Veteran Architect Hasmukh C Patel Leaves for Heavenly Abode

On a poignant note, veteran architect and urban planner of post-independence epoch Hasmukh C Patel passed away on morning of 20th of January 2018.

Proclaimed as a contemporary modernist space designer along with BV Doshi and Charles Correa, Patel premeditated the Sabarmati Riverfront Development Project in the 1970s with other fellow architects. He has executed more than 350 projects during his five-decade career at his founding organisation HCP Design, Planning and Management (HCPDPM). A heart that always pounded to make the city of Ahmedabad an architecturally affluent vicinity, Patel served as the director and dean at the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology University and has been a visiting faculty at various institutes nationally and internationally.

After completing his architecture study from MS University, Patel pursued his further education at Cornell University, New York, Being inspired by western concepts, he started delivering projects that are grounded in regional milieu and are extremely user-friendly. His structures like St Xavier’s High School, Sir Sayajirao Hostels, Reserve Bank of India, Ahmedabad Electricity Company and Bhaikaka Bhavan were designed to be extremely people friendly. Patel spent his last few years painting and mentoring his foundation HCPDPM, which is now led by his son Bimal Patel. The impressions of the monarch of bricks and mortar will forever reminisce in young minds through his 400-page literature The Architecture of Hasmukh C. Patel – Selected Projects 1963-2003.