Architects Head South to
Weather the Economic
Storm
By C. J. Hughes
In recent years, as many
major U.S. architecture
firms expanded
internationally, they
often bypassed Latin
America in favor of
Europe, China, and the
Middle East. Gradually,
though, that may be
starting to change, as
architects open offices
and enlist for projects
in Central and South
American countries,
where population and
economic growth have
been strong in recent
years.
Even as financial
troubles mount around
the world, and
increasingly put some
Latin nations at risk,
there’s a sense that
much of the region,
which has been buffeted
by severe recessions
before, can weather the
current crisis. At least
that’s what some
architects believe.
“I’m continually
surprised how much of a
need there is for
development,” says
Stephen Forneris, AIA,
who heads the
10-employee office that
Perkins Eastman opened
in Guayaquil, Ecuador,
in October. The city,
which is Ecuador’s
largest and a busy port
for shipments of
chocolate, bananas,
shrimp, and cement, has
mushroomed from 300,000
people in 1970 to 3.5
million today, Forneris
says.
Now cropping up there
are stores selling
luxury foreign goods,
the kinds of watches and
handbags purchased by
big spenders on Miami
shopping trips. More
significantly, a growing
middle-class in Ecuador,
as well as in Peru and
Colombia, is spurring
the construction of
discount stores, adds
Forneris, who recently
completed a 12-story
mixed-use project in
downtown Guayaquil.
Among its tenants will
be a new outpost of Juan
Eljuri, an
Ecuadorian-type Wal-Mart
that sells clothes,
housewares, and
electronics. The
building will house both
the 45,000-square-foot
store and the company’s
corporate offices, in
addition to other
tenants.
While the global credit
freeze could
theoretically curtail
shopping habits, the
overall effects “won’t
be as severe here,”
Forneris predicts.
“Money has been hard to
come by for years, so I
don’t know how much more
credit can shrink for
them.”
The foreign influence on
Costa Rica, meanwhile,
is predominantly from
U.S.-based personal-care
products and technology
companies looking to
outsource jobs, says Joe
Brancato, a managing
principal with San
Francisco-based Gensler,
which opened an office
in Escazu, Costa Rica,
in 2006.
To accommodate clients,
it helps to have local
connections: all 22
employees in Brancato’s
office are native Costa
Ricans, because they’re
familiar with the
country’s intricate
building codes, he says.
Plus, residents are
often better equipped
than transplants for the
delicate task of
convincing local
contractors to start
projects after
construction plans are
finalized, not before,
as is often the case in
Costa Rica. “You need to
understand and embrace
that this is a different
culture, that they do
things differently,”
Brancato says.
Another driver of Latin
America’s building boom
is tourism. Despite a
global drop in travel
due to the economic
downturn, Bryan Algeo,
AIA, principal of WATG,
an Irvine,
California-based firm,
says the Latin American
tourism industry
shouldn’t be as badly
affected as other parts
of the world because the
region’s still
relatively affordable
compared with other
destinations.
Plus, with demand for
hotel rooms there far
outstripping
supply—there are just
500 luxury hotel rooms
in all of Costa Rica, he
says—developer interest
should remain high.
That’s just one of the
reasons his firm, which
has designed hotels in
150 countries since its
founding in 1946, is
seeking more commissions
in Latin America. “We go
where the action is, and
we see activity moving
south,” Algeo says.
In Panama, he adds,
developers can’t usually
secure loans until they
have pre-leased 75
percent of a project,
insuring that the kinds
of speculative buildings
that can worsen
downturns aren’t
constructed. His firm
currently is working on
Panama City Center, a
$60 million project
whose twin 22-story
glass towers rise from a
four-story podium that
includes a casino and
spa. Excavations are
underway for the
project, which is on
track to open in 2010,
according to Algeo.
Latin America’s
stabilizing political
landscape is also
fueling its appeal, says
Alberto Aranda of
Giancarlo Mazzanti
Architects, a
12-year-old Bogota,
Colombia, firm
specializing in schools,
libraries and stadiums
and other
state-sponsored
commissions. He adds,
however, that a
gold-rush mentality may
never totally catch on,
as South American
clients still typically
pay far less than their
American counterparts.
“There’s a still a gap,
and that gap makes us
less competitive than
the rest of the world,”
Aranda says. “It’s not
always attractive,
economically speaking,
for an American to come
work here.” |
