'Worst building in the history of mankind' gets a face lift

reuters ^ | 9/7/09

[mathprof]

A towering North Korean hotel which Esquire magazine once dubbed "the worst building in the history of mankind" has come back to life with a facade of shiny glass windows affixed to one side of the concrete monolith.

But few expect the North will ever finish construction of its 105-storey Ryugyong Hotel, started in 1987 and halted for 16 years because it could have bankrupted the destitute state.

"The hotel doesn't look as shoddy as it once did, probably because of the reflective glass," said a member of a civic group in South Korea that recently returned from a visit to the North.

The 330-meter (1,083 ft) tall hotel dominating the Pyongyang skyline consists of three wings rising at 75 degree angles capped by several floors arranged in rings supposed to hold five revolving restaurants and an observation deck.

Foreign residents of Pyongyang contacted in Seoul said Egypt's Orascom group began renovations last year.

The peak of the 3,000-room hotel, in a country that permits few foreigners to visit, is encircled in new rings of shiny steel. Mirrored glass has yet to be affixed to the other sides of the muddish-grey concrete structure, foreigner visitors said.

"North Koreans told me that you put the glass on one side and if all goes well and looks fine, you then continue on to the others," the civic group member said.

Analysts said the North was likely sprucing up the Ryugyong's facade as part of a campaign to try to turn the state into a "great and prosperous nation" by 2012.

The communist North started construction in a suspected fit of jealousy at South Korea, which was about to host the 1988 Summer Olympics and show off to the world the success of its rapidly developing economy.

But by 1992, worked was halted.

[_Jim]

OMIGOD ... IT LOOKS LIKE - A DOUBLEWIDE

(I would be ashamed)

[AnalogReigns]

NK is a dark place at nite.

North Korea at night from a satellite. Quite the contrast from South Korea,(and even rural China) eh? (I assume the one dot of light there is Pyongyang...

[Vince Ferrer]

Do they actually get tourists in Pyongyang, and is each room hard-wired with bugging devices?

Watch this, it is one of the most facinating videos on the web.

VICE Guide to North Korea

[DrGunsforHands]

Made me think of a castle at first but after taking a second look, it looks more like a maximum security prison.

[patton]

Still standing? Then the rule still applies.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

Remote viewed from a 2035 news article:

But few expect the U.S. will ever finish implementing Obama's "Ryugyong Hotel," started in 2009 and halted for 16 years because it could have bankrupted the nation.

[RayChuang88]

Mind you, they deliberately building the Moscow State University building—among with six other skyscrapers there—as “proof” of the superiority of Communism. They applied the same ridiculously ornate style to the Moscow Metro stations, too.

[hc87]

Boston City Hall. Or as the locals call it "the Packing Case that Faneuil Hall came in".

[dfwgator]

Then there is this monstrosity of a building in downtown Warsaw that was Uncle Joe's "gift" to the Polish people.

[patton]

How will it handle an earthquake, given the rigid form?

And what do they imagine will be served in the six empty restaurants, given that NK has no food?

[steve86]

I think the EMP in Seattle takes first prize.

I think we have a new suggested destination for the suitcase nuke in the other thread. (though I've been within a few hundred yards of this monstrosity, I've never actually seen it).

[pray4liberty]

Looks like something that should be on the Klingon home world.

Probably where they got the design.

[Boiling Pots]

I saw this in Havana a few years ago, it has always stuck with me.

Russian (formerly Soviet) Embassy.

[_Jim]

I saw this in Havana

Geez ... looks like one huge guard tower there in the center ...

[Joann37]

It looks nice, for a Christmas tree.

[Boiling Pots]

Using a Van Jones scale, they are far more advanced than we are, consider their “carbon footprint.”

[GonzoGOP]

That isn't even close to being the ugliest building in the world. A giant hotel and restaurant complex in a country with no food, tourists, or functioning economy, may make it the most pointless building, but not the ugliest.

Now the State of Illinois building, (sometimes known as the UFO of LaSalle street) constructed by the only government on earth more corrupt than the North Koreans, boasts some real ugly. It also has heat, that works sometimes, AC that works in the winter, elevators that shake the whole building, and an atrium that flooded.

[BuffaloJack]

And I thought they were talking about the UN Building.

[theBuckwheat]

I always cringe when I have to visit a building that a truck bomb can drive totally under.

[GonzoGOP]

Or if we are going for Chicago ugly how about the new Soldier Field. This Close encounters of the Roman Coliseum can only be designed by a committee of monkeys, the built by the Chicago political machine.