Starboard Architects | Remarkable Places

HAITI HEALTH CLINIC NOW UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

On February 13, 2014

Construction Update | GHESKIO Family Health & Nutrition Center | PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI

Steel frame has been erected by Haitian work force, together with small American crew. Estimated Construction Completion: Fall 2014

GHESKIO & THE COMMUNITY SERVED:

The local community surrounding and served by GHESKIO consists of over 100,000 people living in slums and ‘tent cities’ on less than $1/day (as do ~56% of all Haitians). Malnutrition is widespread: Haiti’s malnutrition rates are among the world’s highest. One-third of Haitian children under age five are severely malnourished, and 40% suffer from anemia.

Since 1982, in partnership with the Haitian Government and Cornell University, GHESKIO has been offering free health care, including HIV counseling, AIDS care, prenatal care, and management of tuberculosis and sexually transmitted infections, and conducts research and training in HIV/AIDS and related diseases. In 2000, the Haitian government named GHESKIO a “Public Utility”, a designation reserved for institutions, which are ‘essential to welfare of the Haitian people’. In 2010, GHESKIO was awarded the Bill and Melinda Gates Award for Global Health for its outstanding contributions to the global health field.

Since the earthquake in January 2010 GHESKIO has expanded its mission to also provide comprehensive health care and community services, including reproductive health care, clean water, sanitation, food, security, education and social services.

GHESKIO FAMILY HEALTH & NUTRITION CENTER:

The new Family Health & Nutrition Center, designed by NYC-based firm Tonetti Associates Architects, represents GHESKIO’s new, comprehensive approach to nutrition, clinical care and community development. The design takes into account the many challenges of building in Haiti, while reflecting the purpose and program of the facility. Tonetti Associates Architects investigated sustainable and durable structural systems that can be constructed by a relatively unskilled local work force and chose cold rolled steel frame, which is lighter and resists lateral loads better than concrete frames. Steel frame has been fabricated by Blue Sky Building Systems (http://blueskybuildingsystems.com).

Funding: MAC Aids Foundation grant and private donations. Fundraising still in process to complete construction. Weill Cornell Medical College, a 501(c)(3) organization and partner of GHESKIO since its inception, receives donations.
www.weill.cornell.edu/globalhealth

Short Film on who we are + what we do

On December 19, 2012

by Andrew Wright

Tonetti Associates Architects from Tonetti Associates Architects on Vimeo.

Governors Island – An Exploration of Historic NYC

On December 19, 2012

by Andrew Wright

Taking the ferry to Governors Island, view of Brooklyn.

View of Manhattan.

Fort Jay with view of Manhattan.

Fort Jay (background: Brooklyn), the oldest defensive structure on the island, is situated on the location of earthworks originally built to defend New York City during the American Revolution. General Israel Putnam constructed the first earthen fortification starting in April 1776, and armed it with eight cannons for the defence of New York Harbor.

Castle Williams with view of Manhattan. A circular fortification of red sandstone on the northwest point of Governors Island, part of a system of forts designed and constructed in the early 19th century to protect New York City from naval attack.

Thursday at the Oloffson

On May 16, 2012

by Andrew Wright

Photograph of dancers: Jean Claude Coutausse Photography

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RAM

The drums grip the heart

The dust leaps with the bass

The fleshy bees sway

The balcony heaves with the passion

The prostitutes glide and clatter

The suits come and go

The do-gooders huddle in the corner

While aid workers hold down the center tables

The Haitians dressed to kill – no that has passed

And Graham’s extras totter in the shadows

I sleep in the annex

Sliding down the hill

– Andrew B. Wright

The Hotel Oloffson is an inn in central Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The main structure of the hotel is a 19th century Gothic gingerbread mansion set in a lush tropical garden. The mansion was built as a residence for the powerful Sam family, including two former presidents of Haiti. The hotel was the real-life inspiration for the fictional Hotel Trianon in Graham Greene‘s famous 1966 novel The Comedians. During the 1970s and early 1980s, the hotel enjoyed a brief period of fame and good fortune. Celebrities such as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Mick Jagger were regular guests. Throughout the political upheaval of Haiti in the 1990s, the hotel has been the regular performance venue of the mizik rasin band, RAM, famous for their protest music during the Raoul Cédras military dictatorship from 1991 to 1994. Their Thursday evening performances at the hotel became one of the few regular social events in Port-au-Prince in which individuals of various political positions and allegiances could congregate. Regular attendees of the performances included foreign guests at the hotel, members of the military, paramilitary attachés and former Tonton Macoutes, members of the press, diplomats, foreign aid workers, artists, and businessmen.

Hotel Oloffson Website

“Hope and Lodging in Port-au-Prince: The Oloffson is a magnet for intellectuals, writers and the criminally inclined. Lisa Wixon reveals why it offers hope for Haiti’s future.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Oloffson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAM_(band)