File 35 - Durgapur City Centre

As an appointed consultant for a three-month period to the Ford Foundation in urban design with the Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Organization, Calcutta, India, John Schreiber traveled and worked in India. Basic design and analysis for a new City Centre at Durgapur consisted of an analysis of the site (slopes, drainage channels, road systems) and a study of land development potential as well as its staging and urban growth. "During the first ten years of its existence, the industrial complex of Durgapur was developed through the establishment of independent manufacturing plants with housing colonies for their employees. The new city lacked the necessary commercial and administrative facilities for which a 300-acre centrally placed area was designated within the master plan. From the many considerations influencing decision as to what form the City Centre should take, the site conditions and the desire to segregate small scale traffic from major motorized movement were given high level of priority." Source: text from panels from the office of John Schreiber. The project was partially built.

Project: John Schreiber, Architect and Consultant in Architecture and Urban Design, with Durgapur Development Authority.