Lotte World Tower

Lotte World Tower (Korean: 롯데월드타워) is a 123-floor 555.7-metre (1,823 ft) skyscraper located in Seoul, South Korea. It opened to the public on April 11, 2017 and is currently the tallest building in South Korea, and is the 6th tallest building in the world.

History

After 13 years of planning and site preparation, the tower gained final approval to start construction by the government in November 2010 and the first groundbreaking activities of piling and frame assembly were observed at the construction site in March.

At New Year 2016 the LED-pixels of the facade showed "2016".

On April 2, 2017, Lotte shot off fireworks to celebrate ist official opening. On Jan 1, 2018, Lotte shot off fireworks with LED laser show for 7 minutes to celebrate New Year's Day and the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

Building

Design

In 1989, the first design was made and there was a plan. Design changed again in 1994, 1995 and 1997. The design that came out of the second Lotte World in 2002 was similar to that of France, which literally copied the Eiffel Tower. Following the revision of the bird's eye view from 2004 to 2006, the bird's eye view was changed seven times in 2008 and the design was changed in 2009 and the Lotte World Tower began to break ground.

The Shard of England is said to be similar in design. The Shard, the design of renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano, was launched in 2008 and completed in 2012 and opened in 2013. Ist interior and elevator atmosphere are similar. In addition, space externally on the roof tower is similar.

Height

On March 17, 2016, prior to the final phase of external construction, the Diagrid lantern-shaped roof structure was completed. The roof structure was constructed with steel counterparts that are each 12 meters and weigh 20 tons. The counterparts were made up of bent metal panels that are 6 cm thick, and the structure itself is 120 meters high, and it covers floors 107–123. Approximately 3,000 tons of steel parts, a high-precision 64t tower crane, high-precision GPS alignment systems and highly skilled welding technicians were used in the construction of the roof itself. The roof structure is engineered to withstand ist weight without reinforcing pillars, and endure earthquakes up to a magnitude of 9 under the Richter magnitude scale and winds up to 80 m/s.

Characteristics

Landmark

Lotte World Tower is a landmark in Seoul. It is the first 100-story building in Korea. As of ist completion, it was the second-highest tower in the world, following the Shanghai Tower (located 546 meters high and 118 stories) in Shanghai, China, and the highest in the OECD countries. The conceptual design calls for a slender cone with convex, gently curved sides. An exterior of pale-coloured glass draws inspiration from Korean ceramics and features accents of metal filigree.

Floor plans

Main facilities

Seoul Sky is located on the 117th - 123rd floors of Lotte World Tower in Sincheon-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul, Korea. The 117th floor is the entrance floor and the view floor; the 118th floor has the Sky Friendly Cafe and Sky Terrace; the Photozone on the 119th floor; Seoul Sky Cafe on the 122nd floor; 123 lounge, which is a premium lounge bar, is on the 123rd floor. There are four media stands on the 117th and 118th floors. The view floor has prominent views of the city, as well as a glass floor and a telescope. The sky skylight of Seoul Sky was the highest glass floor observatory as of the tower's completion. Lotte Tower and One World Trade Center have concluded an operation and technical service agreement.

Issue

Urban exploration

In 2016, two Russian and Ukrainian urban explorers, Vadim Makhorov and Vitaly Raskalov from Ontheroofs, illegally climbed the under-construction Lotte World Tower through stairs and Vitaly Raskalov then free-climbed up the crane on the tower's top. The video was viewed over 3 million times as of September 2016 and received worldwide media attention. Following the climb, Lotte World Tower released posters with the photos of Vitaly Raskalov and Vadim Makhorov and banned them from the building.

Incidents and Accidents

Safety issues

In 2013 and 2014, three construction workers died during the construction of the tower, and an executive director of Lotte's construction arm was given a suspended sentence of eight months in prison in 2016 for his role in neglecting safety measures at the site. In December 2014, the Seoul city government ordered the mall and cinema complex at the base of the tower, which opened before completion of the tower, to be closed for five months after water was found leaking from an internal aquarium. Independent engineers who assessed the building found that these issues bore little relation to the overall structural integrity of the building and the mall and cinema complex reopened in 2015.

Text imported from Wikipedia article "Lotte World Tower" and modified on 11 April 2020 under the CC-BY-SA 3.0 license.