the city of chandigarh august 4 8, 2017easttexastowns.com/sitemol/pdf/allin170810.pdf · the city...

The City of Chandigarh – August 4 – 8, 2017 – Chandigarh, Punjab, India By Tom Allin About 2/3rds of the way through today’s drive I knew we had arrived back in the plains of India – and a four to six lane highway with everyone driving in the same direction! I knew Chandigarh was a planned city but I had no idea how well it had been planned until we drove into the city. This is a city of 1.1 million people and I can’t think of any city in the world that I have traveled that is easier to get around. Just the opposite of every other city in India! All the streets are at right angles or parallel to each other. The main streets are four or six lanes and typically divided and the minor streets are two lanes. Chandigarh was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in July 2016. The street fronts Sukhma Lake Park. Yes, that is a parking lot across the street and those are sidewalks on both sides of the street.

Two American architects were awarded the planning for the city in 1949. Due to the death of one partner the other partner resigned their commission and the French-Swiss architect Le Corbusier took over in 1950. For those wanting to read more about the master planning and building of Chandigarh go to: http://architectuul.com/architecture/city-of-chandigarh . Below is the Government Museum & Art Gallery. I don’t particularly care for the proto-brutalism architectural style but the concrete work does make for interesting spaces inside Le Corbusier’s buildings.

The following day after visiting Nek Chand Rock Garden and the Museum & Art Gallery we took a tour of the Capital Complex. Below is the High Court. This building and the following building, the Vidhan Sabha were also design by Le Corbusier.

Le Corbusier’s world famous sculpture “Open Hand” is located in this complex of buildings.

The Vidhan Sabha (legislative building):

I have also included a photograph of the parking lot for the High Court Tourist Office. It looks great but is a user’s nightmare. Just goes to show not everything works in Chandigarh.

After the tour we drove to Sukhna Lake and spent two hours walking the grounds, along the lake and having our photo taken at least four times with various Indian park goers.

Typically we are both asked to be in photographs. However, this proud father only asked Nancy.

It was the intangibles that made Chandigarh a great stop. To begin with it was the first city in seven months or since we left Singapore that was easy to drive and when you arrived at your destination actually find a parking spot. It is a “green city” with multiple parks and green areas and it was clean for an Indian city. I will add all the buildings are offset from hh the roads with mature trees between the roads and the buildings. Overall I thought Chandigarh was a very comfortable city to stay and visit. I can’t recommend it as a destination stop unless you are into city master planning or the architecture of Le Corbusier but for us it was an interesting and back to civilization stop.