Ryugyong Hotel

The Ryugyong Hotel (Korean: 류경호텔; sometimes spelled as Ryu-Gyong Hotel), or Yu-Kyung Hotel, is an unfinished 105-story, 330-metre-tall (1,080 ft) pyramid-shaped skyscraper in Pyongyang, North Korea. Its name ("capital of willows") is also one of the historical names for Pyongyang. The building is also known as the 105 Building, a reference to its number of floors. The building has been planned as a mixed-use development, which would include a hotel. The building is currently listed by *Guinness World Records* as being the tallest unoccupied building in the world.

Construction began in 1987 but was halted in 1992 as North Korea entered a period of economic crisis after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. After 1992, the building stood topped out, but without any windows or interior fittings. In 2008, construction resumed, and the exterior was completed in 2011. The hotel was planned to open in 2012, the centenary of Kim Il-sung's birth.

A partial opening was announced for 2013, but this was cancelled. In 2018, an LED display was fitted to one side, which was used to show animation and film scenes.

## Construction

### Construction begins

The plan for a large hotel was reportedly a Cold War response to the completion of the world's tallest hotel, the Westin Stamford Hotelin Singapore, in 1986 by the South Korean company SsangYong Group. North Korean leadership envisioned the project as a channel for Western investors to step into the marketplace. A firm, the Ryugyong Hotel Investment and Management, was established to attract a hoped-for $230 million in foreign investment. A representative for the North Korean government promised relaxed oversight, allowing "foreign investors [to] operate casinos, nightclubs or Japanese lounges". North Korean construction firm Baikdoosan Architects & Engineers (also known as Baekdu Mountain Architects and Engineers) began construction on a pyramid‑shaped hotel in 1987.

### Construction halts

In 1992, after the building had reached its full architectural height, work was halted due to the economic crisis in North Korea following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Japanese newspapers estimated the cost of construction was $750 million, consuming 2 percent of North Korea's GDP. For over a decade, the unfinished building sat vacant and without windows, fixtures, or fittings, appearing as a massive concrete shell. A rusting construction crane remained at the top, which the BBC called "a reminder of the totalitarian state's thwarted ambition". According to Marcus Noland, in the late 1990s, the European Chamber of Commerce in Korea inspected the building and concluded that the structure was irreparable. Questions were raised regarding the quality of the building's concrete and the alignment of its elevator shafts, which some sources said were "crooked".

In a 2006 article, ABC News questioned whether North Korea had sufficient raw materials or energy for such a massive project. A North Korean government official told the *Los Angeles Times* in 2008 that construction was not completed "because [North Korea] ran out of money".

Though mocked-up images of the completed hotel had appeared on North Korean stamps during the initial construction period, the North Korean government ignored the building's existence during the construction hiatus even though it dominated the Pyongyang skyline. The government manipulated official photographs in order to remove the unfinished structure from the skyline, and excluded it from printed maps of Pyongyang.

The halt in construction, the rumours of problems and the mystery about its future led foreign media sources to dub it "the worst building in the world","Hotel of Doom" and "Phantom Hotel".

### construction resumes

In April 2008, after 16 years of inactivity, work on the building was restarted by the Egyptian construction firm Orascom Group. The firm, which had entered into a US$400 million deal with the North Korean government to build and run a 3G cellular network, said that their telecommunications deal was not directly related to the Ryugyong Hotel work.In 2008 North Korean officials stated that the hotel would be completed by 2012, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Eternal President Kim Il-sung. In 2009, Orascom's chief operating officer Khaled Bichara noted that they "had not had too many problems" resolving the reported structural issues of the building, and that a revolving restaurant would be located at the top of the building.

In July 2011, it was reported that the exterior work was complete. Features that Orascom had installed include exterior glass panels and telecommunications antennae. In September 2012, photographs taken by Koryo Tours were released, showing the interior for the first time. There were few fixtures or furnishings.

### Renewed work on building

In late 2016 there were indications of renewed activity, and a report that a representative of Orascom had visited North Korea. In 2017 and early 2018, there were signs of work at the site, with access roads being constructed. In April 2018, it was reported that a large LED display featuring the North Korean flag had been added to the top of the building. By May, an LED display had been added to one entire side of the structure, and there were reports that the building was being readied for occupation. By July, the LED display was showing animations and movie scenes. In June 2019, there was new signage bearing the hotel's name (in Korean and Latin letters) and its logo over the main entrance.

**SSP Image**: Image

 - concrete, reinforced

Gallery

Ryugyong Hotel was originally planned to be a pure hotel building that will house over 7000 guest rooms, and would become the tallest hotel in the world if completed before 1990s as expected, but it failed to come true.

In 2009, the developer said the tower will be mixed use, it will contain restaurants, apartments and business facilities other than hotels.

The cone structure atop the building will contain several revolving restaurants.

Ryugyong Hotel was designed by North Korean firm Baikdoosan Architects & Engineers, which is also the contractor of the project before 1992, the firm had built the building to its full height before the construction suspended in 1992.

Ryugyong Hotel is designed in a shape of pyramid, it's the tallest pyramid-shaped skyscraper in the world, surpassing the Shard in London and Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco.

Ryugyong Hotel is best known for its gigantic appearance, before the completion of Abraj Al Bait in Mecca, Ryugyong Hotel had been the visually most colossal skyscraper in the world. However, the total floor area of the tower is only 360,000 square meters, by comparison, Willis Tower in Chicago has 410,000 square meters of floor area. This is because the building is not a solid pyramid, the building is built above a Y-shape base, a feature that can also be found on many other skyscrapers in the world, which include Burj Khalifa, Jeddah Tower, Wuhan Greenland Center, and many more.

In October 2017, medias reported that the construction work has resumed on the site of Ryugyong Hotel.

As of 2018, Ryugyong Hotel remains unopened.