Restored colonial ''Currency building'' (1833), Kolkata, India

Currency Building, Calcutta. deccanherald.com

Currency Building, Calcutta telegraphindia.com

Kolkata city's famous and iconic land mark Currency building, a 3-story structure built in Italian style, is at last renovated and the first and second floors of the building's west wing, facing Dalhousie Square are for the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) to run an exhibition. It is said that all three floors of the western wing across the Esplanade station of the East-West Metro will ultimately house the exhibition. The glass roof over the remnants of demolished domes overhead is a nice piece of work. In Kolkata, most of the colonial buildings exhibit Gothic style of architecture, but Currency building is an exception where Italian design was adopted. This pretty old building, steeped in colonial history, was in a dilapidated state for more than a decade due to poor upkeep, lack of care by the Govt. authorities. Sheer neglect was the main reason and this is true of countless monuments and heritage structures across India. One could see the damaged arches and domes of the building with plaster sticking out that was covered with thick vegetation, an eye-sore in the prime locality of this city. The building under the care of the ASI (the Archaeological Survey of India ) was opened on the 11th of January, 2020 by PM Modiji. The heritage and monument lovers are quite upbeat about it that a fine colonial building that was facing depredation is preserved with care for the posterity.

Currency Building, a Calcutta.bongblogger.com

The conservation and restoration work on this building had been on for a long time as the heritage value should not be affected. The unique feature is the flat toughened glass ceiling allows sunlight to stream in and keep the view of the domes unhindered.
This building, where once a private bank - Agra Bank functioned during the colonial period, came up in 1833 and in 1896, the government took over it for its currency operations. After India's independence, this building was in use till 1994. Later it was managed by the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), which began pulling down the structure in 1996. The demolition work was quickly stopped upon the intervention of
Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) and Intach (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage). Soon ASI chipped in and began managing it from 2005. Already three massive central domes had been pulled down without giving any second thought to the historical value of this structure.

Architects and engineers took special care to conserve the tiles on the walls of the courtyard and chalked out a suitable plan to restore the hollow walls on the first and second floors. The ASI tried what is called lime punning to restore the tiles back to old glory instead of restoring them, which would involve filling the gaps with similar tiles. It is a time-consuming and cumbersome work as getting the right tiles plus filling the gap and matching old tiles and color would be a tough one. The advantage of lime punning is ''it will prevent water from seeping into the inner side of the tiles and restrict further decay," according to conservation experts.

Damaged Currency building, Kolkata. verdensteatret.com

Each of the first and second floors of the west has three rooms and a 40-metre-long hall. Together, the total area is 12,055 sq ft.
The other great features of this building that housed Reserve Bank of India until 1937 are the sturdy main cast iron gates, large brick arches and Venetian windows (for air circulation in the building) with intricate designs. The roof is arched with iron joists and the floor is covered with marble and chunar sandstone. Particular attention was paid to preserve the authenticity of the old building and the renovation was taken up by comparing old photographs of the building for the details.
According to one ASI official,'' it had then become a jungle inside the outer walls. A ruin. It took us two years just to clear the debris from the demolition work”.
https://navrangindia.blogspot.com/2018/05/currency-building-of-kolkata-colonial.html
https://www.telegraphindia.com/states/west-bengal/glass-top-gallery-at-currency-building/cid/1413976
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/restoring-value-to-the-currency-building/article6880033.ece
http://verdensteatret.com/currency