The Panama Canal Administration Building was inaugurated on July 15, 1914, exactly a month before the Canal itself. Since then, this veritable legacy from the past has continued to dominate the Balboa area from atop its rolling hill.

the administration building
(sited on a hill the elevation of Gatun lake)

The Administration building houses the Panama Canal Authority's chief administrative offices, such as those of the Administrator, and the Deputy Administrator, located since 1914 in the North wing of the second floor, overlooking Balboa and the Canal's Pacific entrance.

bust of President Roosevelt
in the rotonda

Chief Engineer George W. Goethals set his sights on the construction of a permanent building to physically centralize administrative activities in 1912 - around the  same time the Gatum Locks and lake were receiving their finishing touches.

bust of Count Ferdinand de Lesseps

Austin W. Lord, hired from a New York architectural firm, traveled to Panama to study site conditions and develop designs that would dictate uniformity for a series of buildings in the Canal area..  By 1913, Lord had already developed plans for the Administration Building, the three locks control houses, the Balboa and Christobal train stations, the Gatum hydroelectric plant and the El Prado residences.

Miraflores lock control house

zone residences

Inside one in immediately struck by the beauty of the high-domed rotunda, the main attraction of the historic building.  The dramatic murals, which adorn the cupola, along with the stately marble columns and floor, complete the impression. Exiting the rotunda, one comes upon the main staircase, a work of art in pink Tennessee marble, with elegant Mahogany banisters that denote the luxury in which the imposing structure was conceived.

the staircase

According to records dating back to the construction era, the entire building cost $879,000, a sizable sum at the time.

mural of partially finished miter gate

The murals that adorn the rotunda were painted by New Yorker William Van Ingen, also celebrated for his  murals in the U.S. Library of Congress and the Philadelphia Mint. They depict the monumental labor involved in building the canal.

mural of Miraflores lock culvert construction

Together, these murals narrate the efforts, courage, and heroism of the multinational workforce the gouged through the Isthmus of Panama to unite the World's two greatest oceans.

mural of Gatum dam spillway construction