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[Lonely1]

Construction began Tuesday on the Yongsan Landmark Tower, which is expected to be the most expensive building in the world once it is completed, standing 100 stories tall and rising half a kilometer into the sky.

Scheduled to be built inside the international business district in Yongsan, the tower will not quite measure up to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai (162 stories, 828 m) or the Lotte Super Tower being built in Jamsil (123 stories, 555 m), but it will be the most expensive building per square unit.

At present, each 3.3 sq.m costs around W12.1 million (US$1=W1,167). The total construction cost is W1.4 trillion and the entire price tag for the building, including the land, stands at more than W4 trillion.

It will house the offices of global businesses and will offer a wide range of high-tech functions. First of all, the skyscraper will be equipped with the fastest elevators in the world that travel at 800 meters per second, more than six times faster than the lifts installed in high-rise condominiums in Korea (120 m/s).

Source.
800m/s, whoot!?

 

[HammerOfThor]

I just wanna ride that elevator.

 

[Brobzoid]

seems like a lot of work just for an awesome elevator.

 

[Havik]

Lol 800m/s?? thats faster then the speed of sound! Should give a nice blast everytime someone takes the elevator.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

The brown spiral thing reminds me of the cardboard tube in a toilet roll.

 

[ektoll]

How much must have cost those elevators? I'd say at least 1000 tower bux.

 

[siddx]

Well...it looks cool.

 

[HTuran]

800 m/s

ahaha

 

[Aesius]

Dubai is going to be a cultural and anthropological gold mine when it's a deserted wasteland in about 30 years.

 

[Count Dookkake]

Is that a Mega Man weapon?

 

[DanteFox]

I just wanna ride that elevator.

.

 

[krypt0nian]

Wow, moving away from oil is really going to fuck with this so hard. Haha

 

[Ezalc]

I can't wait to own the office at the top of it when I become a world famous executive. It will be where I make my favorite bruschetta.

 

[weekend_warrior]

According to my calculations, that's only 1.2 billion dollars. not sure how that could be the most expensive building ever. Cowboy Stadium cost 1.3 billion, Yankee Stadium cost 1.5 billion.

edit: oh I see. most expensive per sq foot.

 

[MetalAlien]

The crab people have reached the surface!

 

[DarthWoo]

Wait...so you can get from the ground floor to the top floor in about 0.625 seconds (assuming no stops along the way of course)?

 

[DonMigs85]

Guys, this is in South Korea
Just an FYI

 

[Biscuits]

I really doubt that 800 m/s figure is correct... probably 800 m/minute.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Beautiful design.

 

[Meatfist]

Mach 2 in an elevator? What is this sorcery?

 

[Utako]

Can't decide if this is awesome or foolish.

Mostly, the design isn't really selling it to me.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Wait...so you can get from the ground floor to the top floor in about 0.625 seconds (assuming no stops along the way of course)?

So, 0 to 800 m/s in half a second. Isn't that something like more than a hundred Gs of force each way or is my memory of physics dead wrong?

 

[UraMallas]

Guys, this is in South Korea
Just an FYI

I was getting confused by all of the Dubai/oil references, too.

 

[MrHicks]

i had to google yongsan to guess WHERE it is
shitty article assumes people just know???

 

[Utako]

Obviously, if it can even get to those speeds, it's going to take most of the length of the tower to reach them!

 

[Toma]

Lol 800m/s?? thats faster then the speed of sound! Should give a nice blast everytime someone takes the elevator.

The thought of having 120 decibel noises inside that building is blowing my mind. They probably will use awesome isolation material, but still too crazy to be true.

 

[DarthWoo]

So, 0 to 800 m/s in half a second. Isn't that something like more than a hundred Gs of force each way or is my memory of physics dead wrong?

Yeah, forgot it would have to accelerate somewhere along the line. I wonder if it really even has room to reach its top speed in that confined space then. I don't think it could ever even reach that speed due to gravity just from a dead fall from the top.

 

[KHarvey16]

Please tell me no one here is seriously believing the elevators travel at 800 meters per second.

 

[Bulbo Urethral Baggins]

Mach 2 in an elevator? What is this sorcery?

It's obviously not true.

