Tall Storeys Collaborative

28/08/2026

20/08/2026

Maybe you’ve spotted these “Made in India” manhole covers in New York City? They’re literally everywhere.
There’s an interesting history behind these objects and the sad irony that the country that produced them somehow forgot to make them for its own cities.

Note: this is a Repost of an older video with minor improvements for pacing, clarity and captioning.



Keywords:
New York, Make in India, Manufacturing, Design, city planning, urbanism, architecture, city, manhattan, West Bengal, howrah, steel, iron working, hand crafted, metal

19/08/2026

Have you spotted these “Made in India” manhole covers in New York City? They’re literally everywhere.

There’s an interesting history behind these objects and the sad irony that the country that produced them somehow forgot to make them for its own cities.

Note: this is a Repost of an older video with minor improvements for clarity and captioning.



New York, Make in India, Manufacturing, Design, city planning, urbanism, architecture, city, manhattan, West Bengal, howrah, steel, iron working, hand crafted, metal

19/08/2026

We’re incredibly proud of Lakshmi Raveendran & Suresh Pandiyan, the backbone of Tall Storeys, and now, our Senior Architects.

Swipe Right >>> for more!

Lakshmi Raveendran
Suresh Pandiyan M

Lakshmi has grown with us, and evolved into a leader and a formidable project captain.

She carries the complexities of projects on her shoulders, while somehow lifting everyone around her along the way. She’s learned a great deal over the years, and just as importantly, she’s become someone others learn from.

She’s chaotic in all the right ways, fiercely committed, and has gradually learned the fine architectural art of being a control freak about exactly the right things. 😅

We’re incredibly proud of the architect and leader she has become, and very happy to see her step into her new role as Senior Architect at Tall Storeys.

Suresh is a technical wizard and a sharp project leader. He works with commitment, precision and clarity, and has an almost obsessive eye for getting things right.

Over the years, Suresh has grown immensely as an architect and become integral to the way Tall Storeys works, particularly in the systems, processes and technical knowledge that hold our projects together. He’s also become someone the rest of the team can rely on and learn from.

We’re incredibly proud to have Suresh on our team. His work ethic, discipline and relentless pursuit of excellence in every task have raised the bar for all of us.

Very proud to see him step into his new role as Senior Architect at Tall Storeys.

17/08/2026

We’ve all heard the word “juggernaut” used in stories and popular culture. But the word actually has an interesting history in Indian Temple architecture - morphed through the lens of British colonialism.

13/08/2026

Why does this building look like a fish?!

There’s an interesting history of these kinds of buildings. Watch the entire video for the story.

Follow Tall Storeys Collaborative for more!



Note: This video has been reposted with improvements and minor corrections.

13/08/2026

Do you like Ducks? We like ducks. Well… the architectural kind.

In this video, I’m quacking in appreciation of a certain kind of building- and how SOME architects transcend the literal and make object-buildings that feel poetic and evergreen.

Appreciation to for designing The Whale - Norway’s new museum set to open in 2027.



Fish Buildings, Ducks, Decorated Shed, Venturi, Postmodernism, Weird Architecture, Las Vegas, India

10/08/2026

10/08/2026

What would Spider-Man be without New York?

Most superheroes merely happen to live in cities. Spider-Man feels like he was designed by one.

He arrived in 1962, at a strange moment in American urban history. Teenagers were being blamed for juvenile delinquency. Cities were being torn apart by urban renewal and highways. Families were escaping to the suburbs. And Jane Jacobs was fighting to defend the messy, complicated life of the street.

Then along came Peter Parker: awkward, broke, unpopular and completely inseparable from the city around him.

There’s something wonderfully architectural about Spider-Man. He doesn’t simply move through New York. He touches it. Brick walls, cornices, rooftops, water towers, fire escapes and skyscrapers become part of the way his body moves.

Superman can fly anywhere.

Put Spider-Man in an empty field and things get awkward pretty quickly.

Perhaps New York was never just Spider-Man’s setting.

Perhaps its architecture was his greatest superpower.

Sources / further reading:
Amazing Fantasy 15 (1962), Stan Lee & Steve Ditko
The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), Jane Jacobs
Seduction of the Innocent (1954), Fredric Wertham
US Senate hearings on juvenile delinquency and comic books, 1954

04/08/2026

In 1974, a man was found dead in a restroom at New York’s Penn Station.

It took the authorities three days to realise that he wasn’t just another anonymous traveller. He was Louis Kahn, one of the most influential architects of the twentieth century.

Although his name isn’t widely known outside architecture, his ideas shaped buildings, institutions and generations of architects across the world. In India, his work at IIM Ahmedabad helped redefine what modern Indian architecture could be: rooted without imitating the past, modern without borrowing from the West.

His story is a reminder that some of the people who shape our world are rarely the ones whose names we remember.

Have you ever visited one of Louis Kahn’s buildings? I’d love to hear what it felt like.

Follow Tall Storeys for more forgotten stories behind the places and cities around us.



Keywords:
Louis Kahn, IIM Ahmedabad, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, National Assembly Building, Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban, Dhaka, Bangladesh Parliament, modern architecture, architectural history, architecture, Indian architecture, brutalism, exposed brick, daylight architecture, architectural design, design history, B V Doshi, Anant Raje, Salk Institute, Kimbell Art Museum, Penn Station, forgotten history, hidden history, untold stories, urban history, city history, architecture reels, design storytelling, Tall Storeys, twentieth century architecture, Louis I Kahn