An Illustrated History of the Unbuilt City
ROBERT STEPHENS
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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
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ILLUSTRATIONS
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PROJECTS
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Bombay (010) / The Great Channel (012) / New Town Wall (014) / Sea Outfall (016) / Neat's Tongue Reservoir (018) / St. John's Church (020) / Fort Wall Preservation (022) / Elephanta Tavern and Ballroom (024) / Malabar Hill Cemetery (026) / Well Pavilions (028) / Reservoir Master Plan (030) / Colaba Channel Docks (032) / Stone Pier (034) / Salt Water Scour (036) / Mechanics' Buildings (038) / Lift Wheels (040) / Back Bay Reclamation and Docks (042) / Back Bay Crescent and Promenade (044) / Screw Pile Pier (046) / Wet Dock on the Flats (048) / Elbow Room (050) / Trombay Creek Reclamation (052) / Back Bay Reclamation (054) / Luminous Cremation (056) / Frere Town Trenches (058) / European General Hospital (060) / European General Hospital (062) / Caranja Island Quarry-Prison (064) / Back Bay CableWall (066) / Footpaths (068) / St. Thomas Gothic Cathedral (070) / Versovah Suburbs (072) / Fort and Mazagon Police Courts (074) / City of the Dead (076) / Elephanta Island Docks and Township (078) / Iron Kiosk (080) / Bombay School of Art (082) / Bacilli Blow-Pipes (084) / Bombay Park (086) / Custom's House (088) / The Greatest Sewer (090) / Deepwater Dock (092) / Wet Dock (094) / Reclamation Docks (096) / Elphinstone Bunder Goods Terminus (098) / BBCI and GIP Railway Link (100) / Canery Reservoir (102) / Shewla Reservoir (104) / The Bombay Canal (106) / Bombay Sailors' Home (108) / Underground Railway (110) / Coastal Road (112) / Mumba Devi Temple-Tank Park (114) / Kamun Project (116) / Butcher's Island Sanatorium (118) / Sewage Irrigation (120) / Bombay Stock Exchange (122) / Mahalaxmi Lake (124) / Bombay Municipal Offices (126) / Chowpatty Cliff Zoo (128) / Oriental Venice (130) / Air-Conditioning (132) / Bombay Cathedral (134) / Mahim Bay Reclamation (136) / Colaba Reclamation (138) / Bulk Oil Pier (140) / Prince of Wales Museum of Western India (144) / Prince of Wales Museum of Western India (146) / Prince of Wales Museum of Western India (148) / Prince of Wales Museum of Western India Master Plan (150) / Chowpatty Reclamation (152) / New Bombay (154) / Tramway Extensions (156) / Marble Gateway (158) / Gateway of India Avenue (160) / Bandra Gateway and Civic Centre (162) / Bamboo House (164) / East Colaba Development (166) / Back Bay Reclamation Scheme (168) / Trombay Wet Dock (170) / Dharavi Development Scheme (172) / Worli Point (174) / Back Bay Layout (176) / Bombay 1971 (178) / BDD Chawl Sky-views (180) / Back Bay International Airport (182) / Churchgate Reclamation Triangular Garden (184) / Marine Aquarium (186) / Hygiene Museum (188) / Chawl Remodelling (190) / Pet Cemetery (192) / Dharavi Clean-Up (194) / Underground Stalls (196) / Collective Living Superstructure (198) / Love Grove Sewage Scheme (200) / Master Street Plan (202) /Dharavi Estate Neighbourhood Unit (204) / Coastal Townships (206) / Social Housing (208) / Tube Railway (210) / Bellasis Road Park (212) / Express Highway Green Belts (214) / Gorai International Airport (216) /
