Casco Viejo Panama
Casco Antiguo Panama
Real Estate For Sale For Rent



After a couple of cloudy days, yesterday was the official start of the rainny season. In Panama, the rainny season is quite predictable and when it goes.... it goes.  Yesterday, it didn´t rain, it poured. For an hour or so and then stopped. But enough to get old, exposed stone soaked in water and fall. And this, very predictable situation was the cause of our beloved Hotel Central (a category 1 Historic Patrimony) to crack on its right front corner towards Central Avenue.  Now the wall is about to fall, a very valuable building will be damaged without repair and history will be lost... unnecesarily.

Any contractor and architect that has experience in historic buildings and restoration, knows better than to leave exposed stone walls (that, by the way, had a roof until they decided to gutter the building) open to the upcoming rainny season.  It is not as if the season wasn´t coming, or no one knew really when.  It was a very basic mistake and lack of planning. While I´m very excited that the hotel is under construction, I am definately dissapointed at this unnecessary and dangerous loss.

Here are some photos of the event yesterday. Unfortunately, the sun was shinning behind the building and the dark cloth that they use for construction hanging out doesn´t help to view it better. But the crack is really big, and opening as time passes by. What´s even worst, at the current situation, there is no way they´ll be able to put up a roof fast enough on the top of the rest of the construction to secure it. By now, and after yesterday´s rain, all walls must be soaked wet, which means they have become unstable.

And the one thing I know is that the rainny season is here, as it has been every year in May.

The saddest thing of this is, that the original building of the Hotel didn´t needed to be guttered. I personally walked in there several times, and while structurally you might have your concerns, the opinion of most architects and experts that walked in to make studies indicated that it could be dealt with. Just as doctors, we have an obligation to "do no harm". And Hotel Central was a princess, even if dressed in rags.

Developing in Casco Viejo is both a science and an art. Experience and common sense have to blend with the historic restrictions and be sensitive to the environment. It is a complex process that we only recommend to people who have the correct skills and team behind them, and that will be on the ground full time for at least three years. While most of our clients might feel this is too much, every year I see examples of what can happen if something goes wrong. Like Murphy´s law, something always does. And forseeing these situations take all those elements at the same time.




YESTERDAY´s event:

Workers



Hotel Central before demolitions:










For many years, and until it was demolished, the building was in relative good shape. Most of its "health" was due to the fact that it had a roof, protecting the old calicanto or stone walls from humidity.



Hotel Central also had a lot of cement walls inside that kept things together.



After demolitions.




This picture was taken during summer right after demolitions. Notice the difference with the one that shows the crack.