Ryugyong Hotel

The Ryugyong Hotel is a 330-meter, 105-story pyramidal skyscraper in the Potonggang-guyok district of Pyongyang, North Korea, designed by Baikdoosan Architects and Engineers in a neo-futurist style with three sloping wings converging on a single pinnacle. Construction began on August 28, 1987, intended as a Cold War answer to Singapore's Westin Stamford Hotel and timed to open for Kim Il Sung's eightieth birthday in 1992; the structure topped out that year, but North Korea's economic crisis following the collapse of the Soviet Union halted work and left the building an empty concrete shell for nearly two decades. Its exterior glass cladding was finally completed on July 14, 2011, though the interior remains unfinished and the hotel has never opened; since 2018 its facade has carried large LED displays used for propaganda imagery. It is the tallest building in North Korea and remains the most prominent feature of the Pyongyang skyline.