American Trade Hotel ★★★★★

A 1917 Department Store on Plaza Herrera

Casco Viejo is Panama City's first quarter, a grid of balconies and pastel facades that UNESCO listed and that the city spent two decades bringing back. On Plaza Herrera one building always drew the eye, even when it stood empty: a neo-classical block put up in 1917 by Leonardo Villanueva Meyer for the American Trade Developing Company, department store below, apartments above. It fell quiet after the sixties and was derelict by 2000. Conservatorio bought it in 2007, Hache Uve held up the structure, Atelier Ace and Commune Design handled everything you can see. The result reads less like a restoration than like a building that simply kept going.

Why It Works

The conversion is the argument. Commune borrowed from Vienna secession, Mexican modernism and Italian postmodernism, and let the furniture look collected rather than bought, which is why the public rooms feel lived in instead of staged. Fifty rooms is small enough that the staff learn your name by the second morning. And the house behaves like a piece of the quarter rather than a compound inside it: the cafe opens onto the plaza, the jazz club fills with Panamanians, and only the rooftop pool keeps to itself. Membership of Small Luxury Hotels of the World confirms the register.

Why This Location

Plaza Herrera sits at the western end of Casco Viejo, one street back from the sea wall and about five minutes on foot from Plaza de la Independencia and the cathedral. The Paseo Esteban Huertas, the bougainvillea walk along the ramparts, is roughly ten minutes away and gives the postcard view of the skyline across the water. Restaurants, rooftops and galleries sit within the same handful of blocks, so the car stays parked. The quarter changes character by the hour, domestic and quiet in the morning, full and loud from nine at night. The banking district is around fifteen minutes by road, Tocumen airport closer to forty.

Fast Facts

• Price: Luxury

• Vibe: Restored, literate, faintly bohemian

• Rooms: 50, across eight categories from Cuarto Chico to the One Bedroom Suite

• Best For: Design-minded couples, music lovers, travellers who want to walk everywhere

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: Danilo's Jazz Club at street level, founded with the Panamanian pianist Danilo Perez, where the programming is serious and the room is small enough to matter

• Dining: Tiempos for coffee roasted in house, a cocktail bar off the lobby, Salon Viejo and the library for slower evenings

• Amenities: Rooftop pool, interior courtyard, tiled fitness room, the American Trade Hall for events, pets welcome, Small Luxury Hotels of the World

• Attractions: Plaza de la Independencia about five minutes on foot, the cathedral and the Canal Museum nearby, Paseo Esteban Huertas around ten, the Biomuseo across the causeway

Fifty Rooms of Reclaimed Wood and Tall Windows

The eight categories run from Cuarto Chico, compact and street-facing, up to a one bedroom suite, and the difference is as much about the window as about the floor space. Reclaimed hardwood runs throughout. Rooms on the plaza side get the balconies and the sound of the square; those on the other flank look towards Panama Bay and the towers beyond, which is the view worth holding out for at dusk. Ceilings are high, the light is generous, and the furnishing keeps the period without turning the room into a museum.

Coffee at Street Level, Jazz After Dark

Tiempos opens onto the plaza and roasts its own coffee, which makes the lobby the quarter's informal office before ten. The cocktail bar takes over later and dinner runs at an unhurried pace. Then there is Danilo's, the jazz club on the ground floor founded with Danilo Perez, the pianist who has done more than anyone to give Panama a scene of its own: the programming is real, the room holds a few dozen people, and the sets run late. Upstairs the rooftop pool is the counterweight, best in the hour before the city switches its lights on.