{"id":3669,"date":"2016-10-04T15:43:45","date_gmt":"2016-10-04T22:43:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/?p=3669"},"modified":"2016-10-04T15:43:45","modified_gmt":"2016-10-04T22:43:45","slug":"seoul-urbanism-on-tbs-efms-koreascape-the-63-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/?p=3669","title":{"rendered":"Seoul Urbanism on TBS eFM’s Koreascape: the 63 Building"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"63-building\"<\/p>\n

Last week I joined Kurt Achin, host of\u00a0Koreascape<\/a><\/em> on Seoul’s English-language radio station TBS eFM, for a journey around, through, and all the way up\u00a0the observation deck of the 63 Building<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Known locally as the “gold tooth,” this\u00a0iconic, gold-glassed skyscraper beside the Han River\u00a0opened\u00a0in time for the 1988 Olympics, providing\u00a0a piece of the background for the torch-lighting ceremony that opened the games. Designed by architectural mega-firm Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, it became a public attraction from the first day\u00a0of\u00a0its reign as the tallest building outside North America (having one-upped Tokyo’s Sunshine 60), offering not just office space, dining, and retail, but various attractions for the whole<\/a> family<\/a> such as an aquarium and Korea’s first IMAX theater. Having announced the country’s arrival into the developed world, it continues to inspire: the singer Forty’s song “63 Building,”<\/a>\u00a0for example, came out just\u00a0last year.<\/p>\n

This comes as the first in a series of\u00a0monthly urbanism-themed segments Kurt and I will record for\u00a0Koreascape<\/em>. Stay tuned for further explorations of Seoul’s architecture, infrastructure, and built spaces of all kinds.<\/p>\n