# "Invisible" skyscraper in the works near Seoul **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 12, 2013, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/invisible-skyscraper-in-the-works-near-seoul/668672 "2013-09-12T16:14:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2013, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/invisible-skyscraper-in-the-works-near-seoul/668672/1 "2013-09-12T16:14:48Z")
What could possibly [go wrong](http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/12/travel/seoul-invisible-skyscraper-tower-infinity/index.html?hpt=hp_c4)? From the mechanism description it sounds pretty cool, but I wonder what it looks like when viewed from the ‘wrong’ angle (hopefully it’s pretty obvious from the air, for instance). Plus it’d be cool if they could make it play movies or be bright purple or whatever. Or with moving rainbow stripes. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2013, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/invisible-skyscraper-in-the-works-near-seoul/668672/2 "2013-09-12T17:05:43Z")
_The South Korean government has granted approval to begin construction on the world’s first “invisible” tower. \ It will be built just outside of Seoul near the Incheon International Airport._ “What could go wrong?” indeed. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2013, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/invisible-skyscraper-in-the-works-near-seoul/668672/3 "2013-09-12T17:22:39Z")
Watch, they’ll build the foundation then quit. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2013, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/invisible-skyscraper-in-the-works-near-seoul/668672/4 "2013-09-12T18:40:50Z")
Heh… It’s the Emperor’s new building! ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2013, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/invisible-skyscraper-in-the-works-near-seoul/668672/5 "2013-09-12T18:44:28Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > _The South Korean government has granted approval to begin construction on the world’s first “invisible” tower. > \ > It will be built just outside of Seoul near the Incheon International Airport._ > > “What could go wrong?” indeed. Anyone else thinking of the Simpsons Stonecutters epsiode, where they paint a building sky blue? ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2013, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/invisible-skyscraper-in-the-works-near-seoul/668672/6 "2013-09-12T19:26:25Z")
In all seriousness, can you imagine what all of the N. Korean defectors will think when one of the first things they see upon entering S. Korea is a mostly invisible skyscraper? That will really hammer home how much they’ve been lied to over the past 60 years. Minds. blown. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2013, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/invisible-skyscraper-in-the-works-near-seoul/668672/7 "2013-09-12T22:48:37Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > _The South Korean government has granted approval to begin construction on the world’s first “invisible” tower. > \ > It will be built just outside of Seoul near the Incheon International Airport._ > > “What could go wrong?” indeed. After it is finished remind me NOT to fly into Seoul Airport … ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2013, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/invisible-skyscraper-in-the-works-near-seoul/668672/8 "2013-09-13T03:06:54Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > After it is finished remind me NOT to fly into Seoul Airport … It’s not flying into the airport you should be worried about. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2013, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/invisible-skyscraper-in-the-works-near-seoul/668672/9 "2013-09-13T08:09:00Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > It’s not flying into the airport you should be worried about. True, while flying towards the airport one needs to be worried about flying into the building …:eek: ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2013, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/invisible-skyscraper-in-the-works-near-seoul/668672/10 "2013-09-13T13:49:52Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > _The South Korean government has granted approval to begin construction on the world’s first “invisible” tower. > \ > It will be built just outside of Seoul near the Incheon International Airport._ > > “What could go wrong?” indeed. I think we can safely assume that nobody in charge of the approval process thought of this. I’d love to be a fly on the wall when it finally occurs to someone during a meeting :smack: ---
**Author:** ![yellowjacketcoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yellowjacketcoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowjacketcoder)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2013, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/invisible-skyscraper-in-the-works-near-seoul/668672/11 "2013-09-13T14:24:01Z")
My first thought was “that will be ungodly expensive”, and I would be totally unsurprised if, halfway through construction, they quietly drop the LED screens. My second thought was that 1000 foot tall LED screens would be a hell of an advertising platform. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2013, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/invisible-skyscraper-in-the-works-near-seoul/668672/12 "2013-09-13T14:32:03Z")
Impossible! No building that small has a cloaking device! ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2013, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/invisible-skyscraper-in-the-works-near-seoul/668672/13 "2013-09-13T14:42:55Z")
Back when Invisible Fences ® first became popular, I flirted with the idea of starting an installation service. I’d show up at the homeowners place with my trencher, tools, and supplies. Once they left for work, I would head home, having installed an “invisible fence”. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2013, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/invisible-skyscraper-in-the-works-near-seoul/668672/14 "2013-09-13T14:56:30Z")
ISTM this is only going to be invisible from a specific angle. If I look at it from the ground and see ‘sky’ then a person looking at it from the top floor of a 30 story high rise is also going to see ‘sky’ when they should be seeing ‘ground’, same goes for an airplane flying nearby. In the pictures, they showed what one would see looking straight on, which isn’t what you should see if you were looking at it from the ground, or from the ground 100 feet away, or from the ground a mile away. I wonder how they’re going to tackle that. I wonder if, like yellowjacketcoder said, it’s going to run ads and they just stuck some cameras on the opposite sides for fun since that wouldn’t add a whole lot to the cost when you consider what the LED screens cost. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2013, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/invisible-skyscraper-in-the-works-near-seoul/668672/15 "2013-09-13T15:09:13Z")
This has made my list of Worst Ideas of 2013! ---
**Author:** ![Pixel\_Dent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2013, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/invisible-skyscraper-in-the-works-near-seoul/668672/16 "2013-09-13T16:03:10Z")
In all seriousness, radio towers as tall as this building are already very difficult to see when you’re flying. In particular the guy wires are virtually invisible and can extend farther out from the tower than you might expect. That’s why they have flashing lights and are noted on charts. I can’t imagine this building would be any worse.