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Epic fails on the grandest of scales, the world's most notorious white
elephants should never have left the drawing board. Monstrously
expensive to build and maintain yet woefully underused, these dud
projects are the ultimate architectural blunders. Click ahead for a look
at some of the most infamous and pricey examples in history.
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Saint Helena Airport: $347 million
In 2010, the UK Department of International Development pumped $347
million into building an ill-advised clifftop airport on the island of
Saint Helena, a remote British territory in the middle of the Atlantic,
with a view to boosting the island's accessibility and untapped tourism
industry. Doomed from the get-go, the UK authorities failed to take into
account the dangerous wind conditions that plague Saint Helena. The
shear is so severe, large planes can't take off or land safely and the
airport, which was due to open last year, is effectively unusable. |
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Illinois' MidAmerica St. Louis Airport: $474 million
Dubbed "the Gateway to Nowhere," MidAmerica St. Louis Airport in
Illinois was completed in 1997 at a cost of $313 million – around $474
million in today's money. Planners envisaged the airport would welcome
hundreds of thousands of passengers a year. They couldn't have been more
wrong. Deserted much of the time, the airport handles just 33,000
passengers annually and operates only four flights a week. A bona fide
money pit, MidAmerica St. Louis Airport has never made a profit and
actually lost $13 million in 2013. |
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New South China Mall: $500 million
The world's largest shopping center, the New South China Mall in
Dongguan, China, opened to much fanfare in 2005. Completed at a cost of
2.5 billion yuan, or around $500 million when adjusted for inflation,
the 9.6 million square-foot "ghost mall" has struggled big time to
attract tenants and customers.Its location hasn't helped – the mall,
which features replicas of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and Venice's St
Mark's Bell Tower, is located in a city with few affluent residents. A
staggering 99% of stores were still vacant in 2008 and, even now, large
sections of the mall remain unoccupied. |
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Russia's Russky Bridge: $1 billion
You've just seen the "Gateway to Nowhere." This bridge in Eastern Russia
could easily be labeled the "Bridge to Nowhere." Crossing the Eastern
Bosphorus Strait, Russky Bridge connects the city of Vladivostok to the
island of Russky, which has a population of just 5,000. The world's
longest cable stay bridge was specially built in 2012 for an economic
summit lasting just two days and cost an eye-watering $1 billion.
Ridiculously oversized and underused, Russky Bridge can handle 50,000
cars a day but rarely sees anywhere near that volume of traffic. |
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Spain's Ciudad Real Central Airport: $1.2 billion
An embarrassing emblem of the Spanish Financial Crisis, Ciudad Real
Central Airport opened in 2009 at a cost of $1.2 billion. Located far
from Spain's tourist destinations, this is one airport that should never
have seen the light of day. Investors were sucked in by wildly
overoptimistic passenger forecasts – the airport can handle up to 10
million travelers a year but only several thousand passed through during
its first year of operation. Airlines ended up pulling out, the owner
went bankrupt, and the airport ceased operations in 2012.
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Mayawati parks and statues: $1.3 billion
As Chief Minister of India's Uttar Pradesh state during the late '90s
and '00s, rags-to-riches politician Mayawati splurged a colossal $1.3
billion on five parks and hundreds of monumental statues, including
scores of white elephants. Regarded by many as an obscene waste of money
in a state where millions of people endure grinding poverty, the parks
and statues project was heavily criticized by India's auditor general
and members of the country's National Congress.
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Pyongyang's Ryugyong Hotel: $1.3 billion
Towering ominously above Pyongyang, North Korea, the so-called "Hotel of
Doom" is a white elephant par excellence. Since construction began in
1987, the triangular 105-story tower has swallowed up the equivalent of
2 percent of North Korea's entire GDP. Beset with funding and
construction problems, the hotel, which has a capacity of 3,000, was
officially completed in 2012 but remains unfinished, unopened and
unused. Whether it will ever open to guests is anyone's guess.
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Montreal's Olympic Stadium: $1.4 billion
Montreal's Olympic Stadium is considered one of the world's most
notorious white elephants. Following problem after problem, the stadium
wasn't even finished in time for the 1976 games, despite its massive
price tag, equivalent to $1.4 billion in today's money. Work pressed on
until 1987 when the roof was finally completed, and even that wasn't fit
for purpose – the structure was damaged several times and a portion
collapsed in 1999. The stadium has managed to attract tenants on and off
over the years but hasn't had a permanent tenant since 2004, adding to
its white elephant rep.
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