A massive skyscraper standing in the middle of a major Chinese city remains unfinished nearly 10 years after its topping-out ceremony. Known as Goldin Finance 117, the skyscraper sits at a height of 1,957ft (596.49 metres) above the city of Tianjin in northern China.
The brainchild of Hong Kong-born billionaire Put Sutong it was due to have 128 floors with a major shopping centre at its base as part of his Goldin Metropolitan scheme for the city.
However, a few years ago the project was cancelled leaving the multi-story monolith standing in the abandoned in the middle of the city. According to SkyscraperCity Forum, the budget for the building was $820m dollars (£654m) but this rose to $1.2bn (£957m) once the shopping centre was included.
The skyscraper holds the title of being the world's tallest abandoned building and is the equivalent to nearly two London Shard buildings stacked on top of each other.
Despite the project’s substantial progression and immense height, it was cancelled due to the economic impact of the Great Recession in the late 2000s and early 2010s and a shift in Chinese building policy.
As a result, it slowed down in 2010 before an order was issued by the government banning all buildings from being more than 1,640ft tall. UniLad reported that the reason for this cap on building height was put down to safety concerns related to tall buildings.
A translated version of the statement from China’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development notice added that the new order prohibited plagiarising or imitation of designs.
It added: “City constructions are the combination of a city’s external image and internal spirit, revealing a city’s culture.”
Following this order, the Goldin Finance 117 was cancelled and is now reportedly one of the world’s most famous ‘ghostscrapers’, a term used to describe very tall buildings which have been abandoned or left empty.
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Furthermore, Golden Finance 117 holds the world record for the world’s tallest unoccupied building. Guinness World Records said: “The building's owner, Hong Kong-based developer Goldin Properties, ran into financial difficulties in the aftermath of the 12 June 2015 Chinese stock market crash and was forced to suspend work on the structure in December of that same year.
“In part motivated by high-profile failures such as the Goldin Finance 117, in April 2020, the Chinese government promulgated new urban planning regulations that effectively banned the construction of new buildings greater than 500 metres in height and heavily restricts construction on anything taller than 250 metres.”
It remains unknown as to whether the skyscraper will be demolished or modified to comply with height regulations.
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