Henry Faarup Mauad: The Beginning of Porta Norte
Engineer Henry Faarup Mauad is an entrepreneur and visionary who has founded companies since he was 30 years old, including Asetecnia, an appraisal company, Tridex, international insurance adjusters and Grupo Colonias, a real estate developer that began in 1984. He was Panama's ambassador to France, at the end of his term he returned to Panama and co-founded Ciudad Porta Norte in 2014.
In this first episode we talk about the beginning of Porta Norte: the essence and values of the project, the architectural details and the creation of a community life.
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Transcript
Henry Faarup Humbert: Welcome to the Porta Norte podcast! Here this first episode we're going to see Henry Faarup Mauad senior; engineer Henry Faarup Mauad senior, my father, with whom we've embarked on a very interesting adventure together so we're going to start by getting to know him a little bit. So welcome first of all
Henry Faarup Mauad: Welcome son thank you, you too.
Henry Faarup Humbert: (thank you) Tell us, how about if you can tell us a little bit about yourself, your story, a little bit of your life background and a little bit about your life and tell us
Henry Faarup Mauad: Well, the truth is that I have had a long journey through life and through different episodes, business as well, but for me, the combination of all this has been the creation of the new project called Ciudad porta norte, which is a beautiful project where we have put into practice knowledge and many years of experience and battles.
I would like to start a little bit, I mean, where I studied, what I studied. I think it's a good start to see a little bit of the trajectory, both of myself, my family, the companies...
I studied... In September '68 I started at the University of Texas in Austin, I studied civil engineering. I remember I was a freshman at the age of 17. I graduated from Javier High School.
Henry Faarup Humbert: Our alma mater, i.e. me too ....
Henry Faarup Mauad: That's where my son studied as well, a lot of pride.
It was really interesting. The journey of my life. Well, I studied engineering for four years, four and a half years. When I finished I realised that I was missing something, I was missing something and something that I had inside me. Because I have Nordic blood and inland blood; and by nature I am a trader, I have been a trader, I have business in my veins. So, when I finished my engineering studies I decided to do a postgraduate degree in business administration.
It so happens that the University of Texas is one of the best master's programmes in the United States, and when we say the United States, we are talking about the whole world. However, at my young age, I had the idea to go to Europe to learn another culture, another language, and so I did it. I spent two years in Europe.
Learning French was about 7 months, it was in a city called Besanzon, and then in Paris. Later, the Catholic University of Louvain had a programme with Cornell that I don't know if they still have it, but it was an interesting programme. Half of the books were in English, the other half was in French, the classes were all in French and the exams were in French. So you can imagine the mess I had in my head, but well, with youth everything is possible. So I started to study business administration, which opened my mind completely. It opened my mind to the world and I recommend that any engineer who is studying right now should do a master's degree, a postgraduate degree or a course in business administration. Because, yes, it's another line.
Henry Faarup Humbert: a very good match
Henry Faarup Mauad: Super Good Complement.
Well, from there, I went back to Panama. I started working for the company ASSA. At that time it was called "Administración de Seguros". For those who don't know, ASSA stands for "Asociación de Seguros S.A." which were three companies: Panamanian, General and Interamericana; they joined together to form this group that today is a very important group. I would say that it is the largest insurance group in Panama and in the region as well.
Then I was in a reinsurance company, travelling all over Latin America and in 1980 I became independent. Between ASSA....
Henry Faarup Humbert: How old? There you were...
Henry Faarup Mauad: 39 years old
Henry Faarup Humbert: no
Henry Faarup Mauad: no sorry, TWENTY-NINE years
Henry Faarup Humbert: yes
Henry Faarup Mauad: 29 years old, 29 years old exactly. I became independent and formed the first company "Asetecnia", to be exact. It is a company dedicated to appraisals and inspections that I still maintain and that's what I do. My daughter Liz Marie, who is an architect, manages it very well. She is in charge, she is in charge of it.
