EU funding $64M study to restore City Hall

The European Union and the Georgetown Mayor and City Council have signed a contract that will facilitate a study for a Comprehensive Restoration and Sustainable Conservation Management Plan for City Hall.

City Hall, one of the more prominent landmarks in downtown Georgetown, is in a terrible state. The contract which has been awarded to EURONET Consulting GEIE for Euro 279,196 (G$64M) is expected to be concluded by March/April 2017. The team, according to the Delegation of the European Union to Guyana, Suriname, and for the Dutch Overseas Countries and Territories, will include experts from both Europe and Guyana and the National Trust of Guyana and City Hall will be actively engaged during the period of consultancy. Among other things, the assessment will involve conducting a condition assessment and evaluation of the physical and structural state of City Hall and the City Engineer’s Building; preparation and presentation of a comprehensive green restoration plan and a sustainable conservation management plan for City Hall and the City Engineer’s Buildings and facilitating training sessions and strengthening capacity within the relevant stakeholder agencies. EU Ambassador Jernej Videtiè said, ‘’Georgetown’s iconic City Hall and the City Engineer’s Buildings built in 1889 are unquestionably among the most outstanding architectural, cultural and historically significant buildings in Guyana.’’ Ambassador Videtiè added, ‘’The EU was delighted to help by funding this study, which will hopefully lead to a process that will see City Hall returned to its former glory’’. The City Hall and City Engineer’s Buildings are a part of Guyana’s tangible heritage and are considered important to the Nation’s historic fabric. In a bid to preserve and promote its cultural heritage value internationally, Guyana became a signatory in 1977 to the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, the first Caribbean state to do so.

(Kaieteurnews.com)