Creating A Pipeline for An Architecture, Design and Building Trades School
At the Virgin Islands Architecture Center for Built Heritage and Crafts, our north star is the development of a two-year college program that teaches Virgin Islands architecture, building trades, and cultural heritage development that aligns with Gerville Larsen’s 2013 Christiansted Town Plan vision. As we at VIAC rehabilitate the Old Barracks Property and develop the curriculum needed to offer an accredited college level program, we have started to build the educational institute by developing pipelines to degree programs and certifications in association with schools in Puerto Rico, the United States, Ghana, and Denmark. Since 2024, VIAC has conducted educational programming through high school summer programs, college internships and support to history and social studies classrooms that want to learn more about Virgin Islands built heritage. We have built a state-of-the-art classroom at our offsite location in Watergut. We have completed three cohorts of the VAST Summer Enrichment Program, with 30 high school students from across the territory who we have engaged in lessons on historic and environmental preservation, drafting and architecture, skilled trades, financial literacy and social emotional wellbeing. We have also completed three cohorts of college internships, placing UVI students in internships at the State Historic Preservation Office, the Division of Libraries and Museums and CHANT where they obtained hands on experience of working in the preservation economy. We have supported Virgin Islands classrooms on field trips to Christiansted and provided learning experiences about our historic neighborhoods through the lens of built heritage.
Barracks Rehabilitation and Historic Preservation Skills Apprenticeships
Key to the vision created by Gerville Larsen’s Christiansted Town Plan is the rehabilitation of the Old Barracks Property on Hospital Street, Christiansted, St. Croix which will become the future home of the Virgin Islands Architecture Center for Built Heritage and Crafts. Our rehabilitation project is currently underway through grants from the National Park Service, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Agriculture. As we work on the Emergency Stabilization of the Barracks Grand Staircase on Hospital Street, our rehabilitation project is a living classroom. Through a collaboration with the CHANT Conservation Corps program, we are simultaneously training local apprentices in historic preservation masonry. Funding and guidance for the grand staircase project comes from the Danish Heritage Restoration and Skills Transfer and Orents Fund and from the Department of Housing and Urban Development through the Delegate to Congress Community Project Fund.
Placekeeping and Storytelling: A Cultural Heritage Center for St. Croix
Engaging the Community on St. Croix Built Heritage and Building A Grassroots Archive
Through funding from the Mellon Foundation and the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands, VIAC has begun several projects to develop a visitor center at the Old Barracks Property that will create a space where the built heritage of our towns is archived, interpreted and told.With funding from the Mellon Foundation, we have begun to refocus the St. Croix community on the importance of built heritage and the not to be forgotten stories and history that the towns hold. We have provided opportunities for the community to interact with the work being done in the towns by organizations like CHANT that highlight the importance of rehabilitating old structures and telling the stories of the people who built and lived there throughout the centuries. We have highlighted the work of our historians and curators and the work they have done to preserve the Virgin Islands narrative. We have surveyed the community on what they want to see in a visitor center. With the Storytelling Project funded by Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands, we are researching the four historic eras of the Barracks, Danish Colonial Period, Early American, Christiansted High School and Late 20th Century – and interviewing people from the Christiansted High School era, which as the first public high school on St. Croix was key to the socioeconomic development of the community.
Access the VIAC Storytelling Digital Archive Here
Click the headline above to immerse yourself in the compelling narratives crafted by the VIAC Storytelling Project Team. Explore the history of four distinct Old Barracks eras: the Danish Colonial period, the Early American period, the St. Croix High School era, and the Government Center era. Along with the research of the VIAC Storytelling Team, this site features the research about 18th and 19th century St. Croix tradesmen by historian Dr. George Tyson and archivist Camilla Jensen. These stories illuminate our past while steering us toward a promising future as the Virgin Islands Architecture Center for Built Heritage and Crafts.
Educational Resources on Virgin Islands Built Heritage
Click the links below for Educational Resources