Jamaican architectural giant takes his rest
PATRICK STANIGAR was born in Kingston, Jamaica. He spent his formative years in New York at the High School of Music & Art and studied architecture at Pratt Institute. He was project architect with DeYoung & Moscowitz – architects, and Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates before returning to Jamaica in the 1970s where he joined the firm McMorris Sibley Robinson (MSR).
MSR was the mentoring forum for generations of Jamaicans who studied externally and returned home to practise. With MSR, Stanigar worked on educational projects in Jamaica and notably in Barbados, the Faculty of Law, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus, and the Caribbean Development Bank Headquarters (Bridgetown, Barbados).
DESIGN COLLABORATIVE IS BORN
He won a commission from Jamaica House to develop the McIntyre Lands Housing Development in Kingston, the project that birthed Design Collaborative, together with partners Evan Williams, Stephen Mendes and David Twiss. Design Collaborative received the 1974 Governor General’s Award for the McIntyre Lands Housing Development, The Silver Musgrave Medal of the Institute of Jamaica for contribution to Jamaican Architecture 1976, The Centenary Medal of the Institute of Jamaica for contribution to Jamaican Architecture 1978, and Governor General’s Award for the Cultural Training Centre 1979 (Edna Manley School of the Visual and Performing Arts). Design Collaborative expanded to open offices in Trinidad and Barbados.
Stanigar worked with the Ministry of Education (1977-78) and the Urban Development Corporation (UDC), Jamaica (1980-85). He practised alongside David Gregory Jones, a former partner of Shankland Cox who carried out the study of lowcost housing in Jamaica 1971 – the redevelopment of a squatter area of Trench Town and the Strategic Development Plan for the Kingston Waterfront. At the UDC, he developed many basic, primary and secondary schools as well as town plans for communities islandwide.
The utilitarian and infrastructural demands of these programmes, however, fuelled an innate veracity for the idiosyncrasies of the arts and crafts which were realised in the Jamaica Conference Centre (Kingston, Jamaica); and the Jamaican Pavilion at Tsukuba Expo ‘85 (Tsukuba, Japan).
In 1983, Stanigar was granted the rank of Officer of the Order of Distinction of Jamaica (OD). He would return to the UDC in 2008 as consultant and chief architect (2010-2012).
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Stanigar loved Jamaica, his home, the island of his birth and childhood. He cared for the land, her people, the unique culture and the city of Kingston. This is evident in numerous projects of social and professional advocacy. Of significance is The Gold Coast Initiative, A Catalyst for the Regeneration of Southside and Tel Aviv, Kingston (2007), which sought, in his words, to “accept the social value of these communities as affordable housing and help the residents to build on the equity and realise the potential of land and buildings which is currently lying fallow”. (Project Proposal – unpublished PAOS, January 2007).
Stanigar described his practice as a condition of its community: a small community yields diversity of skill, in varying building types, one that precludes specialisation. His singular practice was honed as a member of his community. In 1992, he revitalised a derelict building in Southside and moved his architecture practice to Water Lane. He also revitalised Breezy Castle Park (1993), a public space for the communities of Central Kingston. He became an authority on precast concrete construction systems. He designed the West Indies Home Contractors (WIHCON) Space System and implemented multiple schools for the WIHCON Space-System – North Western Jamaica Schools Project. The system evolved through other building types for commercial, office, residential, institutional, planning and urban design purposes, for example, The University of the West Indies – Rex Nettleford Halls of Residence (Mona, Jamaica) and The Greater Portmore Development (St Catherine, Jamaica). The Mechala Building on Harbour Street counterpoints the system building projects and details his sensibility for the organic towards naturalism as did several residential projects, notably Invercauld Cottage (St Andrew, Jamaica) .
COMMUNITY SERVICE
His community service was wide reaching. He served on the board of directors of Metropolitan Parks & Markets (1986-1990); as a member of the interim board of the Kingston City Centre
Improvement Company (20032006); member of the board of the Caymanas Development Company (2008); chairman of the board of trustees of the Jamaica National Heritage Trust (2008-2012); member of The Council of The Institute of Jamaica (2008-2024); member of the board of the Jamaica Railroad Corporation and chairman of National Museum Jamaica (2017-2024).
