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ARCHITECTURAL
OVERVIEW
Architectural Styles
The historic buildings at Albrook AFS
and Howard AFB fall into seven basic architectural style groups:
Mission, Spanish Colonial Revival, Spanish Eclectic, Modernistic,
International, Varied Eclectic, and Military Vernacular. An eighth
'n/a' designation was given to structures that lack distinct
stylistic forms and features. It should be noted that few, if any,
examples of pure styles exist at either installation. For this
study, the assignment of an architectural style to a building was
frequently based on only minor expressions of that style.
Mission Style
Some of the earliest buildings constructed at Albrook feature Mission
Style design elements. This style originated in California in
the 1890s as a counterpart to the popular Colonial Revival
architecture on the east coast, and its use continued well into the
1920s. The Mission style drew from regional Hispanic influences,
including the following features:
| Shaped parapets with coping
| Tile roof projections cantilevering from wall surfaces
| Red tile roof
| Wide and open overhanging eaves
| Smooth stucco wall surfaces
| Porch roofs supported on large square piers134 |
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Spanish Colonial Revival
The most dominant architectural style at both Albrook and Howard
is Spanish Colonial Revival (1880-1940). As the title
suggests, designs of this type were influenced by the Spanish
Colonial architecture of the seventeenth through nineteenth
centuries. Examples at Albrook and Howard are of the pitched-roof
variety and simple in form. Other characteristics include:
| Low-pitched clay tile roofs
| Small unglazed window openings
| Stucco wall surfaces
| Narrow porches that act as passageways135 |
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Spanish Eclectic
Although referred to by many as Spanish Colonial Revival, a
richer architectural style of Latin influence is the Spanish
Eclectic. The style was popularized by the Panama-California
Exposition held in San Diego in 1915. The exposition's designer,
architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, had previously conducted
detailed studies of Spanish Colonial architecture, and chose to
feature more precise imitations of elaborate Spanish prototypes for
the exposition. As the Spanish Eclectic style gained popularity,
architects turned directly to Spain for inspiration. The style
remained fashionable until the 1940s. Decorative details draw from
all periods and regions of Spanish architecture, including:
| Eaves with little or no overhang
| Round or square towers
| Arches
| Balconies or balconettes
| Stucco or tile decorative vents
| Decorative tiles
| Heavy wood paneled doors
| Decorative iron window grilles136 |
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Modernistic
Some of the technical construction at Albrook and Howard was done
in the Modernistic Style, popular from the 1920s through the
1940s. The earlier variant of the style is Art Deco which has
features that give vertical emphasis:
| Smooth stucco wall surfaces
| Towers and vertical projections beyond the roof line
| Zigzags, chevrons, and other stylized and geometric motifs as
facade decoration |
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Art Deco was superseded in the 1930s by Art Moderne which
has features that give horizontal emphasis. The move from one
variant to the other was spurred by developments in streamlined
industrial design of ships, planes, and automobiles. Art Moderne is
thus a fitting design medium for aircraft hangars and other
transportation-related structures. Its image was one of aerodynamic
forms created by the use of:
| Smooth stucco wall surfaces
| Rounded corners
| Flat roof with coping
| Asymmetrical facade
| Corner, glass block, and round windows
| Horizontal grooves or lines to emphasize streamline quality137 |
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International Style
A limited number of International Style buildings were
constructed at Albrook and Howard. Still in use today, the style was
originally introduced to the U.S. during the 1930s when several
avant-garde architects fled tensions in Europe and emigrated to the
states. In their homelands, and as early as 1925, they had favored
new designs that exploited the materials and technology of the day.
The style shuns traditional decorative features and emphasizes
functional elements, such as:
| Long ribbons of metal casements, often wrapping around comers
| Floor-to-ceiling; windows
| Often obscured front entrances
| No decorative details at doors and windows
| Smooth unadorned stucco wall surfaces
| Flat roofs with shallow coping or wide boxed overhangs
| Cantilevered sections of house, roof, and balconies
| Plain round porch supports
| Asymmetry 138 |
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Varied Eclectic
Varied Eclectic refers to buildings executed in multiple
architectural styles without any single dominant style. Only two
buildings fall into this group. Howard Building 34, the theater, has
a combination of Spanish and Art Deco features. The design for
Howard Building 723, the former dispensary, is a unique
Spanish-International Style hybrid.
