Chennai has a number of heritage buildings that need to be listed. In an effort to document the heritage buildings in the city, CMDA has appointed architects/heritage experts to study 192 sites listed in the Justice E Padmanabhan Committee Report. Madras Inherited was allocated 30 heritage buildings by the CMDA for this purpose. Most of the heritage buildings in the city were documented in 2 phases.This was the third phase of the project which was recently completed. The documentation of the heritage buildings was done in 4 parts - recording the building in terms of its ownership and use, location, historical, architectural, cultural significance. The usage of the building in different historical periods as well as the trends/patterns/themes exhibited by the building/area was documented. Details such as events and persons associated with the building were also analysed to understand the significance of the building.

The architectural aspect is also determined by identifying the types of architecture, interior and exterior of the building and assessing its design in terms of artistic merits, uniqueness of design, composition, craftsmanship etc. It also involved conducting a detailed study of the design integrity of the building and chronology of alterations - which is difficult to find due to non - availability of data .Conditional assessments of the building were also carried out in order to assess the condition of the building The process also focused on photographing the structures and also collecting historical photographs to understand the evolution and the present condition of the building.

This is one small step taken by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority and Madras Inherited towards getting regulations in place to protect the city's wealth of built heritage.