63 Building

The 63 Building is a skyscraper in the South Korean capital Seoul. When completed in 1985 it was 249 meters the tallest building outside North America and thus supplanted the 240 m high Lomonosov University in Moscow after 32 years from the top of this ranking. However, it was only a year later, surpassed by the 2 m higher Rialto Towers in Melbourne, Australia.

Principal and main user is the insurance company of Korea Life Insurance, after which the building is named as Korea Life Insurance Building. It was built for the 1988 Olympics, to serve as a landmark. The foundation stone was laid in 1979. In May 1985, the building was completed and officially opened two months later. Since 2003, it is 256 m high from Hyperion Tower dominates, which is also located in Seoul. But it is nevertheless still the fourth- tallest building in Seoul. Including the patch antenna, it is even 274 m high, this amount but is not counted in official lists. The construction costs amounted to 180 billion won, what today would correspond to approximately 540 million euros.

The facade of the 63 buildings is completely gilded. It is still the tallest building in the world that is fully gold plated. Following the gilding the top floor is also known as 63 Golden Tower. It serves as an observation deck and art gallery. This is the highest exhibition spaces in the world. In the building there are some elevators that go directly from the ground floor to the observation deck - in the evenings these elevators may be used only by love birds.

On the cover of the computer game Sim City the 63 Building is pictured.