Flanking the legendary cricketing ground of the Oval Maidan, the 19th century Victorian Gothic and 20th century Art Deco of the Backbay Reclamation Scheme confront each other in a theatrical architectural display that is unique to Mumbai. Together this ensemble constitutes the proposed World Heritage Property, creating a formidable architectural dialectic that influences the narrative of modernism in Asia. Both these principal architectural genres, with their moorings in western ideas and illustrating the latest technology of the times, were adapted and indigenized to the local climate, material and craftsmanship. They bring together not only the modern aesthetics of two successive styles, but also reflect the materials, technologies, structural systems, and building typologies that enabled the architectural transition between the 19th and the 20th centuries. The result was a distinct architectural genre, western in form, but Indian in spirit, an example of shared heritage at its best.