Update on Sathorn tower, as a tourist its pretty much impossible to get in now. Security has ramped up and the site is pretty well boarded up now with cameras everywhere. The guards who accepted bribes were all fired and new ones were brought in who are apparently much stricter.
What part of town is it in? I’m in BKK often and don’t remember it. Is it in Silom? I see lots and lots of sky cranes still working on the skyline from a 32 floor condo I stay on Sukhumvit. I wonder if I can see it? I’m passing through BKK on way to BuriRam in a couple weeks and now I’m curious.
I'd say that's a shame but as someone who climbed up to the top of the tower, that place is sketchy as hell. Pretty massive safety hazard honestly, glad they're doing something.
@@rtzx12570 The Washington monument is styled after an Egyptian monolith, one of the so-called Cleopatra's Needles. So unless the Egyptians were building warheads several thousand years ago, you're pretty far off. Might want to crack open a history book or two.
All I can think of when I see the Ryugyong Hotel is a quote from Simon in a video from a few years ago when he talked about Kim Jong Un "He couldn't manage the economy, he couldn't even mismanage it like his father did"
@@tannerking8299 agreed there is something wrong with the leader of Turkmenistan... I would reference his name if I knew it but I just don't care to learn it...
@@GeoffreyWareit’s not him… it more so looks like some MAJOR money laundering going on? Look at Miami, it’s riddled with empty skyscrapers, why? Money laundering. It’s a pretty big laundering venture to put dirty money into construction and real estate.
@@tannerking8299this isn’t really similar. North Korea has more of a shell of props rather than abandoned. Saying in general not pertaining to the video.
I've been inside the Sathorn Unique tower. The place stands out like a sore thumb and I happened to find my way there. The place had loads of dogs running around it had quite a few down and outs hanging around. I went up quite a few levels, but the place had holes in the floors and was incredibly dangerous. It was certainly an interesting adventure in Bangkok
@@simonk5571 No, wasn't looking for it at all. When it starts getting dark, you notice the building, as it is silhouetted against the other tower blocks in the city. Also, it is the only tall building covered in graffiti.
Do a Part 2 of this topic. The Burj with it's failed plumbing and the Los Angeles, China owned, abandoned building becoming a graphiti art gallery over downtown.
@@uingaeoc3905 Nope. The water supply can only pump fresh water up to the 2/3 mark. There are no working restrooms above that. It's a basic design flaw.
I think Sideprojects and Simon should do more of these "abandoned buildings" videos. I liked this one a lot, and have a nominatee for a future video from near where I live : the Majesty Building (aka "I - 4 Eyesore"). This 18 floor, 300 000 square foot waste of space "office tower" sits on a fairly nice lot, right next to Central Florida's main tourist connecting "expressway" (I - 4), in Altamonte Springs, Florida. The *Majesty Building* started life with a "fund as you build" inception from Claud Bowers, then CEO of independent religious broadcaster "Super Station 55" WACX. Building began on the site in 2001, the inner section rising fairly quick before funding dried up a couple of years later. It took a decade to put any outter covering on the incomplete building. Which is where the "Eyesore on I - 4" kinda remains today - an office tower with no actual offices inside, barely covered outside. Please consider the Majesty Building when you do more "abandoned" videos!
Add Detroit's (ironically named) Renaissance Center. General Motors, who owns it, is leaving it for smaller digs around the corner. Supposedly, the city, county, state, the owners of the building that GM is moving to, and GM, are working on finding a buyer, tenants, or even considering demolition. Ford buys and restores the historical Michigan Central Railroad building. GM over shoots it's dream. Figures they needed to be bailed out.
Yes, I just added another comment suggesting it. I still don't believe it as I think that building can be saved, but if demolished I believe it will be the largest/tallest building ever voluntarily demolished. I don't even know how they would do it. I'd put my money on Chrysler Tech Center being abandoned by 2030 too, although the tower portion is only 14? floors, so not exactly a skyscraper. But still, it was the second largest office building in the world behind the Pentagon when it was completed in 1996.
