With
obviously no working lifts inside the building the only
way up to the top of the tower was a long climb up the main
fire escape staircases.
During the climb up I stopped off at the roof level at the
base of the tower to see the mall's skylight. The skylight
is a mighty construction looking somewhat like a canopy
of a WW2 bomber aircraft, but now completely peppered with
damage from direct hits from falling debris. The most dangerous
type of debris was probably the malls exterior cladding
panels. The cladding panels remained on the malls exterior
up until 2014 when they were finally removed, but by that
point many of the panels had already simply dropped off!
I can imagine a real world Tetris from hell scenario right
there.
Continuing my climb up the tower I stopped off on various
upper floors discovering old office spaces, service areas
and machine rooms. Higher up on the these levels I became
acutely aware of the increasing danger levels here, which
included gaping open lift shafts and mantrap like access
holes left completely uncovered in the floors.
Also
noticeable was the gusty winds that flowed throughout the
towers interior. The air was first inhaled in at the lower
levels of the mall, then exhaled up through the lift shafts
bringing with it the stench of foul air from the dark depths
of the basement levels.
The
tower block itself was never fully completed and all its
levels were left completely open to the elements. Up here
there was also a lot of old building materials and crated
equipment left totally unsecured. All of this 'stuff' surely
had the potential to becoming deadly aerial bombs if enough
time and the right conditions had its way up here.
Finally
reaching the end of the fire escape staircase I exited out
on to the top of the tower level. Here at the top was the
buildings massive metal water tanks, a maintenance crane
system and the machine room for the express lifts. I love
areas like this, it's a secret self contained place all
of it own, and this one had the best views, too!
The
only thing left remaining to see was the helipad. The helipad
was its own 2 storey structure that sat ontop of the tower
level like an eagles nest, with access by way of a rusty
external metal staircase. A helipad was a must have optional
extra for many of Malaysia's grand 1990's developments and
Pacific mall must have had one of the biggest, measuring
over 25 meters in diameter.
Reaching
the helipad capped off my explore of the infamous Pacific
Mall. I explored this location many times over the years
up until 2014. Now (2023) the mall sits in the hands of
a new developer that is trying to slowly bring the old building
back from the dead. We wait and see what lays in store for
the building in the future, a building that in my book remains
as one of Malaysia's top abandoned location, bar none. |