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Behold, the Worst Building Ever

105-story Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang draws Esquire 's scorn

By Nick McMaster, Newser Staff

Posted Jan 31, 2008 9:38 AM CST

(Newser) – The Ryugyong Hotel in downtown Pyongyang is surely one of the worst architectural failures in history, Eva Hagberg writes in Esquire: Not only has the 105-story building—which sucked up an estimated 2% of North Korea’s annual GDP from 1987 to '92—never opened, but the pyramidal “hotel of doom” is such an eyesore that the government routinely edits it out of official skyline photos.

Without official explanation, rumors have it that either the 3,000 room project was out of money when construction ceased in 1992, or it was incorrectly designed and is unsafe for occupation. "Imagine," Hagberg writes, "if the John Hancock Center (1,127 feet tall) in Chicago was not only completely vacant, but unfinished with zero hope of ever being completed."

[Images (2)]

[Videos (2)]

The Ryugyong Hotel (or Ryu-Gyong Hotel or Yu-Kyung Hotel or the 105 Building) is a partially constructed concrete skyscraper considered such an eyesore that it is often Photoshopped out of official photographs. (Wikimedia Commons)

The Ryugyong Hotel can be seen prominently in the skyline, considered by many to be an eyesore. (Wikimedia Commons)

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Behold, the Worst Building Ever