Before we even touched the ground in Panama City, Beau and I were amazed by the skyline.  Flying in we saw Panama City’s many skyscrapers and tons of new construction.  I have never seen so many cranes in one city at once.  It was a little bit of a culture shock to us after traveling to little towns in Central America via chicken buses.  Beau and I were blessed to be shown the city from an architect’s perspective by Javier, a good friend of mine from design school. He informed us that primarily a combination of post tension concrete, reinforced concrete, clay block and concrete block are used for the construction here, even for the skyscrapers!  As most architects and designers would agree, you better hope the client doesn’t change their mind on outlet or jbox locations during the construction phase with concrete…urgh.

Javier showed us a great overview of Panama City, new and old.  With all the new skyscraper and construction Panama is building new highways and and improving their streets.  The old town of Panama is also in the process of getting makeover. People are buying the old historic buildings and restoring the exterior.  Some of the buildings have been restored to the original design in the interior and exterior but there are a few really cool ones that have been designed with contemporary interiors.  The possibilities are endless in this transitional area and I almost wish I could stay a while and design a few myself.

Thank you Javier for taking the time to show us your beautiful city!  Also thank you to Beverly, Luis, Karla, Vanessa, Monica and Ruby, Javier’s beautiful mom!  We had a blast!