The Capital – Oasis Damansara

December 7, 2006 · Filed Under Life Log · 1 Comment
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The Capital - Oasis Damansara

I was reading the Star Papers and this advertisement caught me by surprise.

Finally! The project that my ex-colleague and I worked on has entered a new phase. The plot of land is 15 acres, compromising 5 office blocks, 4 office towers, 2 service apartments, 12 double story kiosk and a man made lake or pond. The entire project is divided into 6 phases due completion within 6 years. Ho! ho! ho!…

You heard that?… Ho! ho! ho!… (distance sound)… Ho! ho! ho!…

Nice try but that is not Santa Clause’s Ho! ho! ho! That must be my boss; he must be laughing all the way to Swiss Bank. This is a big project, a huge one when the entire construction industry here in Malaysia is so soft and stagnant. One of the main reason – Foreign investment has drop from being the 6th largest recipient in the world 10 years ago to 62nd last year. No Foreign Direct Investment means no money, which leads to no projects. You are so lucky Mr.T

The biggest lesson I have learn from this project is – there is no money in architecture. My ex-boss Mr.T did not receive any payment for almost a year, imagine doing all those donkey work without getting paid for a year and if something went wrong somewhere, Mr.T can eat his heart out.

The other thing I hate about this project is the developer, they kept on bugging us for the drawings when we’ve already pass it to them. Seems to me the Project Manager’s assistant (fresh graduate) job is to call all the consultants and bug them. I bet his job is to press those 10 magical numbers all day long.

About the design, the concept is kind of interesting but could have been better. Not the architect’s fault but it is the developer’s fault; cutting cost seems to be the number one priority.

The best part is the Development Order stage went through more than 6 revisions, dragged for more than 6 months. Stupid revision that does not make any sense, these corrupt officers is hinting the developers – “bribe me or your project shall not proceed to the next stage.” Every submission requires the developer to perform some “charity” or else no approval shall be given. Screw those corrupt officers!

The Capital - Oasis Damansara

Here is a 3D perspective of the overall project, does the building I highlighted looks familiar? I’ve posted a corporate tower 3D perspective previously, click here for the post.

Physical models from Archmodel. Took them 2 weeks to complete the model in China at half the price and time.

The Capital - Oasis Damansara

There are a few revisions here and there, which explains why the physical model and the 3D perspective does not telly. This is a do or die mission now, if phase one for this project do not receive positive respond from the market then my ex-boss can heart his heart out again. He did piss me off but I do hope all the best, hopefully this project kicks off.