Lotte World Tower & Seoul Sky

Lotte World Tower is the tallest building in Korea and the fifth tallest in the world — a 123-storey, 555-metre glass tower that tapers toward the sky like a ceramic brush used in Korean calligraphy, which is exactly the design metaphor that KPF Architects intended. Completed in 2017, the tower dominates the Jamsil skyline in southeastern Seoul and houses a hotel, offices, a shopping mall, and the Seoul Sky observation deck on the 117th-120th floors.

Seoul Sky is the highest observation deck in Korea, and the views at 500 metres are genuinely staggering — on a clear day you can see from the mountains north of Seoul to the plains south of the city, with the Han River, the Olympic Park (built for the 1988 Games), and the ring of mountains surrounding the Seoul basin all visible in a single panorama. The Sky Bridge on the 120th floor has a glass-bottom section that lets you look straight down 500 metres to the ground, and the Sky Deck includes a café where you can drink coffee while hovering above the city.

The building's base connects to Lotte World — Korea's largest indoor theme park — and Seokchon Lake, an attractive artificial lake with a cherry blossom-lined walking path that is one of Seoul's most popular spring destinations. The tower's observation deck is best visited at sunset, when the city transitions from daylight to neon in a transformation that happens with particular drama at 500 metres, and the evening views of Seoul's lit cityscape extending to the horizon are worth the ticket price.