Stanigar revealed the voice of contemporary Jamaican, writing on Kingston’s Future, Our Ghetto and Us, Vulgarity (Our Way), Visions for Livable Cities, Future Monuments in the Cities of the Past, Finding the Caribbean and Tribalism, Class, and Fear in Urban Structure which was a presentation to the 4th Congress of the Federation of Caribbean Associations of Architecture (FCAA) Cayenne, French Guyana in October of 2008.
His engagement with the region and beyond was equally diverse and generous in its girth. He juried various architecture competition and biennial panels across the Caribbean in Cuba, Dominican Republic, Guyana, Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico and was an honorary member of the Trinidad and Tobago Institute of Architects (1998).
The educator, Patrick Stanigar was appointed the dean of the Caribbean School of Architecture ( CSA) at the College of Arts, Science and Technology (CAST). His deanship overlapped with CAST becoming The University of Technology, Jamaica. During his tenure (1992-1998) Dean Stanigar was instrumental in the convening of a joint master of architecture urban study workshop on rebuilding communities in Kingston with the Southside community, educators and students of architecture of CSA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US) and Oxford School of Architecture (UK). CSA also hosted a workshop with directors of other architecture schools including Florida (USA), Cuba, Curacao, Dominican Republic, Guyana and Puerto Rico to discuss linkages and opportunities for the sharing of student work, research in a publication of the Caribbean, speaking as one.
With support from the Caribbean Community later Caribbean Forum, CSA became included in the European Union (EU) Lome 4, Caribbean University Level Programme. Dean Stanigar was a key negotiator in securing the EU grant for the upgrading of existing facilities and the new School of Architecture Building (1860 sq.m/ 20,000 sq.ft.) which was inaugurated in 2001. The grant also funded the publication of two monographs, Naval Hospitals of Port Royal Jamaica and The Old Iron Bridge, Spanish Town Jamaica which launched a research and publications unit at the CSA.
AN ACTIVE EDUCATOR
In 2010, the Caribbean School of Architecture, University of Technology, Jamaica awarded Stanigar with a citation for contribution to architectural education. Stanigar continued to be an active educator visiting regularly as critique juror and lectured in the graduate Design Studio, investigating his idea of a Kingston Malecon for Paliasdoes and the city waterfront. He took students on walking tours of Kingston and visits to heritage sites across the island. In recent years, Stanigar avidly supported the Kingston Creative non-profit arts organisation with public walking tours of the city’s history and architecture.
He built his house, a geodesic domed structure in Red Hills, St Andrew, Jamaica in 1975. The Phoenix – Reconstructed in 2002. A garden with cherished flora, unique botanical species and an ornamental fish farm he designed and built. Easy going and generous, he invited members of the architecture and wider community to get togethers at The Phoenix and continued to work from the home office on projects. He is the architect on record for Chinese design/build, Western Children Adolescence Hospital, currently under construction (Montego Bay, Jamaica) adjacent to the Cornwall Regional Hospital (1972-The Architects Collaborative). Stanigar practised ideological and social craftsmanship. His ideology is a practical wisdom built on making and creating things, so as to understand and reveal the nature of materials and materiality, how structures and details exude beauty, through works of architecture; the art that seeks value within the complexity of the human condition.
He had three children – Marissa, Matthew and Benjamin, and is survived by his sons, Matthew R.O. Stanigar and Benjamin F. Stanigar and grandchildren; Ethan M.O. Stanigar and Elise N. Stanigar, Pilar T.O. Page, Giovanni D.C Levy, Noah T. Stanigar and Jahslyn M. Stanigar. The University of Technology, Jamaica, Faculty of the Built Environment, Caribbean School of Architecture extends sincere condolences to his sons Matthew and Benjamin, grandchildren, extended family, many friends, professional colleagues, and CSA alumni.