The Belize City House of Culture and Downtown Rejuvenation Project

28/10/2020

THE YARBOROUGH GREEN DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

The Belize City House of Culture and Downtown Rejuvenation Project completed the Yarborough Green Development Project last month. The investment was a two-year project which was carried out in two phases. The first phase was completed in 2018 and it included the construction of a metal structure over the basketball court, lights, and a security fence around the basketball court. The second phase started in 2019 and it involved the rehabilitation of the football field, installation of a pedestrian walkway, security lights, additional bleachers and benches, male and female restrooms, the upgrading of the police booth, and improvement along the waterfront to prevent erosion. The Yarbrough Green is an open space to be used by the community for sports and recreational activities. The improvement of this field was made possible through the partnership of the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation, NICH, the Belize City Council, Taiwan ICDF, and the Honorable Tracy Taegar Panton.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au81L5syrOY&feature=youtu.be

12/10/2020

THE BELIZE CITY HOUSE OF CULTURE AND DOWNTOWN REJUVENATION PROJECT'S INTERACTIVE SELF GUIDING WALKING TOUR APP AND ECOMUSEUM WEBSITE ARE NOW LIVE

After months of work on our Ecomuseum's Website and the Self-Guided Walking Interactive Tour App Map, we are pleased to announce that both are up and running. The Walking Tour App is an Interactive Tour App that works with either your IOS or Android phones. It will allow the user to identify the various historic sites. If the users have access to the internet on their phones while in downtown, they will be able to utilize the directional/tracking feature of the App. The directional/tracking feature will allow the user to choose which historic site they want to visit. It will show where they are located in relation to that site in real time. The user should be able to follow the blue directional/tracking line to the selected site. The App will also provide a short interpretation about each site. After learning about any historic site, the user will be able to choose the next historic site and proceed to that site with the help of the direction/tracking feature. With the assistance of our App anyone will be able to conduct their own self-guided tour.

This App was not created to eliminate the tour guides, because there nothing better than taking a tour with a knowledgeable and experienced tour guide. However, this App was created to supplement our experiential tourism experience in downtown, by providing hundreds of visitors into downtown who may prefer to do their own walking-tour, the ability to do that if they so desire.

The App is accessible with the attached QR Codes. The first OR code is for the IOS and second is for the Android.

The Ecomuseum and Self-Guiding Walking Tour App was created for the Downtown Rejuvenation Project by Sai Info-Tech.

ECOMUSEUM WEB SITE LINK
http://belizecityecomuseum.com/

Please test the App and let us know your experience.

10/10/2020

The Belize City House of Culture and Downtown Rejuvenation Project Inaugurates the newly renovated Government House and the New Belize City House of Culture

In an effort to invest in the urban regeneration of Downtown Belize City and to encourage socioeconomic integration utilizing cultural heritage, the Belize City House of Culture and Downtown
Rejuvenation Project, a project funded by the Taiwan International Cooperation Development Fund (ICDF) and the Government of Belize, today inaugurated the newly renovated Government
House & House of Culture.

The project also handed over keys to the Greenwood House at the corner of Cockburn Lane and Regents Street, the Yarborough Green Recreational Field and the Women and Family Department Building on Albert Street. The Belize City House of Culture and Downtown Rejuvenation Project (BCHOCDRP) also completed improvements to several sites in downtown Belize City, including a downtown signage project with the primary objective to preserve and manage the built Cultural Heritage and address the degeneration of Downtown Belize City through the establishment of policies to preserve Urban Heritage and promote Cultural preservation in Belize City. In addition to today’s inauguration, the BCHOCDRP has also invested in:

• St. John’s Anglican Cathedral
• Supreme Court of Belize
• The Belize Heritage Plaza which is currently under construction.

