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Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Maribor, Slovenia.
Portoroz, Slovenia.
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The front page of VeÄ?er imagined what the planned skyscraper might look like.
Earlier this year, news leaked that Maribor wants to build the country’s biggest skyscraper. It would clock in at 40-50 stories, which is just half the size of the Empire State Building in New York, but which would nevertheless dwarf pretty much everything else in the city. (Not to mention the region and country.)
The local newspaper VeÄ?er released their imagined sketch of this thing, showing a huge black tower that looks suspiciously like the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Everything is still very premature, though.
I think a lot of people are skeptical. They worry that it will be a giant eyesore, or that it’s overly ambitious and doomed to be Slovenia’s own version of the ill-fated Ryugyong Hotel. But not me. I love massive construction projects and would love to see this thing built. Whether or not it makes sense is quite inconsequential.
What’s also interesting is that if it does get built, it has a strong chance of becoming the symbol of Maribor, because the city’s skyline will be impossible to imagine without it. And you’ll all be able to bore young whippersnappers with long-winded stories about how “I remember Maribor before they put up the monolith…”
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Hey, this looks like a watered down version of what Jože AnderliÄ? wants to build in Ljubljana in place of old Kolizej building…
this reminds me of some projects in Germany several years ago. They wanted to build some skyscrapers using the name “Trump tower”. The most developped plans were the ones for the tower in Stuttgart as a counterpart of the tv tower. None of the towers was built.
Was that really the graphic VeÄ?er used on its front page? Couldn’t their graphic artists have employed just a little more creativity? That image looks like it could have been taken in North Korea.
I hope this thing will never get built, at least not the way as it looks like on the picture! Slovenia is a fairytale land and shouldn’t get spoiled by massive construction projects that are in contrast with its beautiful surrounding nature!
Freud would most certainly have something interesting to say about this project!
Those of you familiar with central Belgrade and the Beograđanka tower (that also sticks out as the only high-rise building and dominates the skyline) might relate a Spiderman joke with this thing in Maribor.
Anyhow, Spiderman is climbing around belgrade, throwing net around and swinging and what not. Climbing one building after another… Finally, he climbs on the top of BeograÄ‘anka, looks around, and says: “Where the hell do I go now?”
What’s the skyscraper going to be for? ie. what bank / international pharmaceuticals company?
In downtown Montreal there has to be 30 skyscrapers within a 5 km radius of my University and I prefer the wussy little Ljubljana “skyscrapers” to these financial monstrosities.
With a bit more creativity, Slovenia could get its very own Turning Torso… It’s a cool idea, but I don’t know if I like the idea of having a building dominating/disrupting the skyline like that. especially since there is such a beautiful scenary to disrupt in the fairyland of Slovenia…
Michael,
As always, your post is chock full of fascinating information. I can’t believe I’ve been on this earth so long and have never heard of the Ryugyong Hotel. In the link, it was mentioned that the North Koreans hoped that ““…the foreign investors can even operate casinos, nightclubs or Japanese lounges if they want to.â€?”
Japanese Lounges ??? Are they something like the Comfort Women houses from back in WW II?
As regards the building material to be used for the Maribor skyscraper, perhaps, along with the black color, they can use the Stealth bomber high-end plastics so that the skyscraper will be and will not be there.
Oh no!
I’ve never been to Maribor, so I don’t know whether that’s a good idea or not, but some Czechs and I decided the other day that what Brno needs is a good landmark. A skyscraper here would be a little ridiculous, but our ideas were even more so: a giant building in the shape of a dragon that breathes actual fire; a replica of the Eiffel Tower twice its size; a huge American radar station in the middle of the main square (hmm, maybe not so ridiculous)…
That would look horrible on its own. I would rather see 3-4 smaller towers together then this. it would stand out and be an eyesore. This is not what Maribor is about at all.