President Jovenel Moise has launched on Wednesday a project to rebuild the presidential palace, destroyed by the earthquake in 2010.The new complex would be on the same site as the ornate domed building in Port-au-Prince.
"The new National Palace will make the connection between the history, the culture and the future of the Haitian nation," Moise said at the site of the former structure, where peacocks wander the grounds and officials conduct day-to-day operations in pre-fabricated buildings.
The palace project, part of an ambitious plan for an "administrative city" covering 30 hectares (75 acres) in downtown Port-au-Prince, is expected to go to a competitive bidding process later this year. There are no estimates of how much reconstruction will cost.
Clement Belizaire, executive director of the government's agency for public buildings, said a revived National Palace will "absolutely" be completed before the close of 2020.
He said it was too early to say precisely what will follow but added that the Beaux Arts architectural concepts of the old complex will be retained.
The most recent presidential residence was designed by Haitian architect Georges Baussan but finished in 1920 by U.S. naval engineers during a 19-year U.S. military occupation of Haiti.