Progress on the Ryugyong Hotel

An article showed up yesterday on the "All That Is Interesting" website, with a photograph of what appears to be the near completion of the Ryugyong Hotel's curtain wall. Not easy to substantiate but, I don't think there is much point to any skepticism as there has been a trickle of images and reports showing progress on this giant, mysterious phantom over the past few years.


photo from: All That Is Interesting website.

As a Catabolist, I have naturally been intrigued by this structure and have been following the transformation since the Egypt's Orascom Group took over its construction in 2008 in a deal with the North Korean government that would guarantee the completion of what had been dubbed in the West as the "Hotel of Doom", among other things, and gave Orascom Telecom Holding S.A.E. the rights build and run a "consumer" 3G cell phone network and possibly a foreign-invested banking facility in the impoverished country.

Reports that Orascom, through its construction arm, Orascom Construction Industries, would initiate this investment in North Korea by building a modern concrete manufacturing facility outside Pyonyang and re-initiate the construction efforts after some 16 years, led to a meeting with Orascom Group's chairman Naguib Sawaris in 2008.

My meeting with Sawaris, who is stepping down from chairmanship of Orascom to pursue more direct ambitions within Egypt’s evolving political climate, was meant to spark interest in developing the project’s documentation. The idea was met with muted enthusiasm by Sawaris and his public relations people. Muted I say because yes, what great PR this would spark for his multi-billion dollar concern, doing what they do best – entering into risky developing countries with a 3-prong solution - develop industry, real estate and communications and what better place to showcase their vision than within such a challenging climate as North Korea. Not only for Orascom but for the North Koreans as well, in a potentially game-changing dive into transparency and openness…

Speaking of barriers to entry!

Well, I consider this one of my greatest failures as a Catabolist - not having been successful in knocking down the plethora of barriers and gaining some sort of access to the structure. I had been haunted and consumed by visions of what it would be like in the dark, empty corridors. The thousands of crumbling cement portals looking out onto Pyongyang’s streets and surrounding hills.

Well, it looks like Orascom is on track to finish the building next year, in time to commemorate the anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, whose spirit is most certainly lurking around Ryugyong’s corridors.

Below is the brief article from “All That Is Interesting” as well as some more detailed accounts of the hotel, deal and overall project.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/JL23Dg01.html
http://ryugyonghotel.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryugyong_Hotel


The Transformation Of The World’s Worst Building

http://all-that-is-interesting.com/post/6938332046/the-transformation-of-the-worlds-worst-building

Ryugyong Hotel is a 105-story skyscraper in downtown Pyongyang, North Korea renowned for once being dubbed the “World’s Worst Building” after having remained hallow for over 20 years. Construction began in earnest in 1987 and, if it had been completed as schedule in June 1989, would have been the tallest hotel building and the 17th tallest building in the world.However, Ryugyong Hotel was not completed in June 1989. After the crumbling of the Communist bloc and the deterioration of the North Korean economy, construction halted after the outside of the hotel was complete. What remained for almost 2 decades was a window-less, empty shell of the hotel in the middle of Pyongyang, which media outlets called “The Worst Building in the World”,”Hotel of Doom” and “Phantom Hotel”. Below, one can see how the Ryugyong Hotel stood for these years:

photos from: All That Is Interesting website.

However, in 2008 construction resumed after Orascom — an Egyptian cell phone company — was given the rights to the hotel. After 3 years, the exterior of the hotel is now finished, with work progressing on the interior for a planned completion date in 2012.