Revisiting Ecoland 4000 - A Wednesday Walk Contribution
This week, I had the opportunity to see up close again the condominium Ecoland 4000. This is the first condominium built in our city. Photo below shows the place circa 2007, when it was newly opened. It consisted of two identical buildings, a swimming pool, a basketball/tennis court and a clubhouse.
Last year in September and October our city was rocked by 3 big earthquakes, each measuring 6.3 or higher magnitudes on the Richter scale. The last one, on October 30 caused one of the buildings of the condominium to crash. I posted an article about this then, click here for the link to the post and this was how it looked after the earthquake.
As can be seen in the photo above, the building on the left just crumbled, decimating the parking lot and the whole of the second floor. That's actually the 3rd floor lying on the ground. The other building was basically intact but upon inspection later showed signs of major structural damages as well.
Luckily, no one was harmed in the incident. Most of the residents on the 2nd and third floors had already vacated the premises after the first 2 earthquakes, prior to the big one, had already caused damages to the buildings.
Subsequent walks I did earlier this year before the quarantine restrictions in the city showed the building being covered by tarp from the outside. The demolition of the first building had begun. See photo below.
This week, as I mentioned above, I was able to visit the site and took some pictures of the ongoing demolition of the structure. See photos below:
The first building is now totally demolished. The second building, which from the outside appeared not to be affected, was also condemned and ordered to be torn down.
This actually caused a bit of sadness and nostalgia in me as I am now a witness to an end to a significant landmark in our city. The Ecoland 4000 actually started the condo craze in the city after its successful launching. Condominiums began sprouting left and right. In fact, directly across Ecoland 4000 is also a condominium.
The condominium across is a complex of 5 buildings, each building bigger than that of Ecoland 4000. Yet, these withstood the earthquakes and are still habitable. Perhaps, there were issues about the design and quality of the construction materials of Ecoland 4000 so much so that the developer paid the condo owners 200% of the purchase price. Now what is left are these majestic palm trees which will probably be uprooted too.
Needless to say, sales of condo units in the city has suffered an all time low. Practically all construction works on condominium buildings have slowed down, if not stopped at the moment. And my guess is it will take a really really long time before it goes back to the pre-Ecoland 4000 level.
And that ends my Wednesday Walk post. Thank you for visiting and may you all have a safe and healthy week ahead.
(Unless otherwise specified, all photos are mine.)