Leper Island (218) / Banganga Tank Children's Park (220) / Bhandup Industrial Estate (222) / Air India Tower (224) / Amusement Pier (226) / Malabar Hill Ropeway (228) / Cosmopolis (230) / Uran Link (232) / Bombay Hilton (234) / Horniman Circle Parking Lot (238) / Horniman Circle Cultural Complex (240) / Dahisar Lake (244) / Deonar Aerodrome (246) / Underground Railway (248) / West Island Freeway (250) / Nepean Sea Road Foreshore Layout (252) / New Bombay (254) / Twin City Master Plan (256) / Skywalk (258) / Churchgate Subway (262) / Indian Express Office Complex (264) / Hawker Platforms (266) / Visvesvaraya Centre (268) / 102-Storey Skyscraper (272) / Flora Fountain Underground Parking Lot (274) / VT Foot Overbridge (276) / Santacruz International Terminal (278) / Vehicle Terrace (280) / Back Bay Reclamation Scheme (282) / Car-Free Bombay (284) / Chowpatty Foot Overbridge Ramp (286) / Squatter Housing (288) / Back Bay Waterfront (290) / Traffic Management Plan (294) / Kamathipura Urban Renewal Scheme (296) / Deonar City Park (298) / Museum of Modern Art (300) / Indira Gandhi Statue (302) / Western Waterfront Development (304) / Dinshaw Manockjee Petit Patho-Bacteriological Laboratory (308) / Nariman Point Government Complex (310) / Marine Drive Restoration and Beautification (312) / Oval Maidan Underground Parking Lot (314) / Mandwa-Rewas International Airport (316) / Mill Land Development Plan (318) / Parallel Runway (322) / Mumbai Art and Craft Centre (324) / Worli-Nariman Point Sea Link (326) / Peddar Road Flyover (328) / Wankhede Stadium (330) / Taraporevala Mansion Tower (332) / Underground Tunnel (334) / Banganga Crematorium Revitalisation (336) / Multimodal Transportation Hub (338) / Gateway of India Underpass (340) / Dharavi Redevelopment Project (342) / Dharavi Master Plan (344) / Zaveri Bazaar Parking Towers (346) / Nariman Point Redevelopment Project (348) / India Tower (350) / India Tower (352) / Racecourse Y-Bridge (354) / Dharavi UN World Heritage Site (356) / Offshore Airport (358) / Vulture Aviary (360) / Juhu Stilted Runway (362) / The Slow Ride (364) / Jamshed Bhabha Theatre Office (366) / Fort Management Plan (368) / The Esplanade Project (370) / Bombay Greenway (372) / Dadar Station Roof Plaza (374) / Malad Creek Promenade (376) / Saat Rasta (378) / Bal Thackeray Memorial Park (380) / Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Memorial (382) / Sudarshan Wheel (384) / Eastern Waterfront (386) / Sassoon Dock Redevelopment (390) / Mumbai City Museum (392) / Mumbai City Museum (396) / Mumbai City Museum (398) / Juhu Beach Expansion (402) / Container Skyscraper (404) / VJTI Hostel (406) / Multipurpose Complex (408) / Eastern Waterfront (410) / Prince's Dock Marina (412) / The Golden Fiber Bridge (414) / Maharashtra Nature Park Makeover and Pedestrian Bridge (418) / Structured Symbiosis (422) / New Worli Koliwada (426) / Worli Koliwada Reincarnate (428) / MS Ali Road (432) / The Urban Equator (434) / The Estate (436) / Coastal Road Realignment (438)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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INDEX
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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1865
BOMBAY PARK ARTHUR CRAWFORD
The Bombay Park, a gigantic 400-acre public open space on the Mahalaxmi Flats was the brainchild of Municipal Commissioner Arthur Crawford. The proposition began with the detoxification of Bombay's first landfill, followed by the plantation of bamboo, mango trees and flowering shrubs.1 Writing in the Professional Papers on Indian Engineering in 1869, Crawford's colleague Hector Tulloch lent the scheme his support, exclaiming, “It is wonderful with what rapidity the foulest matters are absorbed and assimilated into their systems by plants. It is precisely because the Flats are so filthy that they are so well suited for a park.”2 Upon the redeemed landscape all castes and creeds were invited to congregate, with separate food kiosks for each community and an array of recreational
facilities to boot. The crowning glory of the proposal — a statue of a fool in a cap — was to memorialise administrative predecessors responsible for dumping refuse on the low-lying grounds, with an inscription in four languages that read, “Forgive us, for we know not what we did.” It is unclear what subsequent commissioners did with Crawford's verdant imagination, but it is selfevident what they did not do — the Bombay Park.
