Uncertainty over future of heritage building

Report sought by govt about pros and cons of demolition yet to be submitted

May 08, 2018 12:16 am | Updated 05:59 pm IST - Kozhikode

The St. Joseph Anglo-Indian Girls HSS in Kozhikode. Former students of the school have launched a social media campaign highlighting the need to conserve the colonial era structure.

The St. Joseph Anglo-Indian Girls HSS in Kozhikode. Former students of the school have launched a social media campaign highlighting the need to conserve the colonial era structure.

Uncertainty prevails over the future of the 156-year-old building of the St. Joseph’s Anglo-Indian Girls Higher Secondary School in the city with former students continuing their efforts to conserve the structure and the school authorities obtaining permission from the Regional Town Planner’s office to demolish the building. The former students, who had launched a social media campaign highlighting the need to conserve the colonial era structure, recently submitted a report to the school authorities claiming that new facilities could be introduced there without demolishing the building.

The study was coordinated by Lakshmi Manohar, ad-hoc faculty, Department of Architecture, National Institute of Technology-Calicut, Chinnu S. Kumar, architect, and Aysha Mahmood, all former students.

Sources in the Regional Town Planner’s office said that permission had been given to demolish the building a couple of months ago. However, the report sought by the government about the pros and cons of the demolition against the backdrop of the social media campaign was yet to be submitted. There was no legal hurdle for the management to bring down the building except a no-objection certificate from the Kozhikode City Corporation, they added. The school authorities and officials in the town planning section of the city corporation were not available for comments.

Meanwhile, the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, an agency involved in restoration and renovation of heritage buildings, has reportedly evinced interest in the conservation of the building.

The draft report submitted by the former students also claimed that apart from plaster coming off in certain parts, old wires, and leakage, the building was not in a precarious condition necessitating a demolition. Right now, there are lower primary and upper primary classes and laboratories for high school and higher secondary classes in the building. It has been suggested that the number of classrooms could be reduced from 17 to 12. A three-storey building, which was earlier used as hostel, is vacant now. If the laboratories could be shifted there, the other classrooms could be expanded. The building for higher secondary classes could be developed into a four-storey building too.

The school authorities had in February clarified that the building was being pulled down because of safety concerns and to bring in more facilities. Following the social media campaign, the authorities invited the former students, architects, and heritage conservationists for a discussion. It was decided to conduct a study involving former students, who are also architects, to find out if more facilities could be provided without razing the building. However, it has been reported that the group of architects could not get the original plan of the building and they had to manually map the structure.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.