FOR decades, places like Poloview, Residency Road, Lal Chowk, Hari Singh High Street, Maharaja Bazar, Maharaj Gunj and the Jhelum banks along Shahr-e-Khaas were famed for their typical heritage buildings.
 Each of the areas gave a distinct look owing to typical facades. If Poloview and Residency Road were an attraction for colonial architecture buildings introduced during the British Residency period, the old City lot depicted the classical era while the Maharaja Bazar and HSHS too had their own façade style.
 But in the past few decades, these heritage areas are fast loosing the charm as new buildings which have come up there don’t adhere to any façade pattern thereby putting the traditional looks into mess.

‘UNHEALTHY CHANGE’
 While 90s witnessed a boom of concrete structures with cemented façade, the new millennium introduced glazed exteriors, mostly in glass frames, in Srinagar.
 For now almost every new upcoming commercial building has a glazed façade much on the lines of new buildings outside state.
 Even though the buildings give a modern look, observers say, the trend is detrimental for the heritage characteristic of Srinagar. 

‘LOSING OUR IDENTITY’
 Former bureaucrat and expert on heritage Muhammad Saleem Beg opines that the new buildings in the areas of traditional significance have messed up the historic identity of Srinagar.
 “These buildings could be giving a modern look but they just don’t go in line with the beauty of the particular place,” Beg told Greater Kashmir adding that almost all these areas have started looking “haphazard”.
 Beg who heads the state chapter of INTACH, a prominent organization working for heritage conservation says the government needs to evolve norms so that the façade remains under control.
 “Let interiors vary as per the choice. But there needs to be a façade control otherwise Srinagar is for sure going to loose its identity,” the former Director General Tourism fears.

JHELUM BANK IRONY
 While Srinagar lost some of the heritage structures due to neglect of sorts, some became typical victims of government apathy.
 Take the case of over a century old building which housed Lal Ded School on Jhelum banks in Shahr-e-Khaas.
 In 2009, despite stiff public resentment, government allowed the dismantling of the school building, the biggest standing colonial architecture structure in City. Within days the majestic three storeyed building was razed to rubble.
 “Had any norms for conservation been there in place, the building wouldn’t have been the victim of the so called modernization,” said a Kashmir University teacher and heritage lover.

WHY FAÇADE CONTROL?
 “We are not madly in love with old buildings…Whatever is dominantly existing out of the traditional façade needs to be protected,” says Muhammad Saleem Beg.
 “There’s a purpose behind it (façade control) because these buildings have values from social, economic and cultural perspectives,” he adds.

BOTTOMLINE
 A delay in such norms will further deteoriate the façade line because almost everyday new constructions are taken up the City, which is losing its identity on various fronts, including the traditional facades!

Lastupdate on : Sat, 13 Aug 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 13 Aug 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 14 Aug 2011 00:00:00 IST