Just next to our newest building, the ex Honda showroom and maintenance centre, that we are converting into a very large outpatient facility is a mystery building. It’s large and has a bit of a diamond shape. It’s clad in shiny aluminum panels and seems to have no windows. It’s also heavily gated and guarded.
What could it be? It’s been there for a long time, seemingly unoccupied and just plain mysterious.
I finally discovered a bit about its history and maybe a bit about its future.
Very close to our acute care hospital campus, there is a large university – Bangkok University. Lots of professors and university staff live in the same building where I stay because it’s no more than a 10-minute walk to the campus. Bangkok University, which has a pretty good reputation and a very nice campus, was founded in 1962 by a guy named Surat Osathanugrah. His father, Surin Osathanugrah, founded a major pharmaceutical company called Osotspa. Osotspa manufactures, amongst other things, the energy dink called M-150, a direct and very successful competitor in Thailand to Red Bull. M-150, I believe, has the biggest chunk of energy drink market share in Thailand. Enough history for now. All you need to know is that the grandson of the original founder is named Petch Osathanugrah. Mr. Petch died last August at the age of 63.
Mr Petch seems to have been a pretty cool guy, acting at the President of the university for a while, becoming a positive change agent in how the university’s programs were undertaken. He was an entrepreneur, art collector, media maven and a generally famous guy in Bangkok. He also was a pretty hip looking dude. You can read about him HERE and HERE
So, back to the mystery building which, as mentioned, is located next to our hospital, my apartment and a 10-minute walk to the university. It turned out that Mr. Petch owned a huge art collection as well as a large collection of jewels and specifically diamonds. This diamond shaped building was meant to ultimately house and show this collection. However before the building could be completed, Mr. Petch died, apparently leaving a lot of loose ends that needed to be managed.
The reason I found out about this building’s history is that one of my colleagues knows Mr. Petch’s brother pretty well and got the whole story. Apparently there are many estate issues to clear up prior to this building and its contents future being decided. Lots of family stuff needs to be addressed. That could take time.
I hope that many of those family issues can be resolved as I have a feeling that the inside of this diamond shaped building could be pretty cool. However the story unfolds, knowing a bit of the background has helped make for an almost mystery solved Bangkok Blog entry.