The DLI (Daehan Life Insurance) 63 Building (63 빌딩 or 육삼 빌딩) is a skyscraper on Yeouido Island, overlooking the Han River in Seoul, South Korea. At 249 meters (817 ft) high, it is the 3rd tallest building in South Korea and the 135th tallest building worldwide. It is an iconic landmark of the Miracle on the Han River, symbolizing the nation’s rapid economic achievement in the late 20th century. 63 refers to the building’s 63 official stories, of which 60 are above ground level and 3 are basement floors. Construction was completed in 1985. At that time, the 63 Building was the tallest building in Asia; it lost this title to the OUB Centre one year later, but remained the tallest building in South Korea until Mok-dong Hyperion Towers, Tower A surpassed it in 2003.

The lower floors house a large shopping area with approximately 90 stores, an Imax Theater, and an aquarium. A convention center and banquet hall are also housed within the building. The observation deck (known as 63 Golden Tower) on the top floor is a popular place to go to see a good view of Seoul. Special observation elevators are also available; they are equipped with windows to enable their passengers to view the city as they ride up to (or down from) the observation deck. On August 1, 2005, renovations temporarily closed the 1st Basement floor, meaning that the aquarium and theater were temporarily closed. The observation deck remained open, though through a different entrance than usual. The floor has since re-opened, and the aquarium and theater are once again fully functional.

The 63 Building was featured as a landmark in the computer games SimCity 3000 and SimCity 4, and featured on the cover of SimCity 3000 Unlimited.

Other Information

• Location : Yeouido Island, Seoul, South Korea
• Status : Complete
• Constructed : 1985
• Use : office
• Height : Antenna/Spire, 274 m (866 ft), Roof : 249 m (817 ft), Top floor : 249 m (817 ft)
• Floor count : 63 (equivalent)
• Elevator count : 6
• Architect : Skidmore, Owings and Merrill

Trivia

• Although the observation deck is on the 63rd floor there are only 60 floors above ground.
• Tallest building South Korea from 1985 to 2002 when surpassed by Mok-dong Hyperion I, Tower A.
• It was the tallest building in Asia when completed but was surpassed a year later by OUB Centre in Singapore.
• The first and the second basement floors house a large aqaurium.
• The main floor features an IMAX Theater.
• On the top floor is the 63 Golden Tower, an observation deck.

Links

• Wikipedia
• Emporis

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Tags: Landmark, Renovations, Seoul, Skyscraper, south korea, tallest building

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 at 11:22 am and is filed under Skyscrapers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.