Whitehall to reopen, Red House on target

WHITEHALL, the former home of the Office of the Prime Minister, will be officially reopened on Thursday night and Udecott chairman Noel Garcia has said the Red House project is on target for next month.

A media invitation for the special ceremony was issued today.

Last October Garcia told Newsday the Whitehall project was scheduled to be completed in April 2019, and would cost an estimated $25 million. He had said the repair of the roof was one of the major problems and the leaking what caused former prime minister Patrick Manning to vacate the premises.

Garcia had also said there were also some structural issues on the southeastern side of the building and Udecott was replacing the airconditioning units, all the plumbing and doing over all the electrical fittings. He also said there were some masonry issues and repainting to be done. Whitehall, which was originally owned by a wealthy cocoa family and named after the coral stone from which it was built, was commandeered to be used as security headquarters at the beginning of World War II and was later used as a cultural centre by the British Council. Whitehall also housed the Trinidad Central Library, Regional Library, National Archives, the Trinidad Art Society and the Government Broadcasting Unit.

In October 1954, it was bought by the government.

It was restoreded in 2000 and was occupied by the Office of the Prime Minister until 2009.

Udecott had been mandated to do further restoration work and outfitting upgrades on Whitehall and the mews at the rear of the property, including constructing and outfitting a reception and service building and resident staff facility, internal building work, external works, specialty works such as architectural refurbishment, roofing works and landscaping.

At a media conference yesterday at Udecott's Port of Spain offices, Garcia said work on the Red House was progressing.

"We are on target to complete all of those works by the end of next month, so that from a Udecott standpoint we are on target and within budget."

The cost of the Red House project is $441 million.

The original Red House was begun in 1844 and was gutted by fire in 1903 during the Water Riots. It was rebuilt and reopened in 1907. It was temporarily replaced as the seat of Parliament in 2011 with space at Tower D, Port of Spain International Waterfront Centre. Parliament is scheduled to return to the Red House after the building is reopened.