Starting from the need to concentrate the settlement density of the emerging modern city in a building model with a pronounced vertical orientation and reduced planimetric footprint, over time the skyscraper has become the symbol of the contemporary metropolis and of a tension towards the sky that is often synonymous of economic power and prestige, as often demonstrated by the pharaonic investments fuelling the race to high-rise supremacy all over the world. But if, like Icarus, success is not always guaranteed by aiming high, sometimes the adrenalin rush has turned into a clamorous débâcle, with the progressive functional decay and abandonment of the building due to the lack of a clear programmatic vision extended to the building's life cycle, to the drying up of resources during construction or maintenance, to legal fetters or to the changing winds of the real estate market and wars. From Bangkok to Caracas, from New York to Beirut, Domus examines some of these “unburied architectural corpses” (to quote Ernesto Nathan Rogers) which, apart from a few lucky “resurrected” ones, still stand out in urban landscapes like specters in memory of past glories.
Ghost skyscrapers: 9 abandoned towers from Bangkok to New York
The largest in the world is in China, the one hanging is in New York and is less than 10 years old: Domus reveals some iconic skyscrapers abandoned due to the capricious winds of history, the market and neglect, now waiting to be resurrected.
Photo Jeremy Atherton from wikimedia commons
Photo Albertomos from wikimedia commons
Photo Francisco Antunes from Flickr
The construction of this forty-five-storey skyscraper, designed as the headquarters of the Confinanzas Group, began in 1990 but was halted in 1994 after a banking crisis in the country and the death of the main investor. The skyscraper remained unfinished over time and was occupied by a community of more than 750 families who came to settle here among squats, improvised shops and neighbourhood services. Featured as the setting for an episode of Homeland in 2013, the tower was also the subject of a documentary and research project by Urban-Think Tank collective (Alfredo Brillembourg & Hubert Klumpner), Justin McGuirk and photographer Iwan Baan, which won a Golden Lion at the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale
Photo Supanut Arunoprayote from Wikipedia
Photo Martin Cígler from Wikipedia
Photo Kang Tyngrwey from Wikipedia
Photo Benôit Prieur from Wikipedia
Photo Jakub Halun from Wikipedia
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- Chiara Testoni
- 12 March 2025
The neo-Gothic style mixed-use tower clad in granite and limestone with its 111 m height was for a long time the tallest building in the southern United States. Over time, a succession of ups and downs have decreed its unhappy fate, from the lack of budget for its maintenance in the 1970s, to a number of buying and selling transactions that followed without any real investment plan to renovate the building, which has remained vacant since 1986. In 2023, it was acquired by a developer with the aim of transforming it (perhaps) into a residential building.
The tower, located at the crossroads between Via Galvani and Via Fara (from which the name derives) and inspired by the International Style, was designed as an office building; after several changes of ownership and years of neglect, in 2012 it was occupied in protest by Macao, a centre for the arts in Milan, and shortly afterwards vacated. The Unipol group, which purchased the building in 2012, started a process of urban redevelopment and conversion of the building to hotel and residential use, designed by Bg&K Associati.
The construction of the grey concrete tower for offices, shops and restaurants started in 1974 but stopped because of the war in 1975, after only 28 of the planned 40 floors had been built. Its strategic location dividing the east and west parts of the city made it a sniper post. Today the building stands out in the Beirut skyline as a reminder of its dark history.
Enrique Gómez and Associates, Torre de David, Caracas, Venezuala 1990
Sathorn Unique Tower is Bangkok’'s most famous abandoned skyscraper. The 1997 Asian financial crisis that halted its construction was also combined with the architect's legal fetters that made it difficult to find new investors to complete the building, even after the country's economy stabilized.
The construction of the imposing 330 m concrete pyramid building, which stands out in the Pyongyang skyline as the tallest structure in North Korea, began in 1987 and was suspended in 1992 due to geopolitical tensions. The building remained unused until 2008, when a financial contribution from foreign investors enabled the completion of the building's exterior. In 2012, the opening of a hotel was announced but the programme is currently suspended.
The 597-metre high, truncated pyramid-shaped building is the largest abandoned building in the world. Having started construction in 2008, once completed the building was supposed to house offices, commercial activities, a 6-star hotel and services but the massive financial crisis in the Chinese market in 2015 blocked buyers and today the building is still unoccupied.
Oceanwide Plaza is an unfinished residential, commercial and hotel complex consisting of three towers in downtown Los Angeles, owned at the beginning by Beijing-based construction company CallisonRTKL. Construction began in 2015 but stopped in 2019 due to budget constraints, legal disputes and issues in US-China relations. It was foreclosed and put up for sale in 2023 with no certainty about its future. Some celebrity has been gained since 2023, when the tallest tower became a “canvas” for writers and graffiti artists.
161 Maiden Lane (also known as One Seaport) is a 205-metre-high unfinished residential skyscraper in Manhattan. Perhaps also a contributor to its troubled existence is the 76 mm northward slope due to structural failure caused by improper foundation technology that, instead of the usual piling that supports neighbouringneighboring skyscraper, used cheaper but inefficient solutions for improving the swampy and inhomogeneous subsoil.