The hub of learning

PUNE: The University of Pune (UoP) building has been somewhat of a white elephant for both its colonial creators and its present-day occupants. It was built in the Ganeshkhind thicket at the behest of Sir Bartle Frere as a summer palace for the governors of Bombay to get away from the blistering coastal city. However, he faced severe criticism back home for building a palatial building in the aftermath of Mumbai's cotton crash of 1865.It was dubbed by the British parliament as an "instance of extravagance and insubordination".
So keen was the governor to make this a statement of British paramountcy that the project ran out of money half-way through. The building was left unfinished, but not before it had already cost ?175,000, nearly six times the amount raised by the sale of the governor's previous residence, built in 1829 in Dapodi. Yet, Frere himself, the governor from 1862 to 1867, could never live in the mansion, because it wasn't complete when he left India. Frere's successor Sir Seymour Fitzgerald, who carried out the furnishing, also met with criticism when he installed a ?500 chandelier in the ballroom.
The 60,000 sq ft building was handed over to the UoP in 1948. What followed were ill-conceived structural and functional alterations and adaptations. They only added to the inherent design and structural flaws of the original building (such as water pipes concealed in the stone work) that led to the deterioration of woodwork and masonry. Yet, the upkeep of the building was mostly haphazard, lacking even basic prerequisites, such as a maintenance manual.
Some cosmetic repairs were carried out in 1999. In 2001, all offices were shifted out to make way for the building's restoration. A city firm was later asked to do research for restoring the building, but its services were terminated a few years later without an explanation. In 2008, a Mumbai-based firm was commissioned for executing a ` 15-crore programme to rebuild the roof, replace damaged masonry and woodwork, reinforce the walls, and spruce up electrical, fire-fighting and seismic safety provisions. Umpteen deadlines have since been missed and the work is far from over.
Officials have given various reasons for the delay, but observers blame it on bad project management. They say that despite having the required money, the UoP is not equipped with expedient processes and systems to handle an exercise of this scale. They aver that there is little continuity of office-bearers and every change means the new incumbents press ahead with their own plans.
The building stands where the last Anglo-Maratha battle was fought on November 5, 1817, between the forces of the East India Company and Bajirao II. Built in 1864-71 as the only full-scale government house in the then Bombay Presidency, this building was designed by a member of the Staffordshire family of builders, James Trubshawe, and built by a government engineer named Howard. The surrounding park, complete with stepped lawn like Tuscany and a winter garden like Scarborough, was laid out by Captain Meliss. The building, inspired by Prince Albert's house at Osborne, Isle of Wight, begun in 1845, was set in a 512-acre parkland resembling an English country estate. Winston Churchill is said to have briefly come here on his way to Madras.
The structure, built in grey trapstone with pink granite dressings, is in the Romanesque or Italianate Gothic style. The 300-feet long fa?ade is punctuated by porched entrances to the erstwhile public rooms to the south and private apartments to the north. The highlight of the two-storied structure is its 80-foot tower, described as a "Victorian rendering of an Italian campanile", carrying a water tank and capped by a wrought iron cupola with a flag-staff. At one time, there were iron stairways at the rear for servants carrying out dry sanitation. Water closets were installed only after World War I.
The interiors consisted of congregation halls with beautiful chandeliers and panelled walls, and several smaller rooms, some with ornamental coffered ceilings and some lit by clerestory openings. The main hall was linked to the kitchen by an underground tunnel for servants to carry food trolleys and reheat the food along the way. The majestic building now patiently awaits its lost glory.