Patricia Green | Patrick Stanigar – giant among architects

The year 1976 was full and exciting for me. I was back in Jamaica doing a year-out for job experience after completing three years at the Architectural Association in London, UK. I worked in the architectural offices of Michael Carter and Associates, then the Ministry of Works. It was also the second staging of the Caribbean Festival of the Arts (Carifesta) in Jamaica. That is when I met for the first time Architect Patrick A. O. Stanigar, OD, installed in his makeshift office inside the drama department of the Cultural Training Centre (CTC), now called the Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts. Patrick was managing construction completion for its imminent grand opening. By 1979, this complex received the prestigious Governor General’s Award in architecture.

At my 1976 encounter with Patrick, as a stripling student, I was brash enough to announce to this partner-in-charge at Design Collaborative, “So you are an architect, too!” Design Collaborative was a partnership of Patrick Stanigar, Evan Williams, Dave Twiss, and Steve Mendes, with their office in New Kingston on Renfrew Road.

That year, I made frequent visits to the CTC because as the July 23, 1976, Jamaica Daily News, ‘Lasting Benefits of Carifesta ‘76’ read, “… over 350 students, free of charge, are being trained in stage management, lighting, sound techniques, front-of-house management, stage properties, and wardrobes by some of the most experienced specialists in these areas …”. I was one of them and ended up being assigned to work with Wycliffe Bennett at the stadium on the Grand Gala production. Technically, we represented the first batch of CTC graduates. Most training sessions were held at the Little Theatre, opposite the newly built CTC, and I unofficially added the CTC to my year-out architecture experience. Imagine my greater excitement when Patrick shared that he was doing a costume group and float for Carifesta, and I, too, was doing one called ‘Days of Slavery’ with a waterwheel float! Our floats were constructed at the Little Theatre by Eric Coverley, and I was overseeing its execution, modelled off the wheel inside the Spanish Town ‘Folk Museum’ [People’s Museum].

FRAMED PROFESSIONAL TRAJECTORY

That encounter with Patrick punctuated and framed my professional trajectory, showing me that I had the latitude to pursue my love for production, theatre, photography, and wider creative endeavours alongside architecture.

After graduation, I returned to Jamaica to work at the Ministry of Works, and in 1983, was assigned to set out a red carpet for the visit of Queen Elizabeth II. Imagine how upset I was - an architect laying out carpet! However, the assignment grew into me becoming the Government’s project architect for the royal visit, including arrangements for the royal dinner at Devon House, and I had to interface with Patrick, who was designing the Jamaica Conference Centre, which the Queen was scheduled to open. After my return to Jamaica, I had been engaging my family to help me buy a building on Harbour Street but was discouraged by all that $7,000 was too much to invest in “an unsafe neighbourhood”. Patrick showed me the size of the steel inside the post-1907 earthquake warehouses that were refurbished and adapted for the Conference Centre. On the heels of the royal visit project, I was assigned the historic preservation of the former Parliament building ca.1755 “Headquarters House” at 79 Duke Street for offices of the Jamaica National Heritage Trust. Patrick later became a JNHT board member, also its 2008-2012 chairman. While undertaking doctoral studies in Sevilla, Spain, Patrick shared with me some interventions then being made at Seville in St. Ann in 2009, which became a part of my thesis.

I remember in 1991 attending a Kiwanis meeting at a New Kingston hotel and hearing Patrick share designs for the Greater Portmore ‘Quadrominium House’ starter house and building system, affectionately called the ‘Quad,’ with architectural concepts on how this may be enhanced by various householders. By 2000, he made additions to these, working with West Indies Home Contractors (WIHCON).

DOWNTOWN KINGSTON

It was downtown Kingston that may be defined as the core of architect Stanigar’s work, where he had his office in the heart of a volatile inner-city community. The April 28, 1999, Gleaner, ‘A new style in windows, made in Jamaica’ about Tropicair Jalousies made from Unplasticated polyvinyl chloride (UPVC) “… windows that look as good as wood but don’t have any of the problems … as architect Stephen Facey puts it, ‘They let the outside in … ”. This article continued about Patrick’s office having a wall of windows, eight feet high and 12 feet wide, which looks on to Water Lane behind WIHCON, and he commented “… with raised eyebrows and a slight smile on the things he has seen through that window …”. This office held international and local design studio charettes for the physical revitalisation of the community. Patrick was the architect for the Harbour Street rehabilitation by the Kingston Restoration Company.

In 2004 when the Morgan family embarked on their faith-based interventions to enhance spiritual work in the community, still taking place today, Patrick pointed me to an office for them on Water Lane opposite his office. Eventually, he handed over his own office to Carrington Morgan.

In 2014 Patrick took time to post on the Web his achievements, now an invaluable chronology. In 2016, as then head of the Caribbean School of Architecture, I invited Patrick to join our Master of Architecture design studio and gave him the freedom to initiate and steer the design briefs. We learnt during a design studio session that Patrick was born in Port Royal, November 22, 1944, and it helped to explain his passion for that town. He hated the idea of something that we consider significant Jamaican intangible heritage, where market vendors sell their produce from the ground, and worse, sitting down beside them, “… it reminds me of enslavement …”. Patrick initiated and concentrated on projects that made a societal difference such as individual architectural designs for individuals in inner-city communities, market buildings, mass affordable housing, residences, and schools. Additionally, he undertook interventions for town centres - revitalisation of downtown neighbourhoods and commercial districts.

Understand my shock and sadness to learn of the recent passing of my colleague and friend in whose creative endeavours I enjoined across the years. Many know that Patrick is my favourite architect in the whole world, information that I shared in the Royal Institute of British Architects book, launched on January 23 in London, 100 Women Architects in Practice. Architect Patrick Anthony O’Sullivan Stanigar, OD, was a giant in Jamaica, across the wider Caribbean, and the world. He has left an unsurpassed legacy. May his soul rest in peace.

Patricia Green, PhD, a registered architect and conservationist, is an independent scholar and advocate for the built and natural environment. Send feedback to patgreen2008@gmail.com and columns@gleanerjm.com.