 

[Funky Papa]

It will house the offices of global businesses and will offer a wide range of high-tech functions. First of all, the skyscraper will be equipped with the fastest elevators in the world that travel at 800 meters per second, more than six times faster than the lifts installed in high-rise condominiums in Korea (120 m/s).

800m/s, whoot!?

WHAT? Did they take that figure from the dopest interoffice pneumatic tubes?

 

[Apath]

How can it possibly go 800m/s? Is this a joke?

 

[Havik]

Its probably 800m per minute .

 

[quinntendopower]

800 meters a second would a mile in 2 seconds

i don't know if i want to be riding an elevator at 120 mph.... holy shit!

that's like the speed of the elevator in duke nukem forever where you have to pull on the brake to stop it.

 

[mike23]

Yeah, forgot it would have to accelerate somewhere along the line. I wonder if it really even has room to reach its top speed in that confined space then. I don't think it could ever even reach that speed due to gravity just from a dead fall from the top.

It also has to stop slowly. That means it has to reach the top speed somewhere in the middle.

It's obviously impossible, but someone could probably calculate the actual top speed in a building like that.

Assuming no more than 1.2ish G in accelerating up. Any more an it'd be a amusement park ride. Probably .8G or so for slowing down. Can't have people floating away or worse, slamming into the ceiling, lol.

 

[MrHicks]

Please tell me no one here is seriously believing the elevators travel at 800 meters per second.

i dunno how much you know about korean culture (im an expert) but high speed elevators are huge parts of it.
Anything less then 800M/s is pretty much shooting themselves in the foot.

 

[LQX]

Dubai seems to take the Homer Simpson concept when it comes to construction. There is something admirable about it all though but it also kind of makes you shake your head.

 

[Mindlog]

How can it possibly go 800m/s? Is this a joke?

ramjets
No, wait! It has to be a modified EMALS. With that kind of power it would probably make a very effective rail gun. This building is a transformer.

 

[Meadows]

800m/m isn't that fast though, certainly not fast enough to talk about in an article....no way it's per second though, that'd break everyone who is in the lift's legs.

 

[Bulbo Urethral Baggins]

i dunno how much you know about korean culture (im an expert) but high speed elevators are huge parts of it.
Anything less then 800M/s is pretty much shooting themselves in the foot.

I heard some Koreans don't even wait for the elevator to show up. They just head down the shaft.

 

[KHarvey16]

Just to put the silliness of the number into perspective, here's a bit from a press release about the forthcoming installation of the world's fastest elevator:

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TOKYO: 6503) announced today it has received an order from Shanghai Tower Construction & Development Co., Ltd. for the installation of the world's fastest elevators, travelling at 18 meters (or 59 feet) per second, in the Shanghai Tower currently under construction in the Pudong district of Shanghai, China.

I heard some Koreans don't even wait for the elevator to show up. They just head down the shaft.

With their electric wheelchair?

 

[More Fun To Compute]

I heard some Koreans don't even wait for the elevator to show up. They just head down the shaft.

That's no good compared to this elevator. If they jump off it would be much slower and safer than riding it down.

 

[Funky Papa]

I hope Kim tha Illest slaps a ballistic missile on the Ryugyong' elevator just for shit and giggles.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

 

[Accident]

Oh cool, so this elevator will get you from New York to London in just under two hours.

I, for one, welcome our new transportation overlords.

 

[ianp622]

The thought of having 120 decibel noises inside that building is blowing my mind. They probably will use awesome isolation material, but still too crazy to be true.

They would probably make the elevator shaft a vacuum.

 

[GavinGT]

800 m/s? That's about how fast a bullet travels. No f'ing way. The building is only a half-kilometer tall, and they're saying it can go nearly an entire kilometer in a second?

 

[Lonely1]

800 meters a second would a mile in 2 seconds

i don't know if i want to be riding an elevator at 120 mph.... holy shit!

It's closer to 1790mph... -.-

 

[Zwei]

looks neat

 

[leadbelly]

The level in which skyscraper design has evolved is quite incredible. It seems every country now is trying out do each other with the most elaborate and sophisticated designs possible.

It's interesting that the US -- the home of the skyscraper -- doesn't really have anything to rival such designs.

It has some similarity to 'The Pinnacle' that has just started construction in London.

 

[Adam Scott Aukerman]

Yeah... I'll take the stairs, thanks.

 

[Aegus]

Only 8x slower than the Space Shuttle!