Humboldt 22

“A ribbon of parks and pleasure drives encircling the city”

The Chicago Park Boulevard System Historic District
National Register of Historic Places

Casco Viejo (Ciudad de Panamá), Panamá
42 m² / Historic Renovation
Completed 2020
Much like the local pilot guiding a hulking ship thru the nearby canal, Apartamento Canalero served as a trusty guide to the intense renovation of this historic building - the very last unit to be completed, carefully customized by the project architects themselves. The apartment served as a storage unit, jobsite office, and informal dumping ground at various stages of construction - before finally being converted into a truly unique home.
While every other apartment features soaring doors and balconies outward to the street, Canalero embraces the quiet, cozy nature of its one-off interior location. It crouches at the back of a central courtyard, buffered from the noise and commotion of adjacent streets. Dense palms frame the entry, with a centuries-old calicanto wall wrapping into and around the apartment. Restored archways highlight the depth of these old stone walls. A crisp, cube-like bathroom enclosure was created to separate the living area from an open bedroom, while allowing each space to breathe and minimizing the reliance on fine-tuned climate control.
Architecture & Interiors: Via Chicago
General Contractor: Díaz & Asociados, S.A.
MEP Engineer: STREAM Engineering
Photography: Konrad Wazny
Kitchen Cabinetry: Floritelli Cucine
Electrical: ADA Volts Electric
Encaustic Cement Tile: Granada Tile