Spaces, Vigour and Funding: Keeping George Town’s History Palpable
By Laurence Loh
July 2024 COVER STORY
CULTURAL HERITAGE CONSERVATION of the highest order descended upon the streets of George Town in July 2008 as it was conferred the honorary title of World Heritage Site through the agency of UNESCO and the World Heritage Committee. The Outstanding Universal Value (OUV)[1] embedded in the place and its setting is now globally recognised. The proponents of “bringing world class ideas home”, such as the Penang Heritage Trust (PHT) and a small group of conservation experts, had been promoting the...
Laurence Loh
is an amply awarded architect whose most noted project is the world-renowned Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion in Penang, which won the Unesco Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards in 2000 for the “Most Excellent Project”. In 2008 his restoration of Merdeka Stadium in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s Stadium of Independence, was conferred the Unesco “Award of Excellence” and his restoration of Suffolk House in Penang, the only surviving Anglo-Indian Georgian mansion in South-East Asia, was accorded the Unesco “Award of Distinction”.
