What I find most amazing about this article is not that construction is being held up because of a dispute over cultural preservation, but the land these buildings sit on was bought for $15 billion:
Booyoung Group’s buildings have been designated as modern architectural assets by the Seoul city government. [SEOUL METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT]There are seven decaying buildings strangely ornamented with rectangular shapes right in the center of Seoul, where land is worth its weight in gold, a stark contrast to the clean modern structures surrounding them.The seven old buildings are located beside the Westin Chosun hotel in Sogong-dong, Jung District, central Seoul. The cafes, massage parlors and other shops in these buildings were all closed down last week. A restaurant on the first floor of one of the buildings had a notice that said, “Due to the reconstruction of this building, we are closing our restaurant on Dec. 22, 2015,” indicating that the reconstruction did not take place for seven months.
The seven buildings sit on about 6,562 square meters (1.6 acres) of land, which the construction company Booyoung Group purchased for about 1.7 trillion won ($15 billion) from its previous owner, Samwhan Corporation, in order to build a hotel. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but the Seoul government is making preservation demands on the construction company which is halting their plans to build a hotel. I think this architect quoted in the article does make a good point:
An architect who requested to remain anonymous said, “We need to reevaluate how much the designated buildings are worth, culturally speaking. Just because a building looks old does not mean it’s worth being preserved.”
Looking at the buildings it is not like they are architectural masterpieces. They are quite honestly ugly rectangles. It will be interesting to see what happens with this development in the coming years.
“What I find most amazing about this article is not that construction is being held up because of a dispute over cultural preservation, but the land these buildings sit on was bought for $15 billion.”
As noted in this chart, land prices in Korea have skyrocketed since the early 1960s – increasing 3000 times from 19.6 won per pyong, to 58,325 won per pyong (by 2013). Of course, property values in and around Seoul increased even more.
A personal anecdote:
Back in the late 1980s, my wife and I once gave a neighbor lady a ride out to her in-laws’ farm near Munsan to pick up some rice and other produce. The in-laws were this old couple who literally lived in a dilapidated, one-room shack. Old boy was wearing rubber boots that went up to his knees, dirty pants, and a grey t-shirt (that used to be white) and he was missing half his teeth. I got to shooting the breeze with him about his farm and asked him which fields were his. He pointed out a couple of rice paddies around his house and said these were all he farmed anymore. He pointed across the road and said the land over there (looked like ten acres or so) used to be his but he sold it a few years back. I asked him how much did he sell it for and after doing a little math in my head, I realized this guy sold that land for over $2 million. I asked what he did with the money, and he said he bought houses in Seoul (and the neighbor lady’s family lived in one of them). He said he was perfectly comfortable living on the farm and had no interest in moving into the city. So here’s this old farmer that looks like he’s poorer than dirt – but he’s actually a multi-millionaire because he just happened to own property near Seoul.
I suspect there are a lot of Koreans who by some stroke of good fortune, came to own land in and around Seoul after the Japanese were forced to leave in 1945 (and had to give it all back to the Koreans). Those who hung onto it and sold it in the last 20-30 years became extremely wealthy overnight. And those who hung onto to it until the last few years – might have become billionaires.
guitard
9 years ago
Hmm … for some reason the chart URL didn’t make it. And all the spacing between paragraphs didn’t make it either.
@Guitard, I am still not seeing it post. It could be because of the recent WordPress Upgrade and the comments plugin I use may need updating as well to display an web address link to a JPG file.
Flyingsword
9 years ago
Nothing historically “Korean” about these building. Just old crappy concrete from the 70’s. I guess some government official his holding out for his big white envelope of cash to let the project go forward….sad.
![Booyoung Group’s buildings have been designated as modern architectural assets by the Seoul city government. [SEOUL METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT]](https://i0.wp.com/pds.joins.com/jmnet/koreajoongangdaily/_data/photo/2016/08/17202325.jpg?resize=350%2C247)
“What I find most amazing about this article is not that construction is being held up because of a dispute over cultural preservation, but the land these buildings sit on was bought for $15 billion.”
As noted in this chart, land prices in Korea have skyrocketed since the early 1960s – increasing 3000 times from 19.6 won per pyong, to 58,325 won per pyong (by 2013). Of course, property values in and around Seoul increased even more.
A personal anecdote:
Back in the late 1980s, my wife and I once gave a neighbor lady a ride out to her in-laws’ farm near Munsan to pick up some rice and other produce. The in-laws were this old couple who literally lived in a dilapidated, one-room shack. Old boy was wearing rubber boots that went up to his knees, dirty pants, and a grey t-shirt (that used to be white) and he was missing half his teeth. I got to shooting the breeze with him about his farm and asked him which fields were his. He pointed out a couple of rice paddies around his house and said these were all he farmed anymore. He pointed across the road and said the land over there (looked like ten acres or so) used to be his but he sold it a few years back. I asked him how much did he sell it for and after doing a little math in my head, I realized this guy sold that land for over $2 million. I asked what he did with the money, and he said he bought houses in Seoul (and the neighbor lady’s family lived in one of them). He said he was perfectly comfortable living on the farm and had no interest in moving into the city. So here’s this old farmer that looks like he’s poorer than dirt – but he’s actually a multi-millionaire because he just happened to own property near Seoul.
I suspect there are a lot of Koreans who by some stroke of good fortune, came to own land in and around Seoul after the Japanese were forced to leave in 1945 (and had to give it all back to the Koreans). Those who hung onto it and sold it in the last 20-30 years became extremely wealthy overnight. And those who hung onto to it until the last few years – might have become billionaires.
Hmm … for some reason the chart URL didn’t make it. And all the spacing between paragraphs didn’t make it either.
@Guitard, that is weird that the link did not get added. I will try to add it with this comment:
@Guitard, I am still not seeing it post. It could be because of the recent WordPress Upgrade and the comments plugin I use may need updating as well to display an web address link to a JPG file.
Nothing historically “Korean” about these building. Just old crappy concrete from the 70’s. I guess some government official his holding out for his big white envelope of cash to let the project go forward….sad.