Seoullo 7017 — Seoul's Former Highway Reborn as an Elevated Skygarden

In May 2017 the Seoul Metropolitan Government reopened a disused 1970s elevated highway overpass near Seoul Station as “Seoullo 7017”, a roughly 1-kilometre pedestrian skygarden designed by Dutch architect Winy Maas (MVRDV). The ~60 billion KRW (about US$50 million) conversion planted 24,000 plants in 645 tree pots, spanning 228 species and subspecies across 50 plant families, explicitly aimed at greening a car-centric transport corridor and mitigating the urban heat-island effect.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government reports around 16.7 million visits since opening — an average of roughly 20,000 people per day — based on figures extrapolated from CCTV footage.
Independent follow-up has been more mixed. Two years after opening, The Korea Times reported the walkway “holds little appeal for visitors,” citing thin midweek footfall and complaints about the exposed, largely potted-plant landscape. A longitudinal academic assessment published in Sustainability (MDPI, 2026), tracking the site from August 2017 to January 2026, found Seoullo functions well as a safe, clean, aesthetically rated visitor attraction, but identified design and maintenance shortfalls that limit its intended biodiversity and heat-mitigation benefits.
Because the vegetation sits in raised planters rather than open ground, the project offers limited soil infiltration or stormwater benefit, and no independent carbon-sequestration measurement has been published; its documented value lies chiefly in walkable green space and (contested) visitor engagement rather than measured ecosystem-service outcomes.

Read the full analysis: https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/southkorea/society/20190529/2-years-later-seoullo-7017-holds-little-appeal-for-visitors