THE EDITOR, Sir:
I WRITE in support of the original boundaries of Kingston being maintained as a cultural national heritage site. This original grid of Kingston was once the pride of the British empire and has many secrets hidden in its relationship to the waterfront, and other adjacent neighbourhoods of Kingston.
As an architect, I must note that the architecture is not only the buildings, but the sidewalks and parks around it. Developments on lower Duke Street, into modern office facilities for law offices and other such organisations illustrate how the architectural fabric has been integrated into new uses, while maintaining the architectural character of the place.
PROPOSAL WITHDRAWN
The Jamaica Chamber of Commerce's (JCC) request to have the proposal withdrawn, belies the fact that they are the owners of most of the land in the heartland of Kingston. They have not ever proposed integrating it into some kind of memorial to the beauty of the city of Kingston, nor have they been at the forefront of improving it, with the exception of some, I should add, like the Matalon group.
In the late seventies, the UDC, under the leadership of non-national architects, undertook to eliminate the vestiges of Kingston's history by wholesale removal of the old Victoria Crafts Market, and the Myrtle Bank Hotel, two very historically significant places in Kingston.
The architecture that replaced these old buildings made no mention or reference of the significance of either building, and perhaps hoped that the spirits of these places would have disappeared in the dust of their demolition. They now all stand as sentinels of nothingness, cold heartless concrete monuments devoid of colour and the values we should share as a community.
The obvious challenge in developing the now largely tenamented society that makes up the original Kingston is to find a way to create wealth among the residents in tandem with the unearthing of the historical value of the place.
I am sure it will not be easy, but building Rome was not easy either.
I am, etc.,
HUGH DUNBAR
Architect
hmdenergy@optonline.net
West New York
New Jersey
