Surprise surprise. Ocean One received the green light for the tallest residential building in the world. Construction is scheduled for March 30. I drove by the Jomtien site yesterday and workers were busy erecting temporary barracks. Approval was given after the Pattaya City Council accepted the project’s environmental study.

Set over 200 meters from the beach the residential condominium at 327 metres high will be Thailand’s tallest building and its five-year construction will impact Pattaya with heavy truck traffic, more water shortages, and a sunrise shadow stretching across the Gulf of Siam to beaches of Hua Hin.

I have been steadfastly opposed to this luxury skyscraper, however I have to admit that its realization will buttress the real estate market in Pattaya and buoyed to job market for local Thais for years to come. Ocean One will shine for the future of the Eastern Seaboard, until the rising waters of the Gulf weaken the building’s pile-driven supports, so the galactic hi-rise lgive way to gravity like the Tower of Pisa.

Timber.

But I won’t be around for that.

At least i don’t think I will.

My mother climbed to the top of the Torre pendente di Pisa. She said it was scary. My father thought it was scary from the ground. I don’t like hi-rises. In fact I like single-story dwelling after falling down stairs on Halloween wearing a plastic astronaut helmet with the visor down. Never saw the first step. Bump, bump, bump, stop. I was eight. Some fears stick with you all your life and my skyscraperophobia is one of them.

I don’t have enough fingers to count the rest.

For a related article click on this URL