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MUMBAI: For the first time, original drawings of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) building have gone on public display.The JJ College of Architecture is hosting an exhibition of the 130-year-old hand-drawn, hand-lettered and hand-painted drawings made by architect Frederick William Stevens from February 12-22.The prints and drawings, fairly well preserved, are a loan from the Central Railway, whose general manager Subodh Kumar Jain inaugurated the exhibit on Monday. The CST was built over a period of 10 years from 1878-1888 with a mix of local and imported material. Stevens was a master of the neo-Gothic style of architecture that is also seen in the Bombay high court and Fort University buildings.Curator Prof. Mustansir Dalvi said, "This exhibition is a tribute to the genius of Stevens. In an age when most professionals outsourced the mundane details to assistants, he did the drawings himself. He also happened to be an examiner at the JJ School of Art. In fact, JJ School has been associated with Victoria Terminus since the idea of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway ( GIPS) was born. It was our students who fashioned the ornamental architectural details of the building, including the flora and fauna patterns as well as the animals that you see on the walls."

Photographer Hemangi Kadu's shots of CST show how Stevens drew to scale. The arches, the fabled starred dome above the ticketing counter all come to life as the century-old floor plans are juxtaposed with actual photographs.