MARK FRANCO
Director, co-ord Limited
Mark was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago. He graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the Rhode Island School of Design (Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.A.) in 1983 and returned to Trinidad to continue being mentored by his father, Architect Hayden Franco. In 1988, Mark and Hayden established their Practice, FRANCO and FRANCO Architects Limited, and continued their work in Trinidad, extending to Guyana, Barbados, Grenada, St. Lucia and St. Kitts in all sectors of the industry, in particular residential, commercial and hospitality.
Mark continued the Practice after Hayden’s death in 1998. In the early part of this millennium he began collaborating with colleagues Colin Basso and Sean Leonard of Basso Leonard Architects Collaborative Limited on several projects. The discussions during the collaboration evolved into conversations about creating a more formal relationship and Architect Charmaine Solozano-Ward of CSW Architect Limited joined the three in the conversations. These developed into the creation of the consortium of Practices, co-rd Limited, to which all of the founding practices vested their personnel and assets. co-rd began operating formally in January 2006 as an Architectural Practice and as a service company to the founding practices. Mark is an owner and director of co-rd. At the beginning of 2009 FRANCO and FRANCO Architects Limited was redundant and Mark dissolved the practice.
Mark is a past-Chairman of the Board of Architecture of Trinidad and Tobago. He has served as a Member on several Executives of the Trinidad and Tobago Institute of Architects.