 |  | | The Mehtas' residence and (below) the house belonging to former Tata Steel deputy managing director T Mukherjee and Sakchi hotelier Trilok Singh on Road No. 10, Circuit House (East), in Jamshedpur. Pictures by Animesh Sengupta |
Jamshedpur, March 5: Exactly 50 years ago, a young architect, not yet 25, armed with a degree from Cornell University, New York, came to work in Jamshedpur and gave the city two of its most elegant buildings. The man is none other than Tata Sons chairman Ratan N. Tata. And the buildings are two distinctive ones on Road No. 10, Circuit House (East). Not many residents of the city know that the architect of these two American prairie-style buildings is Tata himself. But Tata, who shifted gears early to lead the salt-to-steel-to-software conglomerate, as a student (BSc in architecture with specialisation in structural engineering) was greatly enamoured of America's leading architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who started the whole philosophy of organic architecture — uncluttered clean lines, natural lights and a sense of openness in urban space. In an interesting coincidence, Wright, who died in 1959, was hailed in 1991 by the American Institute of Architects as "the greatest American architect of all time", the same year Tata took over from JRD Tata as chairman. Among the twin properties Tata designed, the influence of Wright is palpable. One house belonged to Soli Devitre, then Tata Sons director Jehangir Ghandy's brother-in-law, and the other to Tata Steel senior executive Cawas Mehta and his wife Perin C. Mehta, who incidentally set up Jamshedpur Women's College. Devitre's house now has two owners, former Tata Steel deputy managing director T. Mukherjee and Sakchi-based hotelier Trilok Singh. Both have kept the original look and feel of the properties. "I purchased my portion in 2007. It has elements of the Prairie American style, a signature imbibed by Tata from his Cornell days. I liked the design as it has open spaces, enough light and place to sit out," Mukherjee said. The Mehta house is currently a guesthouse of Tarapore Company as subsequent generations of the family have settled abroad. The Tata Sons chairman's passion for heritage buildings came to the fore when he agreed with city-based hotelier Ronald D'Costa on their preservation at the question and answer session at Chamber Bhawan on Saturday. "I agree with you about the need for preservation and conservation of heritage buildings in Jamshedpur. Seriously, there are many buildings in the city which need proper upkeep and the company should look at preserving and conserving these buildings," Tata had said. Tarapore Company managing director and former president of SCCI Bailey Bodhanwala said he was proud to be associated with such a property as a tenant. "We take care to maintain the building without disturbing its original feel," said Bodhanwala. Mukherjee said that Tata had once told him that he had designed a house for his mother and his own beach bungalow at Alibaug, Mumbai, facing the Arabian Sea. Not even neighbours know that Tata's design was behind the buildings. Septuagenarian industrialist A.K. Srivastava, owner of a cold storage unit at Circuit House and president of Seraikela-Kharsawan Chamber of Commerce, expressed his surprised delight. "I didn't know that Tata had designed two buildings in my neighbourhood," said Srivastava. In an interview with Financial Times, Tata, way back in 2000, had spoken about his first passion. "Yes, in some ways I miss not being an architect because it was a very satisfying profession. But it has also served me very well in industry. Architecture is dealing with the translation of a set of requirements to specifications that have to find their way into how people exist in an environment, in taking a set of requirements and converting them into usage… all of which have been a great boon to me," he had said. | 
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