The chairman of Ambuja Neotia Group was turned down many times, before building award-winning properties and star hotels with iconic architects B.V. Doshi, Charles Correa and Channa Daswatte.
by Malini Banerjee I The Hindu I Published on: Nov 22, 2024
Another collaboration that led to one of Kolkata’s earliest and most unique malls was with Charles Correa. He too had initially turned Neotia down when the group went to him with the offer of building a mall. Neotia recollected the incident at the 7th edition of the Charles Correa Memorial Lecture. “I’ve never done a mall, I do not believe in malls and do not want to design one.”
How ironic perhaps that Correa’s design created not just the City Centre Mall in Kolkata but also in Patna, Raipur, Siliguri and Haldia. Unlike most malls across the country, City Centre stood out for its organic blending of community spaces and open air areas with air-conditioned stores. When Correa finally agreed to design the mall for the Neotia group he threw down quite the gauntlet.
“He (Correa) said we are not going to make a mall like everyone else does. I was very happy because I thought maybe he would do something new in terms of design. I did not know what I was getting into (laughs). That he would persuade me to do a bazaar crossover with a mall with community spaces within the mall was beyond my imagination. When we built the City Centre, Kolkata already had certain expectations of what a mall would look like. Ansal Plaza in Delhi and Crossroads in Mumbai had already opened so people had a sort of a set idea.” Even now nearly 20 years after the mall first opened there is something inherently organic about City Centre where the “Kund area” has an outdoor amphitheatre surrounded by stores and restaurants and one can choose between air-conditioned comfort or basking in the sun. Neotia describes Correa’s aesthetic “as one characterised by fluid spaces and a deep understanding of urban context. In City Centre, this is evident in the seamless flow between indoor and outdoor areas.”“He (Correa) said we are not going to make a mall like everyone else does. I was very happy because I thought maybe he would do something new in terms of design. I did not know what I was getting into (laughs). That he would persuade me to do a bazaar crossover with a mall with community spaces within the mall was beyond my imagination. When we built the City Centre, Kolkata already had certain expectations of what a mall would look like. Ansal Plaza in Delhi and Crossroads in Mumbai had already opened so people had a sort of a set idea.”
Even now nearly 20 years after the mall first opened there is something inherently organic about City Centre where the ‘Kund area’ has an outdoor amphitheatre surrounded by stores and restaurants and one can choose between air-conditioned comfort or basking in the sun. Neotia describes Correa’s aesthetic “as one characterised by fluid spaces and a deep understanding of urban context. In City Centre, this is evident in the seamless flow between indoor and outdoor areas.”
Read the full article here Harshavardhan Neotia’s lessons in persistence