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[NYT] S. Korea enters the race to build skyscrapers

April 16, 2015

The Korean peninsula’s soon-to-be tallest tower, the Lotte World Tower (Courtesy of Seoul Korea via Flickr/Creative Commons)

[NEW YORK TIMES]

When it comes to the skyscrapers of East Asia, no country can match the vertiginous zeal of China. After the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, China’s Shanghai Tower is the world’s second-tallest building, and three even loftier skyscrapers — in Suzhou, Shenzhen and Wuhan — are now under construction.

South Korea, by contrast, has never been known for its vertical ambition. Until recently, the tallest building on the Korean peninsula was actually North Korea’s retro-Futurist Ryugyong Hotel , a pyramid-shaped skyscraper begun in Pyongyang in 1987 and still unfinished.

That architectural curiosity will soon be surpassed by the 556-meter Lotte World Tower, which already dominates the skyline of Seoul and will be the world’s sixth tallest building when completed next year.

At 123 stories, the $3.6 billion Lotte World Tower will be taller than New York’s One World Trade Center (104 stories) and London’s Shard (72 stories). It is being positioned as a triumph of modern architecture, Seoul’s own version of the Burj Khalifa, complete with a 2,000-seat concert hall, a three-story observation deck, a “six-star” hotel and a rooftop garden accessible from the ground floor via an express high-speed elevator.

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