Ghost towers: abandoned high-rises around the world

Skyscrapers and high-rise towers are relatively recent architectural developments, but already, many of them stand empty. This is often a testament to bad business deals, bad timing, and bad housing policies, and these eerie buildings dot skylines around the globe. Read on for some of the most prominent examples...

The Sathorn Unique Tower (left) and Mandarin Oriental Hotel, as well as the State Tower with its gold dome behind it, were intended to be luxury twin towers, but, alas they never were. Yep, they have been abandoned since construction came to a halt after the Asian financial crisis in 1997.

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The Sathorn Unique Tower has become a popular destination for urban explorers and graffiti artists. However, the building is said to be haunted - especially the 43rd floor, where the body of a backpacker was found in 2014. Weeds now grow on top of the abandoned goliath.

Located near the capital Tehran, this satellite town was supposed to be an affordable utopia for big families promoted by the Irani regime. However, built on desert land, they had faulty sewage systems and heating, inadequate access to water, and only intermittent electricity. Many were destroyed in the earthquake of 2017, according to the New Yorker.

According to AFP, around half of the buildings remained unfinished as of 2019. The New Yorker reports that most of the people that did move to the eerie town "had lost something in their lives," and that there were very few signs of life outside the high rises.

Built from 1963-1966, this was one of the first skyscrapers in London. However, it stood empty from the time of its completion until 1975 and was briefly occupied by housing activists in 1974. It was then used for offices, but in 2015, developers tried to convert it into luxury flats. However, in 2018 developers gave up after bids were coming in way too low, making it what the Daily Mail described as a ghost tower once again.

In 2019, developer Oceanwide Holdings halted construction on a mega-development in downtown LA, after nearly $1 billion invested. But four years later it has become the latest example of an American ghost tower.

With housing extremely expensive in LA and a creative population, the city's inhabitants have begun making the tower their own. Taggers have graffitied at least 25 stories of the development, according to the LA Times in 2024.

The Centro Financiero Confinanzas, or Tower of David, is an unfinished and abandoned (since 1994) skyscraper in the Venezuelan capital. In 2018, it was further damaged in a powerful earthquake.

By 2007, the tower was occupied by squatters, led by a former gang member said to have ruled the place with an iron fist, according to LA Times. Called a vertical slum, it had set up its water and electrical systems, a dentist's office, and a beauty parlor. However, the government cleared them out in 2014 after neighbors complained it was a refuge for criminals.

This landmark building in the North Korean capital may look functional, but it is not. Built to house some 3,000 guest rooms, construction stopped in 1987… and it has never housed a single guest, according to the LA Times.

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Instead of actually being used as a hotel, it has found a new function. In 2018, a local designer transformed the structure skin into a massive LED billboard upon which the regime can display propaganda films.

This is the third largest tower in all of Louisiana, but it has been out of service since 2002. Why? Environmental problems such as toxic mold and asbestos.

Image: Infrogmation of New Orleans, 11 Oct. 2007 / Wikimedia

In 2021, a piece of the tower fell off, injuring one person. The roads all around the building were closed for months. Then in 2022, a fire broke out… caused by one of the many people hanging out there despite the danger. In 2023, another dangerous piece fell off. Then in April 2023, a man fell to his death from the tower, just a few hours after firefighters put out another fire there.

Image: NOLADEEJ / Youtube

Towering over the Lebanese capital, this 40-story building emerged in 1974, right before a war broke out. With its name meaning "Tower of Bitterness" its concrete shell remains incomplete, with its rooms echoing the sniper fire that it once held.

It's not just financial disasters and war that force high-rises to be abandoned. Take for example this residential tower in Pripyat, which is within the restricted and uninhabitable 30 km zone around the Chernobyl Power Plant. The building was quickly abandoned by its residents after the extent of the nuclear disaster became clear.

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