THE LEELA PALACE, JAIPUR

With crafted details, climate-conscious planning, and spatial storytelling, this hospitality landmark balances grandeur with grace—carving its own mythology with quiet confidence and deliberate restraint

- BY ANKITA RATHOD

Spread across over 30,000 sq. m., the property unfolds in calibrated sequences. From the moment one arrives, there's a deliberate softening of pace—the gates giving way to shaded arcades, the symmetry setting up expectation. The central palace block, crowned with sculptural silver domes and flanked by carved chhatris, doesn't announce itself so much as reveal itself gradually, anchored in proportion and light.

“We wanted the arrival to feel cinematic—never abrupt, never static,” reflects Gyanendra Singh Shekhawat. “Each step into the space needed a pause, a shift in volume, an invitation to linger.” It wasn't about nostalgia for its own sake, he adds, but about reimagining the palace as a lived, present-tense experience—grounded, resonant, and quietly regal.

HERITAGE THAT WORKS