Here are a few snapshots I took while I was in Panama City a couple weeks ago.
Work on Frank Gehry’s Biomuseo, or biodiversity museum (a collaboration between the Amador Foundation and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute), slogs along under the hot sun. Construction has been underway for a good chunk of time (it must be over five years now?), having sustained a number of delays. To date Gehry’s only building in Latin America, the museum sits along the Amador Causeway, which is made from material excavated during the Canal’s construction and which formerly served as part of a US military base. The museum is part of a larger effort to develop the causeway (and the four small islands it connects to the mainland) as a tourist attraction.
Panama's Little Dubai: Punta Pacifica has sprung up in the last several years. A wall of residential towers--including the new clamlike hotel/condominium, Trump Panama, as the pièce de résistance--sits atop landfill. Panamanians wait to see how new traffic patterns emerge as residents fill the buildings on this massive cul-de-sac.
Speaking of traffic patterns, word is that the Diablo Rojo public bus system will soon be replaced. It will be sad to see these strange creatures go, but the streets of Panama City will no doubt be safer.
