Temple Design
Baba’s leelas are always more wonderful than we can imagine and so was the fortuitous meeting between our board members and Sameep Padora of SP+a.
Through a series of seemingly random events that could have only been orchestrated by Baba, our board members in Texas were connected with Mr. Padora in Mumbai. He was inspired by our vision and offered to donate his services for the design of the temple.
Unbeknownst to us, Mr. Padora at that time had just finished the design and construction of a library outside of Shirdi. In 2019, a few months after his visit to Blanco, Sameep Padora won the prestigious award for ‘Educational Building of the Year’.
Mr. Padora was struck by the coincidence that he had just spent so much time near Shirdi and now he was flying to Texas to design a Baba temple. Cleary, Baba was happy with his work.
Maya Somaiya Library
The chain of extraordinary events had just begun. Upon discovering local resources near the property, he became curious about limestone. Research led us to the Escobedo Group, renowned experts in limestone construction in the United States, conveniently located a mere 40 minutes from the property.
Plans were swiftly made to meet with Mr. Escobedo the following day.
During the meeting, an astonishing revelation emerged: the engineer who had contributed to designing the arches for the Maya Somayai library in India had previously interned at the Escobedo Group in Buda, Texas!
It was undeniable; Baba had orchestrated the convergence of these master designers for the design and construction of the Blanco Baba Temple.
This anecdote barely scratches the surface of Baba's remarkable leelas surrounding this land and his temple. Hopefully, you too have experienced the profound guidance and care of his unseen hand!
Award-Winning Design
We feel so blessed to have such a prestigious architect designing our temple here in Texas. Below are more examples of his award-winning designs.
Shiv Temple
Pune, India.
Designed in dialogue with the priest and the people from surrounding villages, the temple was built through ‘shramdaan’ (self-build) by the local villagers.
While searching online under ‘pergola’ — to create a temporary shrine for Baba— this image somehow kept coming into Bhramari’s search results. For some reason she felt inspired simply to write how much she enjoyed the design—beginning a stunning chain of events.
Maya Samaiya
Maharashtra, India
Amid the rural setting in Kopargaon, Sameep Padora and Associates (sP+a) created a one-of-its-kind library for children. This desing won the coveted Beazley Award for Architecture in 2019. The Maya Somaiya Library celebrates growth and facilitates learning while simultaneously providing an interactive space for its users.
Temple of Steps
Nandyal
The Balaji Temple at Nandyal. Built out of local limestone blocks, the temple steps down into the water retention ponds merging the ‘ghat’ (access steps) with the temple form.
Meet the Architects
Sameep Padora
Sameep Padora is the founder architect of the Mumbai-based design studio sP+a (Sameep Padora and Associates) – a firm that has increasingly become known for its pursuit and encouragement of sustainable, contextual, and innovative practices that arise ‘from a site itself’.
Aparna Dhareshwar
Aparna Dhareshwar is a senior associate at sP+A and has recently moved to the US where she will oversee the Blanco Baba Temple project as well as new sP+A projects developing in the US.