The Old Fire Brigade Headquarters, Trinidad
This is the third day of my dedication to my mentor, friend, and fellow Trinidadian architect Colin Laird, for his contribution to the art of architecture, the profession of architecture, and to the Caribbean’s built environment. Above is a drawing of TheOld Fire Brigade Headquarters in Port of Spain. It was part of the National Library Project… the existing Fire Brigade Headquarters was restored.
“It (Old Fire Brigade Headquarters) is a precious part of our scarce building patrimony and its coarse Victorian presence deserves to be meticulously renovated to its former glory. The original building is in the form of an L shape along Abercromby Street and Hart Street with the distinctive tower power at the junction of the two wings…The 45 degree cant of the Fire Brigade Headquarters Tower within the strict rectangular grid of the area, significantly continues the diagonal path pattern across Woodford Square…emphasizing the importance of the pedestrian traffic to urban communication… This Proposal celebrates the Old Headquarters, or rather its skewed Tower, as an important element of the National Library within the whole composition of the Woodford Square District.” (Colin Laird Associates Technical Proposal for the National Library, 1998).
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Old Fire Brigade Headquarters and National Library
This is one of my favorite buildings in Trinidad & Tobago. The architecture is rich, recognizing and respecting of our culture, beautiful, poetic, and contemporary. It develops a vocabulary rooted in the genius loci (spirit of place) of the site, and Trinbagonian life. Colin, you are a master builder, designer, mentor, professional, and true friend!
Abstract Architecture of the day:
This work byVernelle Noel is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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