While doing volunteer work in Haiti last March, I could not help but marvel at something that no one even thinks about discussing post earthquake: the fabulous Haitian architecture. I was fascinated to see a poster in Jérémie for the Institut de Sauvegarde du Patrimoine National ("ISPAN"), an organization devoted to architectural preservation. Jérémie is like a Hollywood set of an African city late 1800s, a city that time forgot. The colonial architecture is striking.
Most impressive is the whimsical ginger-bread Victorian architecture in Port-au-Prince. So many villas feature "witch's-hat" spires, many beneath the rubble. How can preservation efforts even begin to compete with the desperation of restoring infrastructure and saving lives ?
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