KINGSTON, Jamaica -3rd April 2019: Prime Minister The Most Honourable Andrew Holness recently revealed the architectural design entitled ‘Out of Many, One People’ as the first place winner in the Houses of Parliament Design Competition. The winning team members included Design Collaborative Architects and Town Planners, Christopher Bent, Daimian Hines and Gregory Lake and lead architect Evan Williams. The team received a $5M cash prize, the winning trophy and invitation to be part of the building process when the parliamentary building is to break ground.
Second place was awarded to The Grand Verandah Design team while Ubuntu took the third place spot. The runner up teams each earned trophies and $4M and $2M cash prizes respectively. This, in addition to the $2M cash incentive awarded to each of the Top 5 teams when they were announced in October 2018.
The Competition, which commenced in May 2018 for the sole purpose of arriving at a purpose-built parliamentary building for Jamaica is to be erected at National Heroes Park. This development will ignite larger plans for the re-development of National Heroes Circle and the 300 acres in its immediate surrounds of Downtown Kingston.
Prime Minister Holness during his address to the attendees of the Awards Ceremony at the Park spoke to the future of architecture in Jamaica.
“I had a chance to meet with the architects, and in particular – the student architects and I am very encouraged. Jamaica has a great tradition and now I am satisfied to say that Jamaica has a great future in architecture. The lesson I have learnt is that we must integrate design work in developing our built environment. Too often we are doing buildings without a broader consideration for how that building impacts on the wider built environment and how people function and enjoy the space. So as a Government I will strive to integrate more directly … the touch and feel and view of Kingston city,” said the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister, made mention of his active participation throughout the 10 month competitive exercise and his interest in the views of the people before presenting the People’s Choice Award to Evan Williams of the Out of Many, One People team.
Mr Holness commended the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) for its management of the process and highlighted the success of the contest through the extensive involvement of Jamaicans at home and abroad. He noted that in addition to the 24 teams of Jamaicans from all across the globe that participated, close to 30,000 persons took part in the online and text voting process during the People’s Choice voting period, which ran from January 29th to February 28th, 2019.
Chairman of the UDC, Senator Ransford Braham, delivered remarks at the event, commenting that “This month the UDC celebrated 51 years of existence, and over the years have been involved in much of the iconic developments in cities and towns in Jamaica. The UDC is indeed alive and well, and actively facilitating some of the newer developments in downtown Kingston, namely the new Foreign Affairs building, the development of the new Grace Kennedy building and the pier at the Victoria Pier”
Senator Braham also expressed that the UDC has more work to be done in downtown Kingston as well as beach developments planned for Ocho Rios and the building of an iconic park on Montego Bay’s ‘Dump Up beach”. In closing, he thanked the Prime Minister and the Ministers for their continuous support and expressed his gratitude in being associated with this project. “We are looking forward to celebrating the completion of the new Parliament building,” he added.
The two remaining finalist teams, which were in the running for accolades, during the Competition’s Awards Ceremony, were The National Flower team and The National Veranda, led by local architect’s Stephen Facey and Guenet Anderson respectively.
Following the announcement event, next steps toward the construction of the future parliamentary building will include finalising the design through to consultations with key stakeholders. The project has also partnered with Jamaica UAV, an aerial mapping company that provided the UDC with high resolution 2D and 3D digital maps of National Heroes Park and its environs for the further development of the detailed drawings.
For further information, please contact:
The Corporate Relations and Marketing Department
Urban Development Corporation
12 Ocean Boulevard
Kingston, Jamaica
Tel 🙁 876) 656-8031
Phone: (876) 771-4354/656-8031
Email cr@udcja.com
Website: www.udcja.com/