100% Local, 100% Success!

5th December, 2011 by Mandilee Newton | 0 comments

Recently, the Building & Construction Magazine in the Trinidad Guardian published an article by the Trinidad & Tobago Institute of Architects, hailing a local team of architects, designers, contractors and suppliers. It was a highly positive, highly motivating article for the local construction industry that has been hard hit by the goverment's predilection for using foreign skill and labour. Read the article here. 

An Architect’s View of Port of Spain

30th November, 2011 by Mandilee Newton | 2 comments

The latest issue of the Trinidad Guardian's Building & Construction magazine has an article on downtown beautification by acla:works director Gary Turton. Gary offers a ten-point perspective: [1] improved drainage and underground services, [2] better sidewalks and tree lined streets, [3] mass transit system within city limits (see: Transit Oriented Development), [4] multi-story car parking on perimeter of city, [5] maximise retail shop frontage, [6] green roofs, [7] public art, upgraded museums and a museum of modern art (see: Percent for Art program), [8] preserve and protect built heritage, [9] higher density, mixed-use, mixed income developments, and, [10] planning. Read the article here.

Court Design in Session

15th November, 2011 by Gary Turton | 0 comments

Recently, Directors Junior Thompson and Gary Turton participated in a workshop entitled Court Facilities: A Primer for Planning, Design and Construction. The workshop was delivered by a partnership of the National Center for State Courts in the US and the Judiciary of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Junior and Gary are currently engaged in acla:works projects involving the design of court facilities. Junior is involved in completing the final report for the CDB funded Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court Halls of Justice Project in 9 jurisdictions in the OECS; acla:works won this commission in the final quarter of 2010. Gary is involved in refurbishment works and accessibility upgrades to the Hall of Justice in Port of Spain, originally designed by UK architect HKPA in collaboration with Anthony C. Lewis Associates [now acla:works] back in 1981.

The workshop provided acla:works with up-to-date information on the latest trends in court facility planning and design, as well as an opportunity to do an in depth review of a case study: the St. George West, Magistrates Court in Port of Spain. The workshop was equally useful for members of the judiciary, and other key users of court facilities in Trinidad and Tobago. It afforded the participants a broad view of the complex issues related to users, security, spatial adjacencies, and support systems, which are required for the proper function of a modern court. Whilst acla:works holds considerable experience in this area, the firm constantly welcomes opportunities to improve its expertise, and therefore is grateful that the Judiciary of Trinidad and Tobago invited the firm to participate in the workshop.

(above) Hall of Justice, Trinidad 

Speaking of Design . . .

24th October, 2011 by Melanie Archer | 0 comments

Last month, a couple of acla:works team members were invited to speak at separate conferences.

On September 15 acla:works associate, Mandilee Newton, presented at the Institution of Structural Engineers' conference, Environmentally Sustainable Construction – Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change. Mandilee spoke about the applicability of the LEED rating system to the region and offered anecdotal advice on the challenges one can expect to face as an architect and LEED practitioner in the region. [For reading on this topic, check out Mandilee's 2010 white paper, LEED – A Caribbean Architect’s Perspective.]

On September 28 acla:works director, Gary Turton, spoke at AmCham T&T's 15th annual HSSE Conference. Gary spoke about green design and sustainability – opportunities and barriers. acla:works projects – Ministry of Public Information and Administration [MPAI], Environmental Management Authority [EMA] and acla:works' new offices – were used as case studies in the presentation. Gary's presentation was well received and stimulated a lively discussion within the audience. 

Above: acla:works' projects – MPAI, EMA, and our new offices.

Reigle Writes About Us

27th June, 2011 by Brian Lewis | 0 comments

How did acla:works land the honour of being a case study in the new book, Positioning for Architecture and Design Firms? Well . . .

For the past 5 years, I have routinely attended the annual American Institute of Architects [AIA] Conventions. At the 2009 convention in San Francisco, I signed up for a course on Strategic Planning for Architects, which was led by Jack Reigle of SPARKS. I was very impressed with Jack and we chatted about the possibility of him coming to Trinidad. I also read a copy of his book, Silver Bullets, and decided that he would be the best person to benchmark our firm against other cutting edge firms that he would have met in the U.S. Jack agreed to visit and, in June 2009, he led a three-day strategic workshop at our office.

Because we had already envisioned the Caribbean Outreach approach and the formation of Mesh – a group of consultants that could offer an integrated project delivery service across the region – we also decided to include the full group in one of the half-day sessions during the workshop.

Jack thinks best on his feet and was able to work with the group to refine the Mesh concept to what it is today. Obviously, Jack was suitably impressed with our inputs and we are proud that he decided to include acla:works as a case study in his latest book, Positioning for Architecture and Design Firms.

You can read the entire acla:works case study chapter here. [Kindly note that this PDF is © 2011, Jack Reigle, and reproduced with the permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.]