Arthur Crawford's proposed Bombay Park at Mahalaxmi was to be spread over 400 acres.
Arthur Travers Crawford, The Development of New Bombay (Poona: Israelite Steam Press, 1908), p. 6. 1
Hector Tulloch, “Drainage of Bombay,” in JG Medley, ed., Professional Papers on Indian Engineering, Volume 6 (Roorkee: The Thomason College Press, 1869), p. 237. 2
ARTHUR CRAWFORD, 1908
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MAHALAXMI 048 | 094
ADAPTIVE REUSE 070 | 114
MEMORIAL 020 | 144
RECREATION 082 | 114
PARKS 072 | 114
Wellcome Collection
A 'PEOPLE'S PARK' SUCH AS LONDON DOES NOT POSSESS.
1950s AIR INDIA TOWER LE CORBUSIER
Although countless Bombay buildings never left the drawing board, others — like Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier's design of the Air India Tower at Nariman Point — never reached the draftsman's pad. The story of the city's most iconic structurethat-never-was lies embedded in an interview with Indian architect Charles Correa who narrated thus: “Do you know that Le Corbusier wanted to design the Air India building on Nariman Point? He asked Mr. Tata, but Mr. Tata refused. He turned down the greatest architect of the century and instead employed a rotten third-rate firm from Chicago to design the building. Can you imagine if Corbusier, at the height of his power, had designed that building? It would have been an architectural gesture that would have changed our
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BACK BAY 188 | 226
MARINE DRIVE 044 | 286
CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF CORBUSIER HAD BUILT THIS BUILDING AT THE END OF MARINE DRIVE...
lives. Ten or 20 other people driving down Marine Drive would have been inspired to create a building like that. It would have changed our city.”1 Le Corbusier's charisma failed to sweep Mr. Tata off his feet and by 1970, the Air India Tower would be completed on designs prepared by American architect John Burgee.2
CHARLES CORREA, 1986
Shabnam Minwalla, “Home is where the art is,” The Times of India, July 3, 1994. 1
K Sunil Thomas, “Mumbai's iconic Air India building completes 50 years,” The Week, June 2, 2020. 2
Yogi Aggarwal, “Seeking the Boundaries of a Vision,” in ed. Mohini Bhullar, Bombay, The City Magazine, April 22-May 6, 1986 (Faridabad: Chander Rai, 1986), p. 42. 3
NARIMAN POINT - | 264
ARCHITECTURE 198 | 226
SKYSCRAPERS - | 230
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Urbs Indis Library | Overlay
In the absence of drawings, Le Corbusier's ambition is represented symbolically in the form of the Modular Man (red), his attempt to find the mathematical relationship between human dimensions and nature.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
After completing his Bachelor of Architecture degree from Virginia Tech in 2007, Robert Stephens left his childhood hometown of Summerville, South Carolina and moved to Mumbai, India. He joined RMA Architects as an apprentice at the age of 22 and is now a principal at the same firm. Robert is part of the core team at RMA responsible for recent additions to Mumbai’s built environment, including the CSMVS Visitors’ Centre (2011) and Children’s Museum (2019) at Kala Ghoda, and the under-construction Mata Ramabai Ambedkar Crematorium at Worli. In 2016 he founded Urbs Indis, a studio that narrates lesser-known civic histories through the juxtaposition of archival material with contemporary aerial photographs of urban India. His work has been exhibited in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chennai and Edinburgh, and has appeared in publications such as The Guardian, DOMUS India and Scroll.in. He currently lives in Mumbai with his wife and son. Bombay Imagined, Robert’s first book, was conceived in the meditative depths of the Mumbai local train in 2013 and matured through various lockdowns during the global coronavirus pandemic. His next book, Ahmedabad Walls, A Circumambulation with Patrick Geddes, will be released in 2023.
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Portrait of the author from mid-2016 with Hector Tulloch’s The Drainage and Sewerage of Bombay, a publication that put his (then) one-month-old son to sleep.