#unfinished — Public Fediverse posts

The Ghost Tower of Pattaya

Some buildings become landmarks because they were beautifully designed. Others become landmarks because they refuse to disappear.

I used to live close to this building in Pattaya.

Back then, I didn’t think of it as a landmark.

It was simply that enormous unfinished tower near Bali Hai Pier, standing beside Pattaya Bay and impossible to ignore.

I saw it from different places around the city. I passed it. I photographed it. I watched the skyline around it change while the building itself seemed frozen in time.

Years later, I realize that I wasn’t simply looking at an unfinished condominium.

I was watching a piece of Pattaya history.

The building that stopped

The building is The Waterfront Suites and Residence, a 53-storey condominium and hotel project beside Bali Hai Pier in South Pattaya.

The project had been proposed years earlier, with development beginning in the 2000s and construction eventually getting underway. It was envisioned as a luxury waterfront development, the kind of project that would take advantage of one of Pattaya’s most spectacular locations.

And what a location it was.

The sea directly in front.

Bali Hai Pier below.

Pratumnak Hill behind it.

Boats constantly moving across the bay.

From a marketing perspective, it was almost impossible to imagine a better address.

But the building itself became controversial.

Its height and location drew intense criticism because it obstructed views from the Pratumnak Hill area, including the seaward view associated with the monument to Prince Abhakara Kiartivongse, widely revered as the Father of the Royal Thai Navy.

Then came a much more serious problem.

In July 2014, Pattaya authorities ordered construction to stop after inspections found differences between parts of the building and the approved plans, particularly involving fire escapes and elevator systems. (The Pattaya News⁠)

And that was it.

The tower stopped growing.

Pattaya didn’t.

A city moving around a frozen building

This is what makes the Waterfront so fascinating to me.

The city kept moving.

New condominiums appeared.

Hotels changed.

Restaurants opened and closed.

Tourists came and went.

The roads became busier.

The boats continued crossing Pattaya Bay.

Life continued around that enormous unfinished skeleton.

But the Waterfront remained almost exactly where it had been when construction stopped.

The tower became part of the skyline.

Not a beautiful landmark in the traditional sense.

Not a completed architectural masterpiece.

But a landmark nevertheless.

If you have spent enough time in Pattaya, you know the building.

You don’t need an address.

You don’t need a map.

Someone can simply say, “the unfinished building near Bali Hai,” and you know exactly which one they mean.

The story became more complicated

The construction halt was only the beginning.

Legal disputes followed. The developer faced lawsuits and financial difficulties and eventually filed for debt restructuring involving more than 2.3 billion baht. The company subsequently went bankrupt. (The Pattaya News⁠)

The construction crane that had remained on top of the building for years was eventually removed in September 2018 because of safety concerns. (The Pattaya News⁠)

And the building stayed.

For years, there were discussions about demolition, modification, legal proceedings and the possibility of somehow completing the project.

But none of those possibilities seemed capable of changing the strange reality that had already settled over Pattaya:

the building was here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future.

I have so many photographs of it

Maybe that is why I finally feel the need to write about it.

I have photographs of this building from different moments, different viewpoints and different moods.

Sometimes the sky behind it is an impossible blue.

Sometimes the sea is crowded with boats.

Sometimes the tower looks almost elegant from a distance.

And sometimes it looks exactly what it is: an enormous unfinished structure watching over the bay.

Yet somehow, I never got tired of photographing it.

Perhaps because every photograph captured something slightly different.

Or perhaps because I knew that buildings like this tell stories.

They tell us about ambition.

About money.

About regulations.

About mistakes.

About dreams that were bigger than the circumstances that were supposed to support them.

And sometimes, they tell us something about ourselves.

When I lived nearby

Living close to it made the building ordinary to me.

That may sound strange, considering how enormous it is.

But when something becomes part of your everyday landscape, you stop seeing it the way tourists do.

You simply know it is there.

It becomes one of those familiar pieces of your life that you don’t think much about until you leave.

And then, years later, you see a photograph and suddenly remember.

I used to live there.

I used to pass this place.

I remember seeing that building.

That is when a building stops being architecture and becomes memory.

For me, the Waterfront is now connected to a version of my life in Pattaya.

Not just the tower itself, but the roads around it, the sea, the boats, the heat, the movement of the city and those ordinary days that never seemed important enough to remember at the time.

Funny how memory works.

