From glory to abandonment: These iconic skyscrapers now sit empty
Around the world there are towers reaching for the sky that for one reason or another have gone unfinished, becoming physical reminders of a city’s history.
Building a skyscraper is an immense undertaking, requiring precise engineering and plenty of funding. There are a number of examples around the world of what happens when either of these factors fail.
Each of these unfinished towering buildings are a physical reminder of some historical event or hubris of the builders. Here’s a look at some of the most famous ones.
The ‘Hotel of Doom’
The dictatorial regime of North Korea, among its vanity projects, threw some of its limited resources into building the Ryugyong Hotel in the capital city Pyongyang. Construction began in 1987 on the 105-story building, measuring nearly 1,100 feet, and it was supposed to be completed two years later.
Nearly four decades on, and and two more Kims, the ‘Hotel of Doom’, as it is also known, remains unfinished. Work was halted in 1992 due to an economic depression and famine that struck the country after the Soviet Union collapsed.
New York’s ‘leaning tower’
While cutting corners may save you time and money in the short run, it can end up being extremely costly as the builders of 1 Seaport in New York City found out. What was supposed to be a 60-story skyscraper, reached the 670-foot mark when its builders realized they had a serious problem, the building was tilting.
They may have saved $6 million by not drilling down and setting the foundation on the solid bedrock below, but now all parties involved are bleeding money to pay for lawyers to figure out who is responsible for the building “shaped like a banana.”
The ‘Tower of Bitterness’ in Beirut
Lebanon was enjoying a time of prosperity in 1974 when work began on the Beirut Trade Center building. However, the following year, civil war broke out, and snipers took up residence in the 40-story project, along with other high-rises. The complex earned the moniker Burj al-Murr, or the “tower of bitterness” and remains only 70 percent complete.
The world’s tallest slum
The Centro Financiero Confinanzas in Caracas, Venezuela was supposed to be the nation’s version of Wall Street according to the person behind its construction, David Brillembourg. However, Brillembourg‘s death in 1993 and the country’s financial crisis the following year halted work on the 45-story skyscraper, also known as the Tower of David.
Even though it was incomplete, around 3,000 squatters took up residence, making it the world’s tallest slum, until they were evicted in 2014 when the structure was deemed unsafe. The building is in an even more precarious state after a 2018 earthquake left the top five floors tilted.
LA’s Graffiti Towers
In the heart of downtown Los Angeles, near the Crypto.com Arena, home of the LA Lakers, stand three high-rise towers that make up the abandoned Oceanwide Plaza development. Work on the project stopped in 2019 when the Beijing-based conglomerate behind the project, Oceanwide Holdings, filed for bankruptcy.
The up to 49-story buildings over the ensuing years have become a canvas for graffiti artists and a launch pad for base jumpers. Despite the city’s efforts to fence off the buildings and clean them up, vandals are still painting the outside of the buildings.
“The Graffiti Towers have worldwide infamy at this point,” said Cassy Horton, co-founder of the Downtown Los Angeles Residents Association, speaking to the Los Angeles Times. “It’s like this beacon that shines and says, ‘Come create mischief down here and you won’t get in trouble. This is the spot to do it.’”
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