Public Bank Tower (Menara Public Bank)

The building during the time of humans

The Menara Public Bank, also known as the Public Bank Tower in Malay, is a 170 meter skyscraper within the close proximity of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia. Completed in 1994, this 36-storey building was constructed at a cost of RM300 million and serves as the headquarters of Public Bank Berhad, a well-known local banking company. The exterior of the bank headquarters is a brown-colored glass facade that slowly gets smaller as the tower gets higher, eventually topping out with a brown-triangular roof, giving it a distinctive look and making the tower one of the most earliest recognisable structures in the city. But without any humans to maintain it, can it survive against the forces of nature?

1 day after people: Without the electricians or other personnel operating the power stations across the city, they begin to fail and leaves the city slowly descending into complete darkness. The tower's iconic brown look at the night sky turns black forever. Inside, the office materials inside are still left as they were, but will soon be messed around with by the forces of nature.

5 months after people: During the monsoon season, a massive downpour strikes the city of Kuala Lumpur, which raises the waters of every major river in the Klang Valley, eventually bursting their banks and inundating the entire city. Because the tower is located close to the Klang River, it receives much stronger floodwaters than other structures like the AmBank Tower. The furnishings of the tower's lobby are swept away by the floodwaters, while the building sways slightly in the heavy winds also battering the city, which leads to some windows toppeling and shattering to the streets, into the raging waters below. Some cars swept by the current also forcefully smash some of the walls of the lobby, creating some cracks within them.

5 years after people: The iconic brown facade of the tower is beginning to turn into a more dark gray and rusted look, as the tropical plants begin to retake the lobby. Plants that have been able to grow in the cracks of the wall slowly push the concrete apart with their roots, acting as mini hydraulic presses. Birds have also begun to move in and make their presence known by building nests all across the tower.

10 years after people: The tower is still standing, but is slowly losing the fight against nature. On the exterior, the Public Bank logo on the top is beginning to lose its iconic red look, as rust engulfs the logo. (As someone once said, '[it's] painted rust-red, years from now it would be rust-rust.'.) Window panels also start to topple onto the roads below. Inside, the offices inside have been attacked by constant humidity and birds scouring the building for supplies or locations to build their nests. Papers decomposes as electronic components inside deteriorate unnoticed.

40 years after people: While the tower slowly turns into a gray concrete skeleton covered in a layer of greenery, the supports holding the roof are showing signs of giving up due to extreme corrosion brought on by bird poop, rainwater and the tropical Malaysian climate. Eventually, a beam gives way and the whole roof comes crashing down onto the floor below. But remarkably, the floor's supports are able to withstand the roof collapsing on it, and the Public Bank Tower is spared, for now.

65 years after people: The tower's situation is worsening as the years progresses. Most of the tower's windows have been destroyed or blown out, while the plants and vines colonising the building are weakening the supports of the floors. The brown color the building's exterior once had has been reduced to a gray hunk of weakening concrete, while the Public Bank Logo on the roof is now unrecognisable. Then, a thunderstorm strikes Kuala Lumpur, and a lightning strikes the middle floors of the tower, igniting deteriorating electronics and setting the floors on fire. Bearing the brunt of the strike, the concrete begins to crack some more, but it doesn't fall through yet (unlike the roof). But thankfully, the structural frame withstands the raging inferno, but the interiors of those floors have been reduced to ash and charcoal, as well as some pieces of decayed electronics, bulletin boards, water dispensers and other objects that survived the inferno.

100 years after people: After a century of being able to withstand the absence of humans, the tower has finally decided to call it quits. As another massive downpour strikes the downtown area of Kuala Lumpur, water seeps into the already weakened foundations, eventually dealing the final blow. The main pillars of the lobby give way, and the structure caves in on itself, and vanishes from the skyline of Kuala Lumpur in a pile of smoke and debris. The tower that was once home to one of the most well known banks in Malaysia has now fallen, and will never rise again.