destruction

[Guest guest]

When a 200 year old good for nothing building is being patched with cement,

people are complaining about destruction of heritage.

 

What happened to these people when thousands of year old heritage is being

destroyed at Tirumala?

 

 

Please see below Deccan Article

 

Cement defaces epic in granite

 

Hyderabad July 10: When told about the planned

extension of the prestigious National Gallery at

London, Prince Charles quipped: “What is proposed is

like a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much loved

and elegant friend.” A similar deformity threatens to

deface the prestigious Arts College of the Osmania

University.

 

The Arts College building is an architectural

treasure, to put it mildly. It is an encounter with

history and has been termed ‘an epic in granite’ by

many eloquent admirers. And the university’s building

division is now trying to “restore its pinkish hue” by

using cement instead of the original lime mortar.

 

The college is one among the 137 heritage buildings

listed by the HUDA Heritage Conservation Committee.

According to rules, the university has to get

permission from the committee for any repair or

restoration process. “We have asked them to give us

all the details and engage a conservation architect,”

says the chairman of the committee, Sravan Kumar.

 

The buildings division has not bothered much about

this instruction. Ironically, the same division

defaced the 200-year-old British Reside-ncy (which

presently houses the Koti Women’s College) by

attempting to ‘restore’ it. “Using lime mortar is not

in fashion,” says Salauddin, the engineer of the

buildings division, in a callous manner. But a

city-based conservation architect says: “Even

patchwork using cement will destroy its heritage

nature.