South Korea’s Tallest Skyscraper Opens

South Korea’s tallest building, the Northeast Asia Trade Tower (NEATT), has finally opened after being completed nearly three years ago. American firm Kohn Pedersen and Fox designed the tower and New York developer Gale International worked with South Korean steel company Posco Engineering and Construction to build the structure. The skyscraper is part of the $35 billion Songdo International Business District that was built from scratch starting eight years ago. The 1000-foot, $614 million skyscraper was completed in 2011, but its interior was not finished due to financial difficulties during the recession. After a three year delay, the NEATT is finally opening its doors to the public.

The building’s 68 floors are divided into three categories: office space, residential and hotel.  Each of these three groups of floors have their own lobby and elevators. While the majority of the apartments have been sold, only half of the commercial floors have been filled. The building will also not become the headquarters of the Korean Trading company who it is named after.

The NEATT’s design includes some of the most advanced security and anti-disaster measures in the world.  Global positioning system sensors were deployed throughout the building to take real-time measurements of vibration, displacement, and deformation.  This system will allow the building’s structural health to be constantly monitored and will make it easier for the owners to decide when repairs must be made. The skyscraper also has an anti-disaster control center located on the first underground floor that monitors the building’s utilities. Floors 30-60 have shelters that can protect occupants from a fire or other emergency. Also, the building’s elevators were designed to travel 420 meters per minute allowing them to make the trip from the 65^th floor to the ground level in one minute.

POSCO recently announced that it was trying to achieve LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. As the building waits to hear back about its LEED status, construction of the other parts of the Songdo International Business District continues. The  Business District is on pace to be finished in 2018.