In 1996, I attended a conference at the Detroit Renaissance Center. My hotel room was on the 65th floor of the Westin Renaissance Center -- the highest hotel room I've ever had in my life. Everything about that trip to Detroit was fantastic. The food in the restaurant on the top floor (72nd?) was world class. Nearly 30 years later, I still have fond memories of my trip to Detroit.
If you've heen to New Orleans the Plaza tower looks really impressive from afar, you'd never guess it was a dilapidated structure unoccupied for decades.
The benefit of videos such as this , is that it makes your local councils failures pale into insignificance ( the High Street that attempts to block the passage of heavy farm machinery but results in damaged blockades as the machinery gets through etc).
Fun Fact : 11 of the top 12 tallest buildings in the USA all have over 75% occupancy. The lone exception is the new "Freedom Tower" (officially - One World Trade Center) in NCY (it has expansive interior space, is in an expensive market, plus it is still relatively "new").
@@Raulsta1985 while "Freedom Tower" is a design that I do not like, it does have a lot of interior space. Many of America's other "tallest buildings" are generally small at the top, some also have almost too much rentable floorspace.
I lived in Saudi in the early ‘80’s. There was a many-building (more than 50) apartment complex (probably 8 stories only) that was built as housing for bedouins. I can’t remember why but the bedouins rejected living in the apartments. They were never used for anything else so were just abandoned. Never lived in.
Born-and-raised Bedouins are physically uncomfortable inside any building with rigid walls. They'll house their livestock in one temporarily, but will hurry to go back outside again themselves. They don't like not being able to see around them, bc of potential for ambush by enemies or bandits.
Forgot the Renaissance Center (1978) in Detroit (General Motors' former headquarters) which is planned to be demolished. 73 floors and 5+ million sq. ft., it will be the tallest and largest building ever voluntarily demolished. The Chrysler Auburn Hills Technical Center (1996) is nearly the same size (also one of the largest office buildings in the world) and is not long for the world either, I imagine it will be history by 2030 the way things are going with Chrysler/Stellantis, perhaps even sooner. It's my understanding it's about 75% vacant. The designers anticipated its use might need to change someday so they designed it to be convertible into a... _shopping mall_ (smart 1990s architects)... OOPS
What I found quite interesting is that Sathorn tower is located just in one of the most bustling part of BKK. You see all the bright modern slick skyscraper all around it at night and then there’s this dark dilapidated building sticking out among them. And I don’t believe in superstition though, but every time I pass this building on my way home from work, it gives me a rather an uneasy feeling.
I love the story of the Torres de David! Let the squatters live in there! 5,000 want to live in there? They change it to make it work out? What's the benefit of leaving it empty, then?
another one is the former AT&T Center that made headlines earlier this year when it sold for just 3.6 million, a reported 98% drop in value from it's 2006 sale of over 200 million.
I climbed the Bangkok Ghost Tower in 2019! It was probably the best part of my trip to Thailand. Extremely sketchy, paid some guy about 20 CAD to get in. And then my partner and I climbed up alone. Took about an hour or so, but we explored along the way. Looked it up later and found out it was "haunted" and learned the history behind it. It is illegal to climb, so fair warning. But what an experience lol. There are definitely a lot of places you can fall to your death if you're not careful. But the top was absolutely amazing and one of the best views of Bangkok imo. Made for some awesome pictures too, could do some extra sketchy climbing on the beams up there if you want. I recommend looking into it when you're there, but again, it is illegal, dangerous and sketchy as hell lol....but an awesome experience ill never forget nor regret none-the-less.
For someone that never visited Thailand, recommending climbing that building in Bangkok is probably the dumbest thing to recommend out of all the things that you can do.
@@simonk5571 It was hands down the most memorable and unique experience of the trip. By far the best thing we did. I absolutely recommend it, if you're okay with the risks associated..Which I clearly laid out... You might not be, but someone who's willing to enjoy life a bit more might be. Thanks for your 2 cents though!
I remember the tower of david, there was a documentary about it with homeless families living in the half finished building for years. I miss those people
This is a building with a pretty bizarre and amazing story. People continue to advocate for it to be preserved as a monument to the civil war that lasted for decades (?) in Beirut.
Combine failed (social & economical) projects, gambling industry, beauty industry, inflated pharmaceutical prices, fast fashion, and entertainment industry. How many people/families could get a nice home/fixer upper with reno money AND one car with all the money that’s constantly wasted (and stolen)?
