Sewoon Plaza

Sewoon Plaza, 세운상가 (Seun Sangga) in Korean, is a mixed residential-commercial complex that originally consisted of eight buildings constructed on four plots of land aligned along a kilometer-long strip that stretches from Jongno, across from Jongmyo Shrine, in the north to Toegye-ro, near Chungmuro Station, in the south. Construction began in 1966, with all but one of the buildings open to the public by 1972.

Four construction companies were tapped to construct two buildings each: Hyundai, Daelim, Sampoong, and Sinseong. The original plan called for each block to be named according to the Korean alphabet: Seun Sangga Gadong, Seun Sangga Nadong, Seun Sangga Dadong, and Seun Sangga Radong. Each block was to be connected by a continuous skyway connecting the decks of each building. Ultimately, due to a lack of coordination among the construction companies, the skyway was never completed, and each building ended up with its own name. One building among each pair was named for the construction firm that built them. From north to south, the building names were:

  • Hyundai Sangga (now demolished)
  • Seun Sangga
  • Cheonggye Sangga
  • Daelim Sangga
  • Sampoong Sangga (now called Sampoong Nexus)
  • Poongjeon Hotel (now called Hotel PJ)
  • Sinseong Sangga (now called Inhyeon Sangga)
  • Jinyang Sangga

Beginnings

The land on which Sewoon Plaza was constructed was given its shape by the occupying Imperial Japanese government in the closing days of WWII. In early 1945, they were concerned that the US might bomb Seoul, so they demolished everything along a kilometer-long strip to act as a firebreak. After the Korean War, a shanty town grew as displaced residents constructed makeshift homes. By the 60s, a thriving redlight district had evolved there.

During the 60s, Seoul underwent massive redevelopment. The shanty towns along Cheonggye Stream and the kilometer strip of land were demolished and the residents relocated to other areas of Seoul. Seoul Mayor Kim Hyeon Ok proposed a mixed commercial-residential complex for construction on the former firebreak. The architectural firm owned by Kim Swoo Guen (his name being 김수근, the ‘Swoo’ should be more appropriately romanized as ‘Soo’, but it was likely his personal preference). Kim would go on to become perhaps the most important Korean architect of the 20th century. Among his numerous designs, Seoul’s Olympic Stadium and US Embassy are perhaps the most widely known.

Each block of two buildings was assigned to a different construction firm, one of Hyundai, Daelim, Sampoong, and Sinseong. The original design called for a continuous skyway connecting all eight buildings, and each block was to be named according to the Korean alphabet (ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄷ, ㄹ), like A, B, C, D in English. For example, 세운상가 가동 (Seun Sangga Gadong), 세운상가 나동 (Seun Sangga Nadong), and so on. Ultimately, due to a lack of coordination among the construction firms and the unsynchronized construction dates, these plans were not fully realized. The skyway was only partially completed, and each building ended up with one of the names listed above.

Excluding the Poongjeon Hotel, each building consisted of an arcade of shops on the lower floors, with a couple of floors of office space above them, and several floors of luxury apartments above those. Seun Sangga was the first to be complete, with approval for public usage coming in November 1967. Most of the buildings were fully open to the public by 1972. The exception was the Poongjeon Hotel, which didn’t receive authorization to open until 1982. The source I most heavily relied on was unable to determine an actual construction date for the hotel, but notes “...there are opinions that the actual completion of construction was earlier, and so it is hard to be certain. Supplementary construction causes a new approval for usage so the final date may have been delayed for this reason.”

Rise and Fall

Even before the shanty towns were demolished, a small community of electronics workshops had grown organically in the surrounding area. With the opening of Seun Sangga, it naturally became a focal point for an expanding electronics market. So much so that it became known as Sewoon Electronics Arcade. Throughout the 70s, it was the electronics shopping mecca.

In the original vision, the entirety of Sewoon Plaza would become a shopping mecca, a site selling a variety of goods. Ultimately, that’s not what happened. Myeongdong started to gain popularity as a shopping district in the 70s and eclipsed Sewoon Plaza by the 80s. Another electronics market began to form near Yongsan station, and by 1987, Yongsan Electronics Market had become the number one place to go for electronics. It was much larger than Sewoon, covering an area comprised of several buildings.

The residential aspect of Sewoon was also eclipsed by developments elsewhere as high-rise apartments went around the city. Gangnam District in particular was a hot spot of apartment construction. It wasn’t long before Sewoon’s apartments were no longer considered luxurious.

As a result, the Sewoon Plaza entered into decline even before it had reached its full potential. The decks on the buildings became known for vendors selling black market items from the US military bases and illicit materials, pornography, and banned music LPs, in particular. By 1979, there was already talk of redeveloping the site.

Redevelopment

The first serious plans to demolish Sewoon Plaza were developed in the late 90s, but the 1998 economic crisis put an end to that. There was subsequently very little movement until Oh Se Hoon became Seoul Mayor. During his first term, plans were drawn up to demolish all of the buildings of Sewoon Plaza and replace them with a green space lined with high-rise apartment and office buildings. This resulted in the demolition of Hyundai Sangga in 2008, but the project was scrapped due to the Global Financial Crisis.

Oh Se Hoon resigned in 2011 over an unrelated issue early in his second term as mayor. His successor, Park Won Soon, announced the Sewoon Plaza Regeneration Project in 2015, and it later became known as the re:Sewoon Project. The core concept was to regenerate rather than demolish and rebuild. It was a multi-faceted, two-phase project, but perhaps its two most notable facets were to restore and fully complete the skyway, and to make Sewoon Plaza the center of the local maker economy.

Phase One was completed in 2017. Phase Two was projected to be completed by 2020, but it suffered repeated delays until it finally reached the finish line in 2022. Initially, it seemed that the goal of sparking the maker community was having an impact, as young makers opened workshops in what once were the apartments of Seun Sangga. The area surrounding Cheonggye Sangga and Daelim Sangga, along the street named Euljiro, saw an influx of young business owners opening restaurants, bars, and cafes, causing the area to become trendy and earn the moniker “Hipjiro”.

Yet even as the regeneration project was underway, some buildings in the vicinity were demolished to make way for new high rises. And despite the initial optimism and 110 billion KRW spent on the new skyway, only 5-17% of the projected 13,000 daily pedestrians were using it. Moreover, it seems to have become an obstacle to full usage of the buildings, with visitor numbers estimated at 50% of pre-project levels. Some prominent maker shops that had opened in refurbished spaces packed up and left.

Park Won Soon committed suicide in 2020 in the wake of legal troubles, and Oh Se Hoon regained the mayoral office in a 2021 by-election, then reelected to a full term in the regular 2022 election. It wasn’t long before he announced a new Sewoon Plaza redevelopment project quite similar to the one he’d pushed in his first term: the Sewoon buildings will be demolished and replaced with a green space surrounded by high-rise apartment and office buildings, potentially 50 stories high.

As of May 2024, the project is still in the early review stages. In 2008, UNESCO threatened to revoke the World Heritage status of Jongmyo Shrine, located across the street from Seun Sangga to the north, if its value was diminished by the construction of high-rise buildings as a result of the initial redevelopment plans. In light of the new plans, they have asked for a report on the project’s impact on Jongmyo to reevaluate its status going forward. Mayor Oh said in an April 2024 interview that if they find the new plans unacceptable, “we can certainly persuade through discussions.”

Additional Resources

I’ve consulted a number of sources about Seun Sangga, both English and Korean. Most of them are repetitive, add nothing new, and in some cases inaccurate. The sources listed below seem to be more reliable. The last one in the list provides additional context.

Mike from Korea References