South Korean retail giant Lotte Group held a symbolic topping-out ceremony on Dec. 22 for the 123-story Lotte World Tower, the tallest building in the country located in Jamsil, southeastern Seoul. At the ceremony, a 64-ton tower crane on the top of the building lifted the last crossbeam from the ground and placed it on the top floor of the 123-story skyscraper.
Seoul City mayor Park Won-soon delivered a congratulatory speech: “The Lotte World Tower will stand tall as a new landmark in South Korea that symbolizes the nation’s economic development and advances in Korean construction technology.”
The construction of the Lotte World Tower began in Nov. 2010. Following massive foundation work in 2011, the Lotte World Tower stood 305 meters tall in April last year, becoming the tallest building in the nation. In March of this year, it surpassed 100 stories (413 meters above the ground), making it the country’s first building to top 100 stories and thus rewriting the nation’s construction history.
It took 5 years and 2 months for the Lotte World Tower to reach 123 stories. As of Dec. 22, the Lotte World Tower is 508 meters tall, the tallest in South Korea and the firth tallest in the world.
Skyscrapers have played a big role in attracting foreign tourists around the world. Following the opening of Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands in 2010, the number of foreign visitors to Singapore rose 1.96 million year-on-year. In 2008, the number of foreign visitors to Taiwan's Taipei 101 hit 3.85 million just four years after its opening.
Once completed next year, the Lotte World Tower will form a tourism belt along with Lotte World Mall, Lotte World Adventure and Seokchon Lake area, probably creating a transient population of over 100 million domestic and foreign tourists, Lotte expects.
Lotte Corp. CEO Noh Byung-yong said: “I hope that the tower will become a structure beloved by people from all over the world just like the Eiffel Tower in Paris. We will safely flawlessly carry out the final stages of this gigantic construction project, estimated to generate economic impact worth 10 trillion won.”
The company expects that approximately 4 million foreign tourists will visit the Jamsil area annually, bringing in over 800 billion in annual tourism revenue.
The company plans to build a 123-meter-high music fountain in the Seokchon Lake are to make the tourist spot as famous as Marina Bay Sands and Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. The company is also devising a plan to turn the area into a cultural hub by taking advantage of the world’s best observatory, the largest aquarium in the Seoul Capital Area, the nation’s first-ever vineyard-style concert hall for classical music.
On the CSR front, Lotte plans to carry out its CSR program called “Future and Dream,” which aims to help the culturally disadvantaged, such as residents on remote islands and residents of the DMZ, have access to various cultural events.
Lotte chairman Shin Dong-bin said: “We set about this Lotte World Tower construction project so as to contribute to the Korean economy and return our profits to the community. We will do our best with a strong sense of mission to enhance South Korea’s national dignity and pride.”
