History and Culture in Panama City’s Hotel la Compañia
A warm and inviting hospitality hub set within historic architecture
Inside the stone walls of Panama City’s Hotel la Compañia guests can ride a time-travel themed elevator, thumb through vintage books in an ethereal light-filled library and sip passion fruit cocktails by the rooftop bar overlooking the Metropolitan Cathedral. With 88 rooms and suites surrounding their lush courtyard, the historic architectural setting has been transformed into a living museum. Opened in early 2022 in the Casco Antiguo neighborhood, a warm and inviting community hub has come to fruition with visitors staying in the luxurious hotel rooms and locals flocking to the eight restaurants and bars.
“We consider this hotel to be a public house,” says owner Chris Lenz. “Our goal was to create a historic landmark hotel for Central America.” In the process of preserving the ancient walls of the property, the architects, interior designers and craftspeople had access to an archival collection of photography that had been gathered for the hotel from all over the globe. 2,200 of these images have been framed and hung throughout the hallways, rooms and public spaces.
In 1997 the Casco Antiguo neighborhood was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The hotel inhabits land that was originally a Jesuit Convent from 1688 to 1744, and later home to University San Xavier, with the Beaux-Arts American wing added in the early 1900s. The original exterior has been painstakingly preserved, while the newly designed hotel takes cues from each wall to create guest accommodations in three distinct wings. The French wing, the Spanish wing and the American wing surround a verdant garden. Contemporary paintings and sculptures are artfully placed around the hotel to connect the history-filled spaces to modern day Panama.
Flourishes that feel festive abound. The rooftop pool glows with a gorgeous cobalt blue after dark. The Draconis cocktail with bourbon and pineapple syrup arrives in a smoke-filled dome that wafts away as it is presented. And the Naos cocktail, crafted with artisanal Panamanian ingredients, pairs mezcal and rum with a tropical fruit syrup and red spicy salt rim. In El Santuario restaurant, the heart of the hotel and location for their lavish breakfast buffet, they share the flavors of Panama in a stone-wall lined rustic space with a section of translucent floor that reveals a historic well. In 1739, restaurant chefs craft a French-inspired menu in a dramatic setting with a spiral staircase down to the wine cellar for tastings and soaring ceiling views up to the library.
In addition to the extensive historic archive, collections are displayed throughout the hotel with a tower of sewing machines in the American Bazaar restaurant. Vintage suitcases line a wall in Luigi’s. An impressive assortment of cameras with vintage film footage was designed by Clandestino Labs, known for giving objects new life to optimize the utilization of existing resources.
The time-travel themed elevator evokes some knowing smiles and a sense of childlike wonder. Clandestino’s Creative Director, Nahue Galeano Lerner, tells the story of how the whimsical installation came about. “The development team contacted me a few months before opening and asked me to do the interior design for the two guest elevators, so we started with the French wing, went for something nice and classic,” he explains. “And then we decided to go wild in the American wing. The concept of the whole experience was around history, and that makes me play a little bit with the concept of time. The elevator is basically a machine to move from A to B, and that’s how I connected the elevator with a time machine. Also Chris Lenz had been collecting antiques for years, so at the end he had many interesting ones left to incorporate into the building.”
In addition to their artful assemblage environments, Clandestino Labs crafts furniture from recycled materials. The sculptural shapes fit well with the quirky, colorful interior design for Hari’s, the hotel’s Japanese restaurant that also features eclectic furniture by Harry Segil. “We buy shredded plastic from the recycling centers in Panama and transform it into sheets that, after, we use to produce art, furniture and custom projects like the tables and chairs for the hotel,” says Lerner who feels strongly that it is important to produce less waste and optimize the reutilization of existing resources.
In a country known for growing some of the most highly prized specialty coffees in the world, the hotel also offers a coffee tasting experience. Guests can learn about the history of coffee and how the coffee plants first arrived in Panama. They source the coffee for the hotel from the farm in Panama’s Boquete region. The tasting starts with a cup of the Catuai that is served with breakfast and continues with the sought after Geisha coffee, and wraps up with steeping cascara to make coffee cherry tea.
Soon Hotel La Compañia will be adding a new jewel to their already sparkling crown. In spring 2024, just a block from the hotel, next to the majestic Catedral Basílica Metropolitana Santa María La Antigua, they are opening Villa Ana. Inside a three-story building built in the 1920s, it will feature a gallery, bar, restaurant, speakeasy, open-air terrace and cigar lounge.
Hotel la Compañia is part of The Unbound Collection by Hyatt.
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