The archive · Public & Social · Strategic decision · 2015–2017
Seoullo 7017: Seoul turns a 1970 overpass into a 983-metre skygarden
Instead of demolishing a disused highway overpass, Seoul planted 24,000 plants on it — the skygarden drew 1M visitors in its first 14 days.
Seoul Metropolitan Government (서울특별시청)
What it had to solve
The 1970-built elevated highway over Seoul Station had become a disused, decaying structure that split the district; demolition was the default plan. Seoul instead ran an international design competition for a new public life for the structure.
How it works
Seoul's 1970-built elevated highway over Seoul Station had carried cars for decades before falling into disuse and disrepair, cutting the district in two. The city's default plan was demolition, but it chose instead to ask what the structure could become and ran an international design competition for a new public use.
MVRDV won the competition in May 2015 with the idea of a 'skygarden': keep the overpass's skeleton and transform the deck into a 983-metre linear park. Planters hold 24,000 trees, shrubs and flowers arranged as a 'plant library', and stairways, lifts and escalators reconnect pedestrians to the streets around Seoul Station.
The park opened on 20 May 2017 as Seoullo 7017 — the name fuses 1970, when the overpass was built, and 2017, when it was reborn. It drew more than a million visitors within its first 14 days, with the city reporting 40,000–70,000 weekday visitors and 100,000–120,000 on weekends, and quickly became one of Seoul's most popular public spaces.
Why it lands
- It reused rather than demolished public infrastructure, so the cost and disruption of removal became the budget for planting instead.
- The name itself tells the story — 1970 to 2017 — making a road's retirement a visible civic event rather than a quiet demolition.
- A 'plant library' of Korean species turned the walk into an everyday lesson in local botany, not just a shortcut.
- By reconnecting pedestrian routes, the park fixed a district problem the road had created, not just an eyesore.
What it did
More than a million people walked the skygarden within 14 days of opening; the city reported 40,000–70,000 weekday visitors and 100,000–120,000 on weekends. The park became a landmark and a standard stop in Seoul tourism guides.
What you can take
Before demolishing obsolete infrastructure, ask what new life the structure enables: the same 1970 concrete that defined an old problem became the armature of a new public space.
Since then
Seoullo 7017 became one of Seoul's most-visited public spaces and a fixture of tourist guides, part of a wider regeneration of the Seoul Station area. The overpass-to-park model joined a line of Seoul projects, from the Cheonggyecheon stream restoration onward, as a reference for turning obsolete car infrastructure into pedestrian space.
Sources
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe the brief you are staring at, and see who has been given the same problem.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card