Nice day for a ride—but no fishing:




Visited Lotte World Tower, with its 123 floors rising 1,819 feet into the sky making it the tallest building in the OECD and fifth tallest overall in the world:




Whoops, couldn’t get the whole thing. Here it is:




Completed this month, after 13 years of planning and 7 more of construction, the building brought over 3,000,000 square feet of space no one needed to a neighborhood where no one wanted it, at the cost of at least three lives, numerous construction-induced sinkholes threatening the foundational integrity of the host district, and incalculable disruption to the mostly residential neighborhood it inhabits.




The only other large-scale commercial developments nearby, in what is one of the most affluent neighborhoods in Seoul? Lotte World Amusement Park, Lotte World Mall, and Lotte World Hotel. The largest residential development? Lotte Castle Apartments. And the CEO of Lotte, which is one of the largest and most powerful conglomerates in the county? Recently indicted in connection with the corruption scandal that ousted the Korean president last month.

Ain’t it impressive?