Panama Musuem of Biodiversity is currently being erected in Panama City at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal. Located next to the Soberania National Park rain forest reserve, it will offer visitors from all over the world a window into the diverse natural history of Panama.

Fundacion Amador, the non-profit organization who commissioned the museum, defines biodiversity as “the variety of life in all its shapes, levels and combinations”. Renowned Architect Frank Gehry took on the challenge of designing a structure to represent that biodiversity. The museum consists of fifteen pavilions, each with its own dinstinctly-colored, uniquely-shaped roof. Their different sloping and curved planes interconnect to create a jagged, twisted silhouette, while the riot of roof colors will be easily visible to passengers on the many cruise ships travelling through the canal.

This complex, multi-material construction project has been developed with the cooperation of the Smithsonian Institute, the Universidad of Panama, and the ARI (Interoceanic Region Authority). Structural steel was the natural choice to re-create the complexity of the curved rooflines in the architect’s design. The pavilions are being cast on site in concrete and the individual roof skins are formed in steel decking in a variety of bright colors.