Casco Viejo’s (Panama City) buildings feature an unusual blend of architectural styles, most notably rows of ornate Spanish and French colonial houses but also a smattering of art deco and neoclassical buildings.
Old Town Architecture
Casco Viejo, also known as Casco Antiguo or San Felipe, is the historic district of Panama City.
Founded in 1673, after the former capital Panama Viejo burnt down and was looted during a pirate attack, Casco Viejo was once the hub of Panamanian culture and civilization. Jutting out into the sea on a peninsula (a site chosen to guard against the next pirate assault) Casco was later abandoned when modern Panama City sprouted its skyscrapers across the bay.
But after many years of neglect, Casco is experiencing a renaissance. In 1997 the UNESCO declared it a World Heritage site and gave financial incentives for restoration projects. And while the historic district is still somewhat of a work in progress, that’s exactly what makes it exciting. Walking the streets in this quarter is a schizophrenic experience: burned-out shells of old, dilapidated, cracked buildings inhabited by squatters stand side-by-side with chic new coffee houses, gourmet restaurants, boutique hotels, and some of Panama’s hottest clubs and bars.
Casco Viejo Panama City
Cat Posing
A revealing low tide at a beach resort in Panama City, Panama
Low Tide
The serenity of early morning sky and clouds on a beach in Panama City, Panama
Early Morning Serenity
Anticipation that the sunrise can’t be too far behind at the beach in Panama City, Panama
Morning Sky at the Beach
A perfect setting to view the sunrise at the beach in Panama City, Panama
Setting to View a Sunrise
Frank Gehry centered the Panama City’s Biodiversity Museum on a public open-air atrium covered by a sequence of multicolored metal canopies, each folded and staggered to evoke Panama’s local vernacular of tin roofs and colorful facades. The origami-like roofs also help protect the interior from the region’s wet-season downpour and wind gusts. A museum store, cafe, and a temporary exhibition space branch out from the central atrium.
Roof Designs
With its multicolored facade, the Biomuseo is prominently situated on the highly visible Amador Causeway at the Pacific mouth of the Panama Canal. The building serves as a major civic and educational resource for the residents of Panama, as well as an attractive tourist destination. The museum houses a series of permanent exhibitions created by Bruce Mau Design and is surrounded by a 6-acre Biodiversity Park designed by Gehry in collaboration with landscape designer Edwina von Gal.
Colorful Biodiversity Museum
Reflections of Panama City captured on the shiny entrance walls of Biodiversity Museum ….
Reflections at Biodiversity Museum
Dark clouds over Panama City create shadows that a light pole, even if lighted, can’t brighten …
Not Enough Light
A view of Panama City across the bay from Amador Causeway
City Across the Bay
The ebb and flow of tides is clearly evident on the shoreline of Panama City and different perspectives are created at low tide.
Skyline at Low Tide
Historical buildings are well-preserved in Panama City and are major tourist attractions.
Old Architecture Preserved
Panama City is full of paradoxes. With modern skyscrapers in well-developed areas one also sees crisscrossing electrical wires on poles.
Wires Across the City
Lovely clouds add to the water reflections of Panama city buildings
Panama City Reflections
Modern skyscrapers rise behind the ruins of old Panama City. Signs of the preserved ruins, some as early as 1519, are evident throughout the city.
Old and New
The low tide adds a different perspective to the Panama City skyline at dusk
Panama City at Dusk
A bench provides a resting place after viewing the Panama City skyline from the 17th century Spanish Colonial Casco Viejo part of the city.
Panama City Over the Bench
A vendor is in a hurry to get way from the impending rain but still provides a colorful addition to the cloudy image of the Panama City skyline
A Vendor in a Hurry
Panama city is a modern skyscraper city with its prosperous business district and a city center full of live and cultural delights. The recent completion of the “cinta costera”, a project to beautify the Bay of Panama City and to provide its citizens will recreation areas has added to the attractiveness of this city for tourists.
Panama City Under the Tree
Panama City is a fascinating tourist destination in itself. It is also Central America’s most attractive Capital City and a curious blend of old Spain, modern America and the bazaar atmosphere of the East. Panama City is a city of easy cosmopolitan living, a combination of the historic and the ultra-modern.
Splendor of Panama City