What they remember
Speaking to the Sunday Times, Chartered Architect Nela De Zoysa, daughter of Dr. Justin Samarasekera, says that she was a very young child when her illustrious father was engaged in the Independence Hall project. “Although my recollection of this particular endeavour are bleak since I was very young, I remember accompanying my father on various other projects he was assigned to, during his time as the Chief Architect of the Public Works Department and even later on when he pursued his private practice,” says Ms. De Zoysa who is the only Lankan architect to be bestowed an Honorary Fellowship of the American Institute of Architects after Geoffrey Bawa.
Veteran artist Sybil Weerasinghe, then Sybil de Silva working at the Times of Ceylon had to daily submit ‘ illustrations’ for the company’s newspapers. “I had to take my grandfather’s lunch to the site where the Independence Hall was being constructed,” says Sybil Wettasinghe, her grandfather being sculptor K.D. Samaris de Silva, one of the handpicked artists who lent his creative touch towards the ‘lions’ who guard the Independence Monument. “I still remember how he was immersed in his work, surrounded by cement and mortar,” Sybil says.