Ghost Skyscrapers in Bangkok
August 11th, 2007 Posted in Destination reports, General
A few weeks ago the Wall Street Journal ran a story about all the abandoned skyscraper projects all over Bangkok. It’s hard for us to imagine this happening in a high-rent district like New York, London, or Hong Kong, but apparently there are more than a dozen complexes around Bangkok where the developer just walked away and said, “Never mind.”
Some of them were started a decade ago, before the Asian financial conference hit and lots of companies went belly-up. What’s bizarre is that some of these developments are collections of skyscrapers that were all started at the same time. So instead of one rusty eyesore, you’ve got a whole small city of them, some of them 47 stories high.
As you would imagine, the tropical weather is not kind to all this exposed steel braving the elements. Chunks of it are starting to fall off and with every month that goes by, there’s less chance that anything already in place can get used. Then there’s the Hopewell elevated train project, started in the early 90s and abandoned in 1997. For some great photos, including the one above, check out this posting.
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5 Responses to “Ghost Skyscrapers in Bangkok”
By Ron Mader on Aug 12, 2007
What a beautiful and absurd story and photos. Thank you for sharing this, Tim!
By Evelyn on Aug 20, 2007
Oh my! I hope this doesn’t happen with our proposed mass transit rail thing they’re going to try to build. I’m getting a visual — gulp! We’re already complaining about what it’s going to look like finished!
This is so sad; what a waste. Maybe some wealthy builder will come in and finish a couple of them before they fall apart. I hope so! It’s very unnerving to see this.
By kaykhanittha on Aug 21, 2007
I found more information about ghost buildings there:
http://www.bkkapt.com/
By tim on Aug 22, 2007
Kaykhanittha – please provide a direct link to the story as otherwise this is not helpful.
By Bangkok cheap hotel on May 2, 2009
Entertaining story! Keep up the good posts.