Demise of an icon like Charles Correa, hailed as "one of India's finest architects" has paved a way for the world to contemplate and appreciate the genius,
Eulogies poured in large volumes at a memorial service, organised by the National Gallery of Modern Arts here recently where anecdotes were narrated describing the friend and professional Correa was.
A cluster of friends and colleagues of the late architect reflected upon the architectural collaborations they created with Correa and paid glowing tributes to the "handsome personality" he was.
Poet and critic Ashok Vajpayee who first knew Correa 35 years ago while the design process of Bharat Bhawan structure in Bhopal was underway, described him as "one of the persons who build post-independent India."
Describing him as a civilised architect and also a civilising architect, Vajpayee said "Charles Correa had a lurking Gandhian in him, a person of austerity and an imagination which would encompass the people. He believed that cities don't just have structures or passages, they have a metaphysics which should be taken into account."
One of Correa's friends, Mahendra Raj, a structural engineer who knew Correa since 1959 described him as "intense, out-going and someone who has deep concern to upgrade the profession in the country."
Some of the projects the duo of Charles Correa and Mahendra Raj worked together are LIC Building (New Delhi), Craft's Museum (New Delhi), Vidhan Bhawan (Bhopal) and Permanent Mission of India building (New York).
"It was very interesting and exciting to associate with Charles on various projects. He would design effortlessly and would also change what he had designed equally effortlessly," he said.
The architectural wizard was also fondly remembered by his professional associates as a man of "extraordinary personality, something out of a Roman sculpture.
