Revision as of 08:16, 4 January 2021

History

1955: Bombay or Ahmedabad--Deciding on the location

When Mumbai almost stole IIM-A from Ahmedabad

Paul John, TNN | Oct 28, 2013

The Times of India

When Mumbai almost stole IIM-A from Ahmedabad

In 1955 the central government established the TT Krishnamachari committee to give its recommendations on establishing a management institute and the US’s Ford Foundation decided to help out. AHMEDABAD: India's business capital Mumbai almost stole the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) from the city not once but twice. The first attempt was made during its very inception in 1962 and the second in 2001 when the top B-school was looking to expand and build a new campus.

But Ahmedabad remained the institute's home, thanks to the determination of visionary technocrat Vikram Sarabhai, textile magnate and institution-builder Kasturbhai Lalbhai and first Gujarat chief minister Jivraj Mehta. This gripping tale is recorded in a recent book 'The IIM-A story—the DNA of an institution' by the B-school's member of the board of governors Praful Anubhai.

He says in the book that in 1955 the central government established the TT Krishnamachari committee to give its recommendations on establishing a management institute and the US's Ford Foundation decided to help out.

In 1957 a Harvard Business School committee led by Richard Merriam and Harold Thurlby was invited by the foundation and they recommended Mumbai as the location. The committee also insisted that it should be autonomous and based on the American model.

Bombay University staunchly contested autonomy for the institute and demanded that it be made part of the university. Meanwhile, Sarabhai, Lalbhai and Mehta were lobbying hard across the country to pull the institute to Ahmedabad. Bombay University's resistance became the trump card for the trio's success.

"The triumvirate was a powerful combination, rarely seen in public life. It is their hard work that made IIM a reality in Ahmedabad in 1962," says Anubhai.

"In 2001, IIM-A needed to expand and needed a new campus. City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), the apex planning body in Maharashtra, approached a committee formed by IIM-A which involved former professor Jagdeep Chhokar and me," Anubhai says. "We inspected a site on a hillock in Navi Mumbai which was earlier offered to the Indian School of Business (ISB)."

This move was scuttled by the Maharashtra government, which did not want an institute not reserving seats for locals. Anubhai also states that it was almost final that the new IIM-A campus would come up on Indian Oil Corporation ( IOC) land in Delhi, but the Union government was evasive on the issue, ensuring that the sanctity of the 'A' in IIM-A remained.

Architecture

2021: Louis Kahn dormitories not to be demolished

Maulik Pathak, January 2, 2021: The Times of India

The Louis Kahn dormitories that were to be demolished
From: Maulik Pathak, January 2, 2021: The Times of India

The buildings, built in the 1960s and 1970s, are in a state of dilapidation
From: Maulik Pathak, January 2, 2021: The Times of India

The Indian Institute of Management–Ahmedabad (IIM-A) decided to give the “cultural legacy” of celebrated US architect Louis Kahn a chance. IIM-A Board of Governors (BoG) said it is withdrawing the expression of interest (EOI) for demolishing 14 of 18 dormitories that are part of the campus and replacing them with new structures.

The decision followed a massive outcry from various organisations, architects, historians and academicians, among others, urging IIM-A to abandon plans for demolishing the rare structures.

A letter by BoG chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla and other members of the IIM-A board said they “are sensitive to the feedback from some stakeholders who are not in agreement with this approach”.

“We are therefore withdrawing the Expression of Interest that was put out. We will deliberate on the feedback received, re-evaluate the options, consult the best global conservation and structural experts, and chart out a course of action,” said the letter to IIM-A stakeholders.

‘Kahn-designed dorms a cultural legacy’

As per restoration plans proposed by the institute earlier, the core of the Louis Kahn buildings — the library, the faculty wings, and the class-room complex — and the dorms on the periphery of the complex (Dorms 16-18) would be restored, while the other dorms would be reconstructed. Out of a total 18 dormitories, 14 were proposed to be razed.

A blended approach was considered appropriate, it said. This was done after taking into account expert opinions, consultations with a range of other stakeholders and balancing all considerations. “Many of you have been writing ever since the Expression of Interest was put up for the design of the student housing at the main campus of the institute. You have sought to remind us that the dormitories designed by Louis Kahn are a cultural legacy and that these buildings are to be seen as an integral part of the ensemble of buildings that constitute the campus,” the BoG letter states.

The letter said that they are acutely cognisant of the place that the institute and its architecture occupy in the larger community, and of the responsibility that comes with being custodians of the legacy of Louis Kahn.

The buildings designed by Kahn and built in the 1960s and 1970s have undergone dilapidation and structural deterioration with periodic detachments of parts of it in fragments. “We learned that the bricks used were what is termed “second-class bricks”, which have grown brittle and weak. Load bearing areas have become particularly vulnerable,” says the letter.