Present at the Ribbon Cutting Ceremonies were the Honorable Jose Manuel Heredia, Jr., Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation; H.E. Remus Li-Kuo Chen, Ambassador of the Republic of China
(Taiwan); Honorable Patrick Faber, Minister of Education, Youth, Sports and Culture; Honorable Anthony Martinez, Minister of Human Development, Social Transformation, and Poverty
Alleviation; and Honorable Tracy Taegar Panton, Minister of State with responsibility for Ministry of Investment, Trade, & Commerce.

10/10/2020

17/09/2020

PRESS RELEASE

Thursday, September 17th, 2020

TAIWAN ICDF OFFICIALLY HANDS OVER BELIZE CITY DOWNTOWN TOUR MAP MOBILE APPLICATION TO THE BELIZE CITY HOUSE OF CULTURE AND DOWNTOWN REJUVENATION PROJECT

In an effort to invest in the improvement of the core competencies of Downtown Belize City (its business activities, historic value, cultural heritage and community) and to encourage socio-economic integration, the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation and Taiwan ICDF, under the Belize City House of Culture and Downtown Rejuvenation Project, a project funded by Taiwan ICDF and the Government of Belize, today, signed a transfer document for a Downtown Belize City Walking Tour Mobile Application and the licensed documentary film named “Belize City House of Culture and Downtown Rejuvenation Project” in Belize City.
The Downtown Rejuvenation Project had included as one of its objectives under its soft components, the creation of an Online Digital Walking Tour Map Mobile Application (App) for downtown Belize City (Regents and Albert Streets), the main hub of its new Ecomuseum. The key feature of the App is to highlight the various historical sites along the two historic streets, and utilizing an integrated google map real time tracker, the visitor would be able to do a virtual tour or use the App to do a self-guided tour of the Ecomuseum. The development of the source code and design of the App was provided by Taiwan ICDF’s technical support team. Today, the transfer document for the source code of the App was signed by Ambassador Timothy T.Y. Hsiang, Secretary General of Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund and the CEO of the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation, Mr. Yashin Dujon, witnessed by H.E. Remus Li-Kuo Chen, Ambassador of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to Belize.
The Belize City House of Culture and Downtown Rejuvenation Project is being implemented by Taiwan ICDF and the Government of Belize. The objectives of the initiative are to preserve and manage the built Cultural Heritage and address the degeneration of Downtown Belize City; establish policies to preserve the country’s built Urban Heritage; promote awareness and appreciation of our built heritage and relics currently existent in Belize City through community storytelling and use of heritage buildings; and encourage community participation and development in the regeneration of Downtown Belize City and its public spaces.
The Belize City House of Culture and Downtown Rejuvenation Project was launched in February of 2014 and the project is scheduled to be completed on October 9th, 2020.
For more information, please contact:
Project Director, John Arana at 227-1745 or [email protected]
Community Liaison Officer, Albert Avila at 227-1745 or [email protected]

-End of Press Release-

12/08/2020

11/08/2020

THE BELIZE CITY HOUSE OF CULTURE AND DOWNTOWN REJUVENATION PROJECT

The BCHCADRP started in 2014 and will conclude on October 9th, 2020. During the six years of the project, the project achieved many milestones such as:

Rehabilitation of the Yarborough Basketball Court
Repairs to St. John's Cathedral
The raze and rebuilding of the Ronald Frederick Greenwood House
The raze and rebuilding of the Human Development Building
Repairs to the Supreme Court
The rehabilitation to the Yarborough Football Field
The rebuilding of a new building on the property where the Paslow once stood
Establishing of an Ecomuseum in Downtown Belize City (in-progress)

However, our signature or primary restoration sub-component which is what our project was built around, was the rehabilitation and construction on the Government House property. in this component we rehabilitated the Government House, constructed a new House of Culture, rebuilt the Carriage House, installed a new parking lot, rehabilitated the grounds and sea wall areas. This sub-component project in the greater Downtown Rejuvenation Project was where a considerable portion of the total funds was invested. The Government House Property is a remarkable and beautiful property with considerable amounts of history. The portion of the investment of which the Downtown Rejuvenation Project was responsible for has been completed, and so today, we would like to present a short promotional video of what we accomplished at this historic site.