Port of Spain's Skyline, a look at our priorities...

“The Islands have a license to be Magical”- Peter Minshal

the Port of Spain Skyline from the Lady Young Road, Trinidad

Who are we?

Who are we as a people?

as a nation…as a city?

Out of focus,

out of touch,

out of our minds to think

that we can be all we can be,

when who we are is

blocked and blurred

and distorted…

constricted, restricted and stifled by

our own false imaginings,

by our incessant need,

that nagging voice in our minds telling us,

pushing us, stopping us from

realizing our own ability, from

acknowledging the beauty that is

Trinidadian, Tobagonian…

Caribbean.

(i)                  I took this picture randomly and didn’t think I’d ever get to use is, because it really is terrible…no real focus, too far to really see the city, tons of grass blocking the view… (It wasn’t a good day). However thanks to Picasa editing J I managed to make it into something I could use…

What do you see? What DON’T you see?

I want you to do something for me…for everyone who has been to or know of Port of Spain: tell me the first visual image you think about when you hear the words “Port of Spain”…GO!  

Don’t worry; it’s completely natural if your answers were along the lines of Hyatt or NAPA…I asked many people this same question…and almost all hinted to the yellow and blue glory that is the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

Not one person said the Twin Towers…or the Queen’s Park Savannah…or the Jean Pierre Complex…or the local paintings put up around the city…or anything even remotely representative of Trinidadian culture.

When did our city become identifiable by foreign landmarks? Where has our identity gone? With the manifestation of development in the form of skyscrapers, highways and foreign franchises, I can’t help but feel like Port of Spain should be renamed “Simon-Says-City”. I mean if we’re going to copy everything everyone else does it makes no sense having a name we still identify with…

(ii)                Hall and Barrett in their book Urban Geography talk about architecture in their 8^th chapter. They note Sklair (2005): “while iconic buildings have long been used by urban elites to symbolize power and generate surplus value from place, their current manifestation is seen as linked to the emergence of a transnational capitalist class who has become the new drivers of the production and representation of architectural icons”.

They describe architecture in the postmodern era to be intricately linked to economic and political agendas and dynamics within a city. What does the architectural structure of Port of Spain’s skyline tell you about the power play within the city? The hidden Twin Towers versus the massive spectacle of Hyatt Regency on the water front? Trinidad’s Urban Development Corporation (UDeCOTT) describes the Hyatt as “a beacon in the nation's capital”. What can the Twin Towers be described as? I feel like we’re so willing to find new, exotic ways to develop the city based on foreign ideals that we’re forgetting what we have, and what of our own can still be developed. Does development demand the shift away from the local? If so, can this really be seen as development…

The Port of Spain Skyline
...what is the focus of architectural change??

The Twin Towers peeking out from behind the Hyatt Regency Hotel
Note the caption "Amazing Trinidad Vacations"
Trinidad Vacations..and they show the Hyatt...with a sliver of the Twin Towers

Hall and Barrett allude to in Ch. 9: Images of the City, that in terms of the representation of cities, often times may physically change in form and 'look' to portray a more appealing side or elicit different emotions from viewers.

Harvey (1988) notes that “the enhancement of urban image and the associated physical transformation of many city centre landscapes through urban planning and regeneration projects, have been labeling the ‘carnival mask’ of the late capitalist urbanization, the criticism being that while such city images create the impression of regeneration, change and vibrancy they do little, if anything to address underlying social and economic change that necessitated regeneration in the first place…”

I find this quote quite important and thought provoking in that it really strikes at the façade put on by cities. Governments talk about development of the city, development of the infrastructure, of the buildings, of the ‘look’ of the city…what about the internals of the city? The people, the relations, the conflicts, the power dynamics….is water front development and national art academies helping in this sense? In my opinion all these projects are doing in further segregating and isolating portions of our society, while in the same breath uplifting the already prosperous sectors.

Port of Spain in my opinions doesn't need a face lift…it needs a priority-check…something to  refocus our sense of self…a reminder of who we are, of where we are, and most importantly where we came from…you want expensive glass and metal and shiny material? Sure, if that’s what it takes to be recognized then so be it, but don’t build a foreign enterprise, or skyscrapers that overshadow everything local. Use that shiny material and enhance what is already ours! Just as the Eiffel Tower is Paris, the Empire State Building is New York and the Big Ben is London…the Twin Towers is Port of Spain. This can only happen though, if we can actually see it amidst the chaos and drama that is the Urban….

The Twin Towers- Trinidad

The Big Ben

The Empire State Building

The Eiffel Tower

This week’s entry is titled with a quote from Peter Minshall, which I got when I attended a lecture he held last week at the UWI, St. Augustine. He said this line so many times in his talk that it was hard to forget. Over and over he said “highways are nice, skyscrapers are amazing…but NOT HERE…leave that for New York”. And I agree…I agree that we need to slow down, we need to take a step back from this obsession, this never ending game of catch-up we “developing nations” love to play…so much so that we lose ourselves, our true identities in the imaginary race to “developed nation status”. Think about it…

Peter Minshall
Dynamic, Mesmerizing, Talented
A Cultural Icon of Trinidad

One of Minshall's first costume designs in Trinidad: The Hummingbird

(iii) Just a few links for you to check out:

1. The UDeCOTT Website for further development plans for Trinidad…How many of those will actually do what they claim in terms of fostering Trinidad’s development (on the inside and on the outside)?

• http://www.udecott.com/index.php/cc/cc_project_item/port_of_spain_waterfront_development/

2. A video from a student, recommending a landmark for Columbus,  the capital of Ohio...note                       how the importance of architecture is recognized as being part of a city's identity...

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2sw3j5K-Xw