10 of the tallest empty skyscrapers around the world

In some cities, the tallest buildings fall short.

Towering skyscrapers often create a city’s iconic skyline, but in cities from New Orleans to Bangkok, sky-high buildings have fallen into disrepair or remain unfinished.

While abandoned buildings can become symbolic of a location’s financial or social struggles, cities still have to decide what to do with them. Some are left to rust, others are demolished, and a few become revitalized.

In the mid-20th century, many older buildings in the US went under the wrecking ball. That’s not the best option from a sustainability standpoint, Shawn Ursini, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s senior building database manager, told Business Insider.

“A lot of these buildings can still have a lot of life left in them,” he said. “We just maybe need to get a bit more creative as to what their purpose is going forward.”

He added that the CTBUH doesn’t have a designation for abandoned buildings since it doesn’t track buildings’ occupancy once they’re completed. The organization does, however, keep tabs on the many buildings worldwide that are on hold.

“Generally speaking, when a project goes on hold, there is still an attempt to finish it,” Ursini said, though these attempts aren’t always successful.

Here are 10 of the tallest skyscrapers around the world that now sit empty or uncompleted — and how they ended up that way.

Beirut Trade Center, Beirut (459 feet)

During the Lebanese Civil War, from 1975 to 1990, snipers took up residence in several Beirut buildings in what became known as the “Battle of the Hotels.”

Construction on the 40-story Beirut Trade Center, also known as Burj al-Murr or the “tower of bitterness,” began in 1974, just a year before war broke out. At that point, the $15 million building was 70% complete, Executive Magazine reported in 2004.

In addition to office space, the Trade Center was designed to hold a movie theater and restaurant accessible by helicopter.

The architect Camillo Boano and the urban planner Dalia Chabarek described it as a scarred artifact of war that was “difficult to topple” or renovate.

Several artists have incorporated the unfinished building into their work. In 2018, Jad El Khoury put up a temporary installation in the structure, adding colorful curtains to the windows to transform it into Burj El Hawa, the Tower of Air, Archinect reported.

Plaza Tower, New Orleans (531 feet)

One of New Orleans’ tallest buildings has become a danger in the decades since it was erected in the 1960s.

While the $15.5 million building had a few residential units, it was mainly designed for offices. In 2002, building tenants, including the Orleans Parish district attorney’s office, complained that toxic mold was making them sick. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the building was gutted because of both mold and asbestos, The Times-Picayune reported in 2014.

Since then, its problems have continued. A piece of paneling fell and hit a bicyclist in 2021. There was a fire in 2022, and a man died falling from one of the floors in 2023.

Despite attempts to salvage the Plaza Tower, “the city made their case that the buildings become a public safety hazard,” Ursini said.

In January, The Times-Picayune reported the city was preparing to demolish the building — however, in June, it got a second chance. The Times-Picayune reported two developers were in contract to buy the building, with plans for a $250 million renovation that would turn it into a senior living facility.

909 Chestnut Street, St. Louis (588 feet)

In 2022, Rosin Preservation wrote a report arguing that 909 Chestnut Street, also known as One AT&T Center, should be added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Completed in 1985, the St. Louis building is one of the tallest in the state and has a “fortress-like base,” and its “façade appears to stretch beyond what is expected, seemingly indefinitely,” the report says.

AT&T didn’t renew its lease in 2017, and the building has been empty since, according to CoStar, which gathers information on commercial real estate. In 2024, the Goldman Group bought 909 Chestnut for $3.6 million, a fraction of its 2006 price of $205 million.

“At that price, I guess the building itself is a blank slate because you’re picking it up for almost nothing,” Ursini said.

The real estate firm hopes to put in 600 apartments, a pickleball court, and a movie theater, Fox2 reported in January, although the work was put on hold in May, pending the approval of a state tax credit bill.

Sathorn Unique, Bangkok (607 feet)

Popularly known as Thailand’s “Ghost Tower,” this looming structure dates back to 1990. The 47-floor building was only 80% finished when the 1997 Asian financial crisis hit.

Its architect was also charged and then acquitted as part of a murder plot that was never carried out, Architectural Digest reported in 2023.

With the unfinished luxury condo in ruins, daredevil travelers risk trespassing and injury to explore the tower. Exposed wires and rusty metals are just a few of the building’s hazards.

