Create culture of conservation
-workshop on wooden urban heritage hears
Detailed inventory proposed
By Miranda La Rose
Stabroek News
February 7, 2003
The goal of Georgetown becoming a World Heritage site should be seen more as a process in which conservation becomes a part of society’s everyday thinking and in doing business.
This was a suggestion developed further at the second day of the ‘Thematic Expert Meeting on Wooden Urban Heritage in the Caribbean Region’ at the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre on High Street.
A detailed inventory of Georgetown’s old wooden buildings was recommended as a first step at renovating and preserving Guyana’s valuable architectural heritage.
The proposal came from a panel of young people studying history, conservation and architecture. Such an inventory would study the properties of materials and construction techniques and of the nature and causes of deterioration, abandonment and neglect of such buildings.
The three-day meeting, which is organised by CARIMOS (Organisation of the Wider Caribbean on Monuments and Sites) in collaboration with the World Heritage Centre and UNESCO and attended by representatives from a number of Caribbean countries, opened at Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel on Wednesday.
The panel comprised National Trust conservation officer, Allison Stoll; documentation and research officer Lloyd Kandasammy; and architect attached to the Central Housing and Planning Authority Mariella Khiratte. They also recommended establishing the nature and limits of intervention in conservation; debunking the notion of the non-profitability of building in wood; promoting retraining in traditional timber-working skills; and promoting the economic benefits of preservation - such as cultural and heritage tourism - for the nation.
In her presentation Stoll said Guyana does not have to re-invent the wheel to preserve its wooden treasures noting that much work had already been accomplished in Mexico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic.
In his address at the opening on Wednesday, Prime Minister Sam Hinds said the government had invested some US$6M on the rehabilitation and reconstruction of ten government buildings which form part of the Georgetown dossier for preservation as World Heritage site.
He said the investment had come almost exclusively out of the government’s funds and that other buildings and other historical sites were under construction.
Noting the resources needed to preserve the wooden buildings, Hinds said funding was the challenge for a poor developing country like Guyana.
He said that with limited government funds and the low income of the majority of its citizens, the desire to conserve and preserve the cultural heritage was left to the private sector which was a major donor. But in serious economic downturns some of the first cuts take place in those areas as they were not investments with immediate returns.
He said the challenge was in finding the human and financial resources to preserve what is intrinsically a part of the country’s heritage, pride and national identity.
He suggested that the region needed to strengthen its capacity to network among countries and agencies to ensure that available information and technical expertise are shared.
In addition he said developing countries would need to foster opportunities for transnational efforts to access funds.
Another challenge was the need to focus over the next ten years or more on the development of human resources with research and traditional timber skills, conservation, enhanced technical skills in engineering and architecture, marketing and cultural tourism.
The challenge would not be only in acquiring the skills but having the capacity to retain them.
Noting that not all wooden heritage buildings were public property, Hinds said a partnership would have to be developed particularly with religious organisations which are custodians of many historic buildings and monuments to avoid them deteriorating further.
Responding to this remark yesterday, local historian Sister Noel Menezes noted that religious organisations, such as churches, have been doing a fairly good job at preserving buildings in their charge by replacing damaged boards through fund-raising efforts.
She bemoaned the fact that a number of state buildings such as the Palms on Brickdam and the Chess Hall on Main Street had been allowed to collapse.
Project Director of the World Heritage Centre, Ron van Oers yesterday made a case for sections of Georgetown to be placed on the World Heritage List. In his presentation `Caribbean Cities of Wood as World Heritage: A comparative analysis of Paramaribo, Suriname and Georgetown, Guyana’ said that though similarities existed between the wooden urban heritage of the two cities through a common history and culture, there were distinct differences in their origins.
He noted that for Georgetown to qualify as a World Heritage Site, its presentation must be authentic as well as unique. Unlike Paramaribo which developed from an indigenous community, Georgetown came into being as a plantation community which was built by the Dutch. Georgetown is found at the mouth of the river compared to Paramaribo which is found some 50 miles up the Suriname River and unlike Georgetown which was laid out around canals and trenches Paramaribo was built around the contours of the valley in the area.
The plantation structure allowed for space and wooded avenues such as found on Main Street while Paramaribo was more densely packed to accommodate the structures.
Unlike the square-based structures of Paramaribo, Guyana’s wooden buildings were on columns or stilts to cater for the coastal area which is below the level of the sea at high tide; mostly Victorian in style and built with Demerara windows, a uniquely Guyanese feature to allow for ventilation.
Noting that both Guyana and Suriname were under colonial rule by the same countries at one time or the other, he said that as Caribbean World Heritage sites they should not be seen as competitors.
He said that the same should apply to all the sites within the region such as found in the former British colonies of Trinidad and Tobago and Antigua, which while sharing common history and heritage have their own unique characteristics.
Yesterday the participants at the meeting who came from among Aruba, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, The British Virgin Islands, Cuba, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, The Netherlands Antilles, Suriname, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Maarten and Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana went on a tour of some of the wooden buildings in the city. Some 80 wooden buildings have been listed as comprising the city’s wooden urban heritage. Among the buildings visited were the Canadian High Commission, the Prime Minister’s residence, Sacred Heart Church, St George’s Cathedral - rated to be the tallest wooden building in the world, City Hall, St Andrews’s Kirk, Parliament Buildings which was constructed on a wooden foundation, Dargan House and Castellani House. They were also taken on a tour of Brickdam.
Also making presentations on Guyana were William Harris on the subject `The Glories of pre-colonial timber construction of the Guianas and the Caribbean’ and Professor of Architecture of the University of Guyana who gave an introduction to the city of Georgetown and its wooden architecture.
