Yeah, but the lack of current work is NOT. My experience with Korea is that projects that are active get built FAST. Projects that seem stalled... well, let's say this isn't a good sign.

Keep it going. Anybody who is in Busan please post some pictures of the site as well as any other Busan projects and city life. I haven't been back there in 21 years and I think I am starting to go insane. Missed out on countless things, despite being born there I am no longer a true Korean. :(

I say it is still digging and eventually at the year end some cranes will pop up and real work will finally begin.

I agree.
One doesn't dig a huge hole for nothing.
Besides, the tower is extremely tall. I guess the foundations are supposed to be deep.

Pic of one of the posters that was put on the construction wall:
http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/1498/bl81006bk5.jpg

Durrant Architects Now Operate in Asia as ''Durrant,'' Not PDI
August 30, 2006 10:22 AM Eastern Time

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Durrant Group Inc., U.S.-based architecture and engineering firm with many high-profile projects in South Korea and throughout Asia, announced that it is now operating internationally under the name Durrant. Previously, the firm used the name Parker Durrant International (PDI) in Asia. The change became effective June 1.

Durrant also announced that Stephan S. Huh no longer is affiliated with the company. He is starting an independent business, seeking new projects on which Durrant and its staff of designers will not be collaborating. All projects on which Huh had been involved remain Durrant projects, although he may serve as a consultant on some.

Durrant's projects include the 107-story Lotte II tower in Busan, which will be one of the tallest buildings in the world when completed in 2012, and the 54-story Xi Park tower in downtown Ho Chi Minh City, which will be the tallest building in Vietnam when completed in 2008.

"We remain the same firm as when we used the name PDI," said Dennis Wallace, principal in charge of Durrant's Minneapolis, Minnesota, office where the company's South Korean projects are based. "We have all the same projects, the same local partners, and our same extraordinary group of designers, many of them South Korean. All that's really different is that from now on, we'll be known in Asia as Durrant, the name our firm has used in the U.S. for almost 75 years."

Durrant's current projects in South Korea include two won through design competitions: a Republic of Korea Air Force hotel on the Haeundae beachfront in Busan, on which Durrant partners with Haenglim Architects & Engineers; and Pangyo Techno Valley, an IT development in Pangyo on which Durrant partners with Mooyoung Architects and Engineers.

Designers on Durrant's South Korean projects are Karl Ermanis, Sae Min Oh, and Merle Hansen. Oh is one of 11 South Koreans who work on a wide range of Durrant projects in various countries.

Services of The Durrant Group include architecture, engineering, planning, project delivery, financing, interior design and graphic design. Projects of Durrant's Minneapolis office include justice centers, embassies and numerous international mixed-use and entertainment developments, as well as convention centers, hotels and museums in the U.S. and Asia.

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/4224/1ec0.jpg http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/8467/2bb7.jpg

I guess 2012 sounds about right. :shrug:

Looks like they got rid of the ferris wheel. I really like the tower I hope it guets, built and that it gets a few new friends to keep it company. :tup:

So this is still alive then, fantastic!
This was one of my favourite supertall proposals

That would be nice. But I have the impression that it'll stand alone, like Taipei 101. I don't see many possibilities in the area.

Lotte World II will not stand out as much as Taipei 101. In all of Taepei, there is only one other building over 50 stories, and two others in the 40 story range.

In Busan, there are currently 15 completed or under construction buildings of 50 stories or more, not counting Lotte. There are also at least 10 more serious proposals for buildings over 50.

-That poster on the wall advertises the boxy little apartment building in the forefront, with the Lotte Tower in the back to add "prestige." I notice the new Chagalchi market in the back, on the left...

-There are no highrises in the dt area around the Lotte site. All new highrises are either in Seomeon, beyond a ridge and out of sight, or in Haeundae, even farther away. Fabb is right, this tower will be totally isolated. Even from its roof--if it gets built--you will see only Seomeon, but not Haeundae...

this is one of the few supertalls that does not excite me. no emotion at all.

The lack of info doesn't help.
The only exciting news about this project is that it's not dead.

The project is most certainly alive Fabb.

Check this tourist's photo taken in June 2006:


http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Asi...hoto420723.htm


They don't excavate huge holes like that for fun.:yes:

Oct. 5:
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/4899/busan1tl5.jpghttp://img97.imageshack.us/img97/8500/blt100506kh5.png
katrarobawin
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/5...nderlinfj8.jpg
robinwunderlin
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/4...nkennyrnm4.jpg
I guess it is a city of tomorrow if Kenny is there

Thanks for the link. Now, I'd like to see cranes on the site.

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/9...sanmikejh2.jpg
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/4...sanmikegs2.jpg
busanmike

Interesting.
The view of the tower from across the harbour will be amazing.

It says 2006 (Dec. 17), but I was hoping it was from 2005

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/3...unmeng2th3.jpg

Nice, clear pano's:
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/4...eng2pu9.th.jpg http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/6...mengrt5.th.jpg

http://img309.imageshack.us/img309/5...tower01zy9.jpg
yunmeng

Hm...everyone is still claiming their building to be the world's tallest. I guess Dubai and the Burj Dubai are still relatively unknown outside of these forums.

yeah, though it's not the people constructing these skyscrapers that don't know about BD. It just sounds better to call your building the world's tallest, and for the time being, as long as you're gonna be taller than Taipei101, the public will be none the wiser.