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Trees and vines are taking over the ghost tower

Image courtesy of abandonedjourney.com
Just fourteen years ago, the Sathorn Unique skyscraper in Bangkok, Thailand was being built as one of the city’s fanciest residential addresses,  according to abandonedjourney.com, which chronicles abandoned buildings. Never completed, it is yet another “ghost tower,” notes the site, which says trees and vines are beginning to take over the  four story archways and romanesque feature columns. It was built during the mid nineties, when the Thai economy was booming. In 1997, the Asian Financial Crisis changed all that. Developers stricken with debt were unable to finish many projects, the site notes. In the case of Sathorn Unique, the main concrete structure made it all the way to the top. The apartment fit-outs had begun in earnest, with wooden floor boards installed and polished. Connected bathtubs, wardrobes, and electrics show just how close this one was to completion. At ground floor, two escalators have been installed, climbing to nowhere in particular, the remnants of protective plastic still clinging onto their stainless steel sides.  With an amazing location close to the Chao Praya river that snakes its way through the center of Bangkok, it’s easy to see how this abandoned building would have been luxury living at its finest, the website says.

This entry was posted by Lynn on Monday, July 18th, 2011 at 2:38 pm and is filed under Architecture, Engineering, Government, Historic, Landmarks, Neighborhoods, Planning, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

  • Matt the Engineer

    Real estate law seems to be a hidden giant among factors that make a great city. Bangkok is a great city in spite of something clearly wrong with their real estate laws. I’m no expert and don’t know any details of the legal problems involved, but you can walk down a lively street and come across an empty property with nothing but weeds.

    A functional system would have put that building back on the market immediately after it hit financial problems, and someone would have bought it for cheap and finished it. I have a bright orange building near me in Seattle – the bright orange is from protective sheeting to keep this unfinished building safe from water damage. That thing’s been sitting for about 4 years in it’s bright orange condition, and just recently added a “for sale” sign. Add another year to sell and finish the building, and that’s 6 or 8 units’ rent lost for 5 years. Something tells me our real estate and financing laws could use a tweak as well.

  • Katy Maynard

    Thank you for posting this!
    Very interesting and shared a new website I hadn’t heard of but look forward to reading.

    @___Katy___

  • Estrella

    Sad to hear Bangkok has the largest number of abandoned buidings. If I’d known this fact over the weekend, I would have asked what my Thai friend thought about this during her visit home back in 2009.

    Hopefully there will be an increase in rebuilding/remodeling in Bangkok, as there seems to be a general building trend in Asia overall.