Parsi trust wins third Unesco Award for restoration
MUMBAI: The campaign to conserve heritage structures in the city was boosted by a special announcement Thursday. The restoration of the Parsi-owned Cama building at Gilder Road received the Unesco Merit Award. The residential building is located at Murzban Colony in Mumbai Central.
This is the twelfth Unesco Award for conservation architect Vikas Dilawari,and the third for the Garib Zarthostiona Rehthan Fund (GZRF) which owns the Grade III building in Murzban Colony. The team had together won for Sethna Building and Wadia Building before. Dilawari said, “The Cama project is a pointer to redevelopment obsessed Mumbai, that it only costs Rs 607 per sq ft to conserve a relatively poorly maintained building structurally and architecturally.”
Trust chairman Muncherji Cama said, “I feel it is my sacred duty as trustee to make residential buildings comfortable for the inhabitants. Before one demits office one should make sure to leave the property in a better condition than the kind one inherited.” GZRF is perhaps the first trust or owner to have dismissed the lucrative redevelopment option in favour of repair and restoration without burdening tenants and continuing with old rent rates.
