I have read that one of the tallest buildings in the world–if not the tallest–is a hotel in, of all places, Pyongyang, North Korea. My fragmented knowledge is that it was built after a South Korean company built the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur and that it has never been occupied, despite the booming convention business in North Korea these days. But I never find it included in lists of tall buildings. Can you shed any light? –D. Andrew Northend, Arlington, Virginia
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
pyramid-shaped Ryugyong in 1987, reportedly aiming for 105 stories to beat out a structure the South Koreans were building in Singapore (not Kuala Lumpur). In 1991, some time after the Ryugyong had been topped out, work halted for unknown reasons, though “out of money” would be a good guess. The building is lit up at night, at least in propaganda pictures, but is thought to be crumbling.
A monument to human vanity? Sure, but it’s hardly the only one, even on the Korean peninsula. As Hans Netten recounts in his amusing Web page at www.xs4all.nl/-hnetten/tallest.html, Seoul Tower, a modest 778 feet tall, once claimed to be the world’s tallest building by adding in the height of the mountain on which it stood.
