Devotees of Chennai are fond of saying that their city is one where the old and the new can happily coexist. One of the most sterling examples of this aspect of its character lies in many office buildings of the city—buildings with a hoary past and great architectural significance, housing shiny new corporations and modern businesses.
Click here to view a slideshow of old buildings in Chennai, still being put to official use
Mint asked P.T. Krishnan, convenor of the Chennai chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach), for his picks of old buildings still being put to official use. Krishnan, a practising architect, has long been a crusader for wise conservation of Chennai’s many heritage structures. Under his watch, Intach published a guide ‘Madras: The Architectural Heritage’ in 2003, an enthralling encyclopaedia of the brick and mortar remnants of the city’s rich history.
Photographs by Hemant Mishra / Mint