Bangalore/Kolkata: Last year, when the 140-year-old Bangalore Club commissioned conservation architect Satya Prakash Varanashi to restore the clubhouse on its 11-acre campus, the management council gave him a free hand. It
Makeover challenges: Efforts to convert the Metropolitan Building in Kolkata, owned by LIC, into a retail hub have been stalled by the tenants.
allowed Varanashi to redesign the entrance foyer in a colonial style and knock off modern additions to the old building.
Across Indian cities there is a growing interest in preserving architectural heritage, after years of neglect, partly led by a paucity of real estate spaces in prime locations and, in some cases, by the lower cost of converting well-kept buildings which, with a bit of work, can spring back to life as corporate headquarters or retail destinations.
In Kolkata alone, some 1,300 buildings in the city’s commercial district have been identified as heritage structures.
In Mysore, Varanashi is currently restoring a private home, measuring 3,000 sq. ft, which will house a Planet M retail store and a Barista coffee shop. “We cannot mindlessly glorify the past,” he says. “Heritage buildings can be conserved only when we can find contemporary ways of utilizing that space.”
In Bangalore, for instance, ITC Infotech India Ltd, a subsidiary of ITC Ltd, has set up its BPO division in a red brick heritage building, which was once a tobacco warehouse.
But Bangalore, with a pronounced focus on futuristic technology, has a mixed record in the conservation of heritage buildings. Still, “in the past five years, the awareness about architectural conservation has increased in the city,” says Karthikeyan S., a senior architect at Mistry Architects, which is responsible for some of the most eye-catching restoration projects in the city.
Now, one-tenth of the 40-45 projects that Mistry works on every year are heritage projects, such as the ITC office and the conversion of a 100-year-old family home of city-based jewellers, Ganjam, into a public space.
Architects also point out that in cases where buildings are not in a state of complete disrepair, restoring a heritage building works out cheaper than constructing a new one.
In the Mysore home that Varanashi is restoring, the space will cost up to Rs500 per sq. ft. In comparison, fresh construction would cost an average of Rs1,200 per sq. ft, says Varanashi. According to studies done by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach), the cost of restoring the 50,000 sq. ft Duff College in Kolkata was Rs3 crore, whereas to put up a new building of a similar size would have cost Rs5 crore.
In Kolkata, realtors and property owners are also scrambling to unlock the value of heritage buildings mostly located in the commercial and business hub of the city.