012 9:02:05 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
The Ryugyong Hotel has become a symbol of North Korea's economic problems
The 105-storey hotel which dominates the skyline of the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, may open next year, 26 years after construction began.
The pyramid-shaped building has become known as the "Hotel of Doom".
The chief executive of the Kempinski group, which will manage the Ryugyong hotel, said only 150 rooms on the top floors would be used as a hotel.
Reto Wittwer said shops, restaurants and offices would eventually open on the lower levels.
Construction on the building began in 1987.
It is the 47th tallest building in the world, at 330m (1,100ft), and has the fifth greatest number of floors, 105.
It was scheduled to be completed in 1989 in time for the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students.
But construction was abandoned in 1992 when North Korea suffered an economic crisis.
Its hulking, unfinished presence has long been an embarrassment for the North Korean leadership, analysts say.
It was voted "Worst Building in the History of Mankind" by Esquire magazine in 2008.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
I heard they haven’t put in pipes or electricity; that may be the reason for them opening only the top 150 floors.
I still remember one Japanese reporter getting a tour of Pyongyang and their first Western-style restaurant. The Japanese journalist asked her handler, “How much is a hamburger here?”
“About $3.”
“WOW! Only $3! In Tokyo a good hamburger costs at least $5!. This place must be busy all the time!”
The handler, without realizing what she was saying, responded, “Well, not really, in North Korea a worker makes around $3 a year.”
I’m sure the handler was tortured and shot for that comment.
Looks to me like a prime definition of “uglo”.
For about fifteen years, here is what it looked like, looming over the city like it was about to fall over. Even the North Koreans hated it, and air brushed the building out of photographs of the skyline. The only reason they are finishing it now is because this building became known to the outside world through the internet, and they want to get rid of the embarrassment.
The glass on the outside simply covers the cement structure that has been sitting outside, exposed to weather for fifteen years. I can't imaging that the building is actually safe to occupy. They will probably build some hotel rooms in a few floors just to say it is now finished, but it will be unlikely to be occupied very much at all.
Here is a great video of the culture that created this:
The inside has the ambiance of a parking garage.
The pyramid-shaped building has become known as the "Hotel of Doom".
I thought US Governmental CONSTRUCTION JOBS were always behind, but not 26 years late.
Hotel Of Doom?? No thanks... I'll wait for a HILTON to open up!!
You know....I was thinking this would make a great shooting location for a movie. If you offered them $10k a month...they’d likely be overwhelmed and let you use it for your movie setting.
I think Barry and his little bride should buy the dump; it would make a great retirement villa in a nation surrounded by his friends.
There have been reports of masonry, glass and wood from this monstrosity falling into the streets for years. I’ve also heard the upper floors of the building are seriously out of plumb so, at some point, the top of the “pyramid” may simply topple over, or fall into the lower floors.
However, the building does serve one useful purpose. For years, it was the “aim point” for focusing the high-resolution optical camera carried on USAF U-2s, flying recce missions south of the DMZ
Well at least it matches the outside of the building.
I think Barry should be forced to retire in North Korea. I mean how bad would it be to make a communist, live in a communist paradise like North Korea? He’d be in pinko heaven.
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