Military Vernacular
Many structures at Albrook and Howard lack high-style design
influences. Some of these were intended to be purely functional, and
consequently they were constructed from military standard plans that
emphasized building functionality. The use of standard plans
promoted a utilitarian military aesthetic that is evident on most,
if not all, military installations. This style, called Military
Vernacular, employs simple forms and materials suitable for
local conditions. Standard plans used at Albrook and Howard were
interpreted for the tropical climate.
Building and Site
Features
Environmental factors greatly impacted construction in tropical
Panama. The dry season (January to March) is characterized by almost
constant sunshine and little precipitation. The remainder of the
year is referred to as the wet season for its predictable light
rains and heavy downpours interspersed with sunshine. Consequently,
buildings at Albrook AFS and Howard AFB were designed and situated
to protect the inhabitants from heat, intense sun, and torrential
rains.
Ventilation
It was necessary to design buildings for maximum cooling of
interiors, as most structures were constructed before the
availability of air conditioning. The exterior walls of many
temporary type quarters, bar-racks, and administration buildings
were punctuated with 4- or 5-in. ventilation slots at the baseboard
flush with the floor. Most of these temporary structures have since
been demolished, but for those that remain, ventilation slots are
blocked to keep cooled air in and insects out. A similar concept was
implemented at the interior of both temporary and permanent building
types in the form of large upper-wall openings and door transoms.
Views are obscured by slats or milled posts, but sound still travels
between the spaces. Roofs feature ridge ventilators or gable end
vents to allow heat to escape, and virtually all original exterior
doors and windows featured screens or jalousies to allow breezes to
reach indoors. A jalousie is a blind or shutter with adjustable
horizontal slats used to regulate the passage of air and light.
Their use was popular throughout the Isthmus, despite the drawback
of shutting out light along with the wind and rain. After much
experimentation, two types of jalousies were favored: the Miami type
and a simpler mechanism. The former was made of hardware slides and
handles that allowed adjustment to any fixed angle. The latter was a
slatted blind with a center adjustment rod. While the Miami type was
preferable, the simpler version was produced in large quantities and
at a low cost by the Panama Canal Department shops.139
Effects of Moisture and Rain
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Figure 51. Deep overhanging eaves protect window openings
from torrential rains that are common In Panama from April to
December |
It
was necessary to design and site buildings to minimize the effects
of excessive moisture and torrential rains. The closets of high
ranking officers feature dry bulbs -- low-temperature electrical
devices to reduce humidity, circulate air, and prevent mildew.
There was also the practice of adding bichloride of mercury to
paint. The fungicidal quality of the mercury kept the mildew
problem in check. The most obvious building features on those
structures at Albrook and Howard are the deep overhanging eaves
and mediaguas (Figure 51). Roof overhangs approach 6 or 7 ft
depending on the structure and its location. Mediaguas (sometimes
referred to as subsidiary eaves, eyebrows, skirt-roofs, canopies,
and aquamedias) are a special type of continuous pent roof. This
Latin term, meaning "middle waters," refers to an
overhang placed on intermediate floors of a building to shelter
window openings below. A final form of protection against rain, no
longer present on the buildings at Albrook and Howard, was the
canvas drop. Virtually all window and porch openings that did not
have louvers or shutters featured rolled canvas drops. As with the
jalousie, their usage blocked the passage of light.140
Figure 51. Deep overhanging eaves protect window openings
from torrential rains that are
Figure Combating the Termite Problem
Military architecture in the former Canal Zone features
interesting elements to combat the termite problem. Wherever and
whenever practical, concrete construction was employed. Family
housing units were raised on stilts, with only the servant's
quarters having direct contact with the grade level. In temporary
wood construction, insect pans separate the ground floor concrete
support columns from the upper level wood components. The most
interesting solution to the termite problem was to insert a break in
the middle or top of a stair flight. Each side of the break had its
own supports, and the break prevented termites from passing from the
ground level to the upper floors.
Drainage
The management of water runoff during the rainy season was a
major consideration in the layout of both installations. This is
evident in the landscape, which is overlaid with a sophisticated
system of surface drains and culverts. Rainwater is shed directly
off building roofs or directed through eave funnels onto narrow
concrete surface drains at building perimeters (Figure 52). Water
then quickly flows to large surface drains that run between
buildings. Finally, it is directed to paved culverts that lead to a
large body of water. The system functions beautifully during
torrential rains. However, settlement of the ground in some areas
has created low points in the surface drains that collect standing
water. The residual moisture tends to attract pests. Heavily planted
lots also suffer similar problems when surface drains fill with
plant material.
(Footnotes
and bibliography are at the end of
this section)
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