The Posco Tower-Songdo or Northeast Asia Trade Tower (Korean: 포스코타워-송도) is a skyscraper in Songdo International City, the world's most expensive private real estate project in the Incheon Free Economic Zone, South Korea.[3] The 305-metre (1,001 ft) building is currently[when?] South Korea's fourth tallest, and has 68 floors.[4] It surpassed the previous record-holder, Samsung Tower Palace 3 – Tower G in Seoul, when it topped-out in 2009. Although finished in 2011, the completion of its interior had been delayed due to financial complications during a recession.[5] It was surpassed in height in 2017 by the current highest building in South Korea, the Lotte World Tower.
The building was intended to be a landmark of the Songdo International Business District which was constructed on unused land along the waterfront near Incheon.[5] It features 19 floors of class A office space, an observatory on the 65th-floor, a luxury hotel, serviced residences, and retail stores. The column-free floors include an office lobby at ground level with Frenchlimestone floors and Vermontslate stone walls.
Design
Like One World Trade Center, the tower features a faceted glass facade that gently tapers from a square base but transitions to a triangular rooftop. The offices, apartments and a hotel each have their own entrance lobby. The facade is made of high-performance glazed glass with exterior shading devices which allows the structure to regulate internal temperatures. The tower also features low-flow plumbing fixtures allowing reduced water usage by more than 20 percent compared to the average consumption rate of a typical office building. In addition, a graywater collection system is used to flush wastewater while collected stormwater is stored and reused, reducing water consumption by more than 50 percent.[6]
Floors 2 to 33 are occupied by several businesses, with Daewoo occupying levels 9 to 21. The 36th and 37th floors are allocated for banquets, restaurants, meeting rooms and other formal activities, while floors 38 to 64 features a residence hotel with 423 guest rooms, including a penthouse on the upper floor.[6] In February 2010, the 65th-floor observatory temporarily opened to the public for the G-20 major economies meeting of finance ministers.