You can’t just abandon massive unfinished skyscrapers of exposed (inferior) concrete to the elements for long periods of time and just pick back up again. The amount of compromise done to structures is often insidious but can’t be overstated
There's a Belarusian post punk band called Molchat Doma and one of their album covers features an impossible looking building. I'd always thought it was a fictional drawing but turns out it's Ryugyong. And for good measure another album cover is of a monument to the party in Pyongyang.
2 месяца назад
Very interesting video, thank you for the presentation.
I drive past the Plaza Tower daily (on the expressway). I was so angry years ago when debris began falling. I’d been in my car with my son driving directly past it the day before. Unrelated: We’d also been driving down Rampart 20 minutes prior to the collapse of the unfinished Hard Rock Hotel in 2019. New Orleans has a history of substandard and, more often than not, nonexistent building inspections.
Both the Empire State building and the Chrysler building were not only completed but they have been in continuous use from then until this day. separately, many of the structures you describe are not skyscrapers. A 45 story building or a 49 story building is a high-rise, not a skyscraper.
The whole time I lived in New Orleans from when I was born until I moved when I was ten, I had NO idea that Plaza Tower wasn't in use. Of course I didn't know it's name either! So thank you morons for not taking care of my favorite building from when I was a kid and now it's going to be demolished!
People have been there. The one guy tore down and tried to ste a poster of one of the Kim's and spent time in a labour camp, pre covid. He wound up dying not long after his release
Record breaking skyscrapers have a habit of being built during recessions. Their building is planned during boom times but because skyscrapers take a few years to build the economy has turned down and lots of new office space floods a market which doesn't need it, only exacerbating the downturn. The Empire State Building was still only 1/2 half full by 1950 when is was opened in 1932. It's called the skyscraper curse or more precisely the "skyscraper index".
11:47 I've stayed opposite the Sathorn Unique tower in Bangkok it was supposed to match the luxury hotel but as apartments or something like that. It's still an impressive building
Outside Denver the big internet company Lucent Technologies tossed a crap-ton of money down to build their big new headquarters near Highlands Ranch, got the county to name the new road going there after them...and the company got dissolved into bankruptcy before the building was ever finished. Only the road name remains.
resuming construction of an abandoned hotel sounds fine until you realize it's been aging and "marinating" under the elements for roughly 20 years. (roughly almost 35 years now..)
Another building to add to a list (in any future follow up) is the Bahria Icon Tower in Karachi, Pakistan. The building was going to be built by one of the country's biggest developers during a massive real estate boom in the 2010s. But the project has been on hold for almost a decade after a massive corruption and political scandal (Omni Group Scandal) involving the (at the time) former and (at present) current President of Pakistan. The building's very problematic, built between a very important Shrine and Hindu temple. They're trying to sell it now but no one's buying it (per coverage on Profit PK).
One city littered with abandoned skyscrapers is Johannesburg with the most notorious being ponte city which at one point was one of the largest buildings in Africa
funny I actually just came a cross that building today and wondered what this abandoned skyscraper is and I actually wanted to explore it😮, it’s located at saphan taksin metro station bangkok
The one in Bangkok you dont even notice since theres so many other skyscrappers in the city (ranked 13th in the world in numbers). Unless your a tourist and actually looking for it.
A university history professor friend taught me the word "pharonic" decades ago. How many leaders have built un-necessary massive structures and ignored necessities like water lines, sewer lines, bridges and schools? Politicians always want to follow travel trends and build Olympic stadiums, massive aquariums, shopping malls and airports. They need to be more practical and creative. They should speak to local artists, not always architects.
I never understood why they just don't demolish the tower of David. I mean it's never going to be finished and it looks awful, specially since it's in the middle of the city
I love this guys videos but he trails his voice off so much i can barely hear the end of some sentences lol. Improves my reading with the captions on though
Not abandoned. But maybe never occupied to begin with. This could be a trend with many of Asia's impressive skyscrapers. Several of Shanghai's super-scrapers are thought never occupied. And North Korea's gleaming 90 story "peoples" hotel is said empty because the nation does not allow tourism or travel of any kind.