We don’t always remember the big events.

Sometimes we remember the view we saw every morning.

And now it is a landmark

There is a certain irony in the story of the Waterfront.

It was meant to become a landmark.

And it did.

Just not in the way anyone originally intended.

The project was supposed to represent luxury waterfront living.

Instead, it became a symbol of an unfinished dream.

It became known as Pattaya’s Ghost Tower.

And somehow, the ghost became part of the city.

As of 2026, the building’s future is still unresolved. Pattaya authorities are awaiting a Department of Lands ruling concerning the legality of the land title. If the title is found to have been unlawfully issued, demolition could follow. If it is upheld, the developer would need to pursue approvals to modify the building before any future development could proceed. (Pattaya Mail⁠)

So even after more than a decade, the story isn’t over.

In February 2026, authorities were still taking legal action after finding that parts of the unfinished building were being used for unauthorized parking, despite the long-standing prohibition on using the structure. (The Pattaya News⁠)

The building is still waiting for its final chapter.

Maybe that is why I keep taking pictures

One day, it may be gone.

Perhaps it will finally be demolished.

Perhaps the legal disputes will end and the site will become something completely different.

Perhaps, against all odds, some version of the project will rise again.

I don’t know.

But I do know that when I look at my photographs now, I see more than an abandoned tower.

I see Pattaya.

I see the city I once lived in.

I see the boats moving across the bay and the skyline growing around a building that never finished growing itself.

I see how quickly cities change, and how strangely some things remain.

The Waterfront was supposed to be a symbol of Pattaya’s future.

Instead, it became part of its past.

And perhaps that is the most unexpected thing about this building.

It failed to become what it was designed to be, but succeeded in becoming something nobody planned: a landmark.

A landmark made of unfinished concrete.

A landmark surrounded by stories.

A landmark that has watched Pattaya change for more than a decade.

And for me, it will always be something else, too.

It will be the Ghost Tower I used to live near.

💖💖💖

#unfinished : not brought to an end

- French: inachevé

- German: unbeendet

- Italian: inconcluso/non finito/incompleto

- Portuguese: incabado

- Spanish: sin terminar

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Fill in missing or incorrect translations @ https://wordofthehour.org/r/translations

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#unfinished #bookcover #fllibellalì #illustration

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The things you don't write
Unwritten

The things you don't show
Unseen, unshown

The things you don't start
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#unfinished : not finished, not brought to an end

- French: inachevé

- German: unbeendet

- Italian: inconcluso/non finito/incompleto

- Portuguese: incabado

- Spanish: sin terminar

------------

Fill in missing or incorrect translations @ https://wordofthehour.org/r/translations

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I'm happy that's not who I am. It must be hard. To be your own toxic injection all the time. ...

(My hand is drawing, but my head is thinking it's own things.)

#sketch #sketch #drawing #penandpaper #unfinished #unhappy #injectionofamind

#unfinished : not finished, not brought to an end

- French: inachevé

- German: unbeendet

- Italian: inconcluso/non finito/incompleto

- Portuguese: incabado

- Spanish: sin terminar

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Fill in missing or incorrect translations @ https://wordofthehour.org/r/translations

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Subscribe to get my blog as a free newsletter: https://steady.page/en/naturematchcuts/posts

Not any finished knitting nor crochet projects to show but here are some of my unfinished ones 😅🧶!
#JaanaCrochets #JaanaVirkkaa #JaanaAlsoKnits #JaanaMyösKutoo #knitting #knittingprojects #unfinished #unfinishedprojects #workinprogress #wip #knitter #handmade #neulominen #käsityö #neulomisprojekti #keskeneräinen #keskeneräinenprojekti #neuloja #kutoja

#unfinished : not finished, not brought to an end

- French: inachevé

- German: unbeendet

- Italian: inconcluso/non finito/incompleto

- Portuguese: incabado

- Spanish: sin terminar

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See previous words @ https://wordofthehour.org/r/past

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└⦿✚⦿┘, 3 CCD cams, ZX Spectrum (48 kb; serial number: 001-647092) w/ dual external antennas, cables

#studio #unfinished

#unfinished : not finished, not brought to an end

- French: inachevé

- German: unbeendet

- Italian: inconcluso/non finito/incompleto

- Portuguese: incabado

- Spanish: sin terminar

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See previous words @ https://wordofthehour.org/r/past