Centro Financiero Confinanzas, Caracas, Venezuela (623 feet)

For years, this empty 45-story building, known as the Torre de David or Tower of David, was also described as the world’s tallest slum.

The banker David Brillembourg hoped to create Venezuela’s version of Wall Street with the tower, The New Yorker reported, but the country’s financial crisis and Brillembourg’s death put an end to construction in 1994, New York Magazine reported.

Some 3,000 people took up residence in the concrete shell of a building, transforming it into a community with electricity, grocery stores, and water, Slate reported in 2014. But the structure was deemed unsafe, and the occupants were evicted in 2014, the BBC reported.

In 2018, a powerful earthquake did some damage to the upper levels of the Tower of David, Reuters reported.

1 Seaport, New York City (670 feet)

At between $1.5 million and $20 million a pop, units in 1 Seaport came with the promised luxuries of an infinity pool, dazzling views, and 10-foot ceilings. Buyers snapped them up, putting down hundreds of thousands of dollars as deposits.

In 2017, a carpenter working on the $273 million building fell to his death, The New Yorker recently reported. When it emerged that the building was sinking and leaning to the left, its contractors and developers started blaming each other, Curbed reported in 2021.

One lawyer involved in one of 1 Seaport’s many lawsuits described the tilted structure as resembling a banana. While the building is unlikely to fall over, construction has been halted since 2020.

Oceanwide Plaza, Los Angeles (677 feet)

Consisting of three towers, the unfinished Oceanwide Plaza has become notorious for artists tagging its exterior. Last year, thrill-seekers even BASE jumped from the top.

The ambitious complex, expected to cost $1 billion, was meant to be home to luxury residential units and a five-star hotel, The Los Angeles Times reported. It’s about 60% complete after construction halted in 2019. Oceanwide Holdings, the company behind the towers, filed for involuntary bankruptcy, Los Angeles Magazine reported last year.

Finishing the project would take about $800 million, The Wall Street Journal reported in 2024.

Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea (1,082 feet)

Jutting high above its surrounding buildings, the pyramid-shaped Ryugyong earned the nickname “Hotel of Doom” when it sat empty and incomplete for more than a decade in the middle of North Korea’s biggest city.

Work on the 105-story building began in 1987 under the rule of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Un’s grandfather. In 1992, the economic depression following the Soviet Union’s collapse halted construction before windows were installed and the concrete was covered.

Construction has stopped and started several times since, and it’s unclear when the structure will open. In 2008, Reuters reported it would take an estimated $2 billion to complete the hotel.

“It was bare,” Simon Cockerell, a tour operator, told Australia’s 9news of the concrete-filled interior after a visit in 2023.

On the outside, though, a new LED screen broadcasts propaganda.

Skycity, Mandaluyong, Philippines (1,099 feet)

This is one project that never got off the ground.

Originally, its developers hoped Skycity would be the Philippines’ tallest building. They planned for the 77-story skyscraper to hold a hotel, swanky condos, and a bar, Esquire Philippines reported.

Nearby homeowners complained when developers broke ground in 1997 for several reasons, including that the structure, planned to be more than 1,000 feet tall, would cast a giant shadow.

A lengthy legal battle ensued, and funding for the estimated $85 million project dried up. The location is just a large, mossy hole now.

Goldin Finance 117, Tianjin, China (1,957 feet)

Nothing in the vicinity comes close to the height of the rusting, unfinished Goldin Finance tower in Tianjin, a city in Northern China. It was meant to hold a hotel, condos, and offices.

Construction began on the structure in 2008. A diamond-shaped atrium was supposed to sit atop the building, reminiscent of a glittering gem on top of a walking stick.

From the atrium’s observation deck and restaurant, guests would have had dizzying views of the city’s downtown. Then, in the mid-2010s, Goldin Group, the skyscraper’s developer, started having financial troubles.

At that point, it would have taken $10 billion to complete the project, Forbes reported in 2022.

“There’s no cladding on the exterior, and the building is just there awaiting a restart of construction,” Ursini said.

It still remains empty, although CNN reported in April that construction was set to resume on the building, with an expected completion date of 2027.

This story was originally published in August 2018 and most recently updated in September 2025.

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