After 15 years of waiting, Panama Biomuseo opened its doors last fall of 2014. An extraordinary museum that has an equally amazing story: it showcases Panama’s role as the last key piece of land in the Central American isthmus that joined North and South America nearly three million years ago — and the consequences it had for the world’s ecology.
As the junction between two continents, Panama allowed animals from the north to move south and evolve for a new climate, and southern animals to do the reverse. As a barrier between the Atlantic and the Pacific, Panama changed wind patterns, water currents, salinity and other factors affecting climate, causing the regions and the wildlife touched by the oceans to evolve in different ecological directions.
Designed by one of the most important architects in the world at the moment, Frank Gehry (Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, Disney Concert Hall). The 44,132-square-foot Biomuseo is Mr. Gehry’s first building in Latin America.
To design the galleries, Mr. Gehry helped enlist a fellow Canadian, Bruce Mau, the founder of Bruce Mau Design and co-founder of the Massive Change Network. The Biomuseo combines technology, science and art to illustrate the natural world. With eight galleries displaying the permanent exhibition, the Biomuseo is intended to sensitize visitors.
At the entrance, visitors are greeted with a 26-foot-tall by 45-foot-wide stained glass panel illustrating biodiversity and the state of the environment. Panama’s natural wonders in the multimedia “Panamarama” gallery, 10 screens recreate experiences like swimming with a whale, traveling into the forest canopy and witnessing extreme thunderstorms. In “Building the Bridge,” three 45-foot-tall rock formations help explain the creation of the isthmus. In “Worlds Collide,” which captures the moment Panama was formed, two sculptural groups of large animals stampede toward each other, depicting their migration from one continent to the other.
The Biomuseo also include a six-acre biodiversity park. The museum was conceived as a tourist attraction, an educational facility and a part of the country’s new identity.
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