British architect Rogers designs park in honor of Hugo Chavez

CARACAS, Venezuela — Pritzker Prize-winning British architect Richard Rogers has been handed the keys to Caracas and is visiting the site where he's designed a 2,075-acre (840-hectare) park in honor of the late President Hugo Chavez.

The designer of works including the Pompidou Center in Paris and one of New York's new World Trade Center towers told reporters in the Venezuelan capital on Friday that he is a committed socialist and that architecture is also politics.

The park in the city's La Riconada district is to include a big sports complex and research and art centers as well as a transit nexus.

Work began on it in September.

Chavez died of cancer last March after 14 years. — Associated Press