While many countries struggle just with maintaining aging infrastructure such as roads and bridges, South Korea is realizing the ambitious dream of creating an entire city from scratch.
Songdo International Business District, also referred to as a “Smart City,” is rising from some 1,500 acres of land reclaimed from off the coast of Incheon, connected via a 20-minute drive from Incheon International Airport by the new Incheon Bridge. Its proximity to South Korea’s primary airport means that Songdo is within a two-hour flight of regional powerhouse cities Beijing, Shanghai and Tokyo.
Estimated to cost more than $40 billion over 10 years, this Free Economic Zone has already attracted major multinational corporations to fill its massive, architecturally significant towers. The development also features South Korea’s tallest building, the 65-floor Northeast Asia Trade Tower.
All of its major buildings either meet or exceed various LEED requirements, more than 40 percent of its area is set aside for green space, and all trash collection is handled via tunnels under the city, which offers advantages both environmental and, obviously, sensory.
Meeting facilities include the luxe 321-room Sheraton Incheon, with more than 17,000 square feet of meeting space, and Songdo Convensia, the city’s LEED-certified convention center, with more than 1 million square feet of meeting space. There are a total of three hotels that serve the convention center, with five or more new hotels expected in the city over the next five years.
And to top it all off, the shots in front of the towering steel and glass buildings in the Gangnam Style video were actually filmed in Songdo, and not the Gangnam District of Seoul!
