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Thurston
Get Blog Posts As EmailsOur architectural design team has been researching and learning about many exotic woods of South and Central America. One of the woods that caught our attention is known as BALSAMO wood (Myroxylon balsamum). In the scientific description from the Agroforestry Database you will find some interesting uses of this particular hardwood. I find it especially [...]
Materials Study: Balsamo Wood
August 23rd, 2010 by Manya12,500 Re-Purposed Plastic Bottles.
July 27th, 2010 by ManyaWhen I was a little girl, I found it a little strange to watch my father rinse the ziplock bag and reuse it for the next day’s lunch bag. Times change quickly and you learn fast! Years later I find it that “re-purposing the ziplock bag” idea not only serves as a good “eco” and [...]
Knowing Your Neighbors
June 14th, 2010 by JoeColombia, Panama’s neighbors to the south, is as full of incredible resources as Panama is. We all know Colombia for its incredible coffee, but its supply of Guadua bamboo seems to be endless. I recently traveled to Armenia in the Quindío Region where it grows almost everywhere. The Colombians have become extremely resourceful using Guadua [...]
The Path Between the Seas
April 14th, 2010 by JerrodI finished Pulitzer Prize winning-author David McCullough’s epic book about the building of the Panama Canal this past weekend while sitting at the pool of Gamboa Rainforest Resort which sits on old canal zone land (fitting, I know). I was trying to envision myself operating one of the giant Bucyrus steam shovels at the Culebra [...]
New York Hotel Group Begins Construction in Casco
March 16th, 2010 by JerrodWe are pretty accustomed to the banging of steel and the roar of concrete trucks seeping through the windows of our office here in the old quarter of Panama City; construction is everywhere. But one new construction fence around the old Union Club a couple blocks away caught my eye, mostly because this is the [...]
Gehry-designed Museum Taking Shape in Panama
December 1st, 2009 by JerrodAs I was driving out to the Amador Causeway last week, I was taken aback by the progress on the new Bridge of Life Biodiversity Museum that is rising out of the ground in an explosion of steel. Panamanian officials selected world-famous architect Frank Gehry, best-known for his titanium deconstructivist Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, [...]
Fun with GIS
November 12th, 2009 by BenJerrod wrote an entry back in July about walking the proposed road that had been staked for us by our topographers. Walking it, and understanding the topography of the area as well as Design Workshops’s intent, I was suspicious that the stakes weren’t quite where they were supposed to be. That, combined with a few [...]
Affordable Net-Zero Energy Subdivision
November 2nd, 2009 by MarkI’ve mentioned this idea of “net-zero” before. It’s a term that means exactly what it’s saying: That an input is equal to an output. This is the true goal of sustainability. Too often the idea of sustainability is seen as be an expensive endeavor and that costs outweigh benefits. The argument against that has always [...]
Canal Expansion
October 28th, 2009 by DavidSince its inception, Panama has been known as the crossroads of the western world. As a land-route bottleneck from North and Central America to South America, and with the canal passing through this isthmus, Panama factors into world trade as a crucial point in world economics. As such, Panama has been subjected to the growth [...]
Concrete as a Sustainable Building Material
October 14th, 2009 by FrancesTake a look at this fresh look at concrete by an interior designer in Panama, and how it can keep you cool AND green. Megs Interior Design Blog.