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April 28, 2008
Abandoned Hotels
No, this isn't related to any of our hotel clients! I stumbled upon this interesting, if not slightly depressing, blog post today on Neatorama. It actually links through to another blog -- ProTraveller -- that we should maybe have on our radar.
The post is a photo gallery of 16 abandoned and decaying hotels from around the world. Really, the pictures are the most compelling part, so you should check it out. One of the strangest examples they included is the massive Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea.
Three thousand rooms and seven revolving restaurants were planned for this massive concrete structure which has been dubbed 'The Worst Building in the History of Mankind' as a result of its failure to ever open for business. Construction was deadlocked in the 1990's so the outer structure is complete but it's an unsound building that doesn't have any windows or interior to speak of. At 105 stories, it would've once been the tallest hotel in the world and is certainly the tallest abandoned hotel standing today.
Some of the other visually compelling examples include:
Bokor Palace Hotel and Casino in Cambodia
Sinai Peninsula in Egypt
and the Shreveport Hotel in Louisiana
Posted by ian.jeffries at April 28, 2008 6:47 PM
Comments
Wow! Unbelievable...maybe the owners of these hotels can go back and restore some of these buildings. The "Today" show's Peter Greenberg just did a whole segment on "making old things new again." Perhaps they ought to take a cue from that segment and see if they can put new life into those buildings. Here's the video:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/24291817#24291817
Staying at a restored hotel would be a much cooler experience than staying at a chain hotel with no soul. Those are just my feelings personally.
Great post Ian!
Posted by: Karina Carretero at April 29, 2008 6:01 PM
классные снимки обязательно съезжу
Posted by: Kirill at November 14, 2008 4:46 AM