The Marmot’s Hole

13 Comments

1. SomeguyinKorea
   Posted March 30, 2007 at 12:46 am | Permalink

   Should Korail wait until the KTX is running in the black before moving on to its next tax-payers-funded extravagant project?

2. globalvillageidiot
   Posted March 30, 2007 at 5:17 am | Permalink

   Have to admit it would be cool to see, but the construction process - and the ultimate addition of tens of thousands of building occupants - would bugger up traffic in Yongsan Gu more than it already is…

3. gbnhj
   Posted March 30, 2007 at 7:22 am | Permalink

   Daewoo Construction has been given authorization to build two mixed-use towers (34- and 37-floor) in an area adjacent to Yongsan Station, according to an article a few days ago in the Donga Ilbo. You know the blocks of whoredom, with all the pink-lit back-alleys? Well, that’s where they’re going up. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2012.

   Catch this: the word is that the property owners were paid KW100,000,000 per pyeong for that (well-located) collection of crap. Heck, if there were ever anyone who shouldn’t be on the receiving end of a windfall…

4. Brendon Carr
   Posted March 30, 2007 at 8:22 am | Permalink

   I was thinking the same thing about the developer — no-account, money-losing Korail wants to build this enormous white elephant. There are so many 100-story construction projects dancing around the imaginations of Korea’s developers right now that I wonder how all the tenants will be found to occupy that space.

5. R. Elgin
   Posted March 30, 2007 at 9:02 am | Permalink

   That is a good question. How will they keep this king-sized building from looking like the ghost buildings I find in Kwangju (creepy-looking rows of empty office buildings) or will they stick garish signs all over it and turn it into a 150-story shi-jang discount villa because they can not find any decent commercial tenants?

   I also wonder about the *scale* of this project and how it will look in reality. Right now the current scale of the neighborhood is much smaller and, though drab and older, quite human-size in scale. This size of a building is quite a different thing though.

6. Linkd
   Posted March 30, 2007 at 9:10 am | Permalink

   Option 1: Office space for the soon-to-be international financial hub.

   Option 2: Housing project for ex-farmers forced to abandon their farms post-FTA.

   Option 3: New home of the world’s tallest red-light district.

   Option 4: As-yet-unnamed Ministry building for the 40,000 new civil servants the current president has hired since taking office.

   Option 5: Fill the bottom 140 stories with bu-dong-san’s specializing in renting out the top 10 stories.

7. SomeguyinKorea
   Posted March 30, 2007 at 9:22 am | Permalink

   “There are so many 100-story construction projects dancing around the imaginations of Korea’s developers right now that I wonder how all the tenants will be found to occupy that space.”

   Excellent point. These projects will cannibalize one another for tenants.

8. Sperwer
   Posted March 30, 2007 at 10:00 am | Permalink

   It’s never gonna happen.

9. Haisan
   Posted March 30, 2007 at 10:19 am | Permalink

   I would far prefer to see all this building energy go into designing something interesting rather than tall for tall’s sake. Look at Roppongi Hills — what makes the Hills interesting is the first four floors, not the upper 60 or so. But what do I know?

10. R. Elgin
    Posted March 30, 2007 at 10:55 am | Permalink

    I would far prefer to see all this building energy go into designing something interesting rather than tall for tall’s sake. . .

    Haisan, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes . . . ∞ and make it uniquely Korean and I don’t mean “Daewoo”.

    I wonder if they will now read that and think about it instead of giving us “option 5: Fill the bottom 140 stories with bu-dong-san’s specializing in renting out the top 10 stories.”

11. Hachiko
    Posted March 30, 2007 at 4:33 pm | Permalink

    There needs to be a discussion on the problems of urban planning, particularly in Seoul. Proposed skyscrapers in the Digital Media City, Twin Towers in Songdo, and now this. When will the silliness end? Noone has done a proper feasibility study, preferring instead to have nice concept drawings which are nothing more than simple artist renditions. Government officials at all levels need to embrace basic urban planning standards, having a proper master plan, a believable feasibility study and some real financial numbers. The incompetence is staggering.

12. michael
    Posted March 30, 2007 at 4:58 pm | Permalink

    What Haisan said. Seoul doesn’t need any more alienating skyscrapers, especially ones so close to the Han but not interacting with the river. Isn’t Seoul overbuilt already, since it now includes all the bedroom communities in Gyeonggi-do?

13. mins0306
    Posted March 30, 2007 at 5:42 pm | Permalink

    There are if I remember correctly no less than five 100 storey building projects in the works, two of them having been in the drawing board for years. But nothing concrete(pun intended) has come out of it.

    I think this will also go the way of its predecessors.