The new owner of a project known as the world’s priciest building has decided to add over a dozen floors to make it Korea’s tallest as well. And its name is being changed from Yongsan Landmark Tower to the Triple One for the 111 floors it will have when completed.
The project earned the title of world’s priciest building because it was to have cost $1,020 per square-foot after it was scaled down from 150 stories in the original 2007 blueprint to under 100 stories in 2011 following the financial crisis. But after KORAIL bought the project in September for W4.16 trillion ($3.57 bil.), it scaled up the plan to call for 111 stories.
Famed Italian architect Renzo Piano has been commissioned to complete a new design for the Triple One by the end of 2011. Construction will be done by Samsung Construction, which built Taipei 101 and the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building. Construction is slated to begin in 2013. The Triple One will be the world’s second tallest building, after the 828-meter (2,716 feet) Burj Khalifa.
The Triple One will be designed to serve as the centerpiece of the new International Business Hub being planned for the Yongsan district on land to be vacated by the Eighth US Army when it moves its Yongsan Garrison to Pyeongtaek, about 55 miles south of its current location. Most of the Triple One will be office space, with the floors being added to be used for a roof-top garden, observatory and restaurant.
But the Triple One will have impressive cross-town competition from three other skyscrapers planned to be over 100 stories high. The Lotte Super Tower in the Jamsil district will be 123 stories and 555 meters high (1,821 feet), the Global Business Center next to Seoul Forest will be 110 stories and 540 meters (1,772 feet) and the DMC Landmark Tower in Sangam in northwestern Seoul which will be scaled back substantially from its original plan of 133 stories and 640 meters (2,100 feet).
