Seoul Plaza

This guide to Seoul Plaza traces how a six-lane traffic circle in front of Seoul City Hall turned into open lawn, starting with a sweltering night in June 2002 when hundreds of thousands of fans in red shirts sat down in the intersection during the World Cup and refused to move. It follows city planners as they watched the crowd swallow their busiest roundabout and began asking an odd question about the road's future. A fountain had marked the spot for forty years before that night.