Subsequently, I also joined forces to form a company called .....
Henry Faarup Humbert: primarily real estate valuations?
for Henry Faarup Mauad: real estate and insurance too
Henry Faarup Humbert: and insurance.
Henry Faarup Mauad: Yes, a lot of insurance too. Then TRIDEX, which is now an insurance company, and in 1984 I started the real estate development part. And the company "Grupo Colonias de Panamá" or "Colonias de Panamá" was created. Later it was changed to "Grupo Colonias". From then on, we started to build projects. (One, I think several) I must say that I had a very nice relationship, a very nice partnership with what is now "Grupo Residencial", which at the time was led by José Sosa, we were together almost until 1990. After that, well, the things that happened, the invasion... Everything came to a standstill. After the invasion we went in different directions and I continued here as "Grupo Colonias" doing projects. We have done buildings, urbanisations, one of the....
Henry Faarup Humbert: Development of hundreds of houses
Henry Faarup Mauad: hundreds of houses of course yes
One of the most symbolic, iconic urbanisations or projects at that time was Bosques del Fresno, a project of a hundred and something houses. No, two hundred and some houses and it was at that time... I was united, I got the idea of making the "Gated Community". Gated Community and it was actually the first gated community that was done in Panama.
Henry Faarup Humbert: And the funny thing is, well you told me previously that you went to Miami to study the gated community.
Henry Faarup Mauad: right
Henry Faarup Humbert: and from there...
Henry Faarup Mauad: Mostly in Miami, but mostly in Miami.
Henry Faarup Humbert: That's where the idea came a little bit.
Henry Faarup Mauad: I saw many projects, that's right. And to make the houses have gardens at the back because houses were no longer built... There was no garden at the back; you had to use the courtyard, the porch of the house for the social area. Well, my idea was, that came about in the mid-1985s, that the houses should have gardens to use the back of the house.
That was a very nice project, I remember it was the first, it seems unbelievable, it was the first project in Panama that white windows were put in. White windows did not exist in Panama.
Henry Faarup Humbert: I think they were doubles, or they weren't.... No, you didn't go. No; and also you made the first ones like yellow houses a thing like that, the yellow colour you were the first one.
Henry Faarup Mauad: Also. Yes pink/yellow, but mostly the fact that they had tile roofs and white windows. Because Panama made "Miami Windows" at that time and everything was bronze, i.e. solar bronze, they were made of aluminium, but there were no white windows in Panama. It was the first project that was done like that.
Then I had the opportunity, the honour of being invited by the man I used to call Buddy Motta to participate in the "Costa del Este" project. To which I said yes at once. The "Fuente del Fresno" project had recently started, and I had invited him to participate. He also participated as a shareholder and was also a fabulous guide with his good ideas always on the board of directors, because he contributed and gave me the opportunity to participate in Costa....
Henry Faarup Humbert: The board of directors... sorry. The board of directors of Fuente del Fresno, he was?
Henry Faarup Mauad: Yes, of course.
Henry Faarup Humbert: ah wao
Henry Faarup Mauad: he was a director
Henry Faarup Humbert: ah wao
Henry Faarup Mauad: Yes, so I remember "Costa del Este" at the beginning was a garbage dump.
Henry Faarup Humbert: (laughs)
Henry Faarup Mauad: It was the crematorium in Panama, but not all of it. People are wrong, people get confused sometimes. It was a part of it, it was 60 hectares.
Henry Faarup Humbert: Right, where was the park just now? Or later it was...
Henry Faarup Mauad: where the park is, because there was landfill there, there is never going to be any construction there. However, East Coast is 300 hectares and there are many hectares that were not part of that, but it was a very nice experience. I participated there; as a director too, and also in the executive committee for several years and I was involved in the foundation/creation of "Costa del Este", where I learnt a lot and learned a lot of good things.
The years went by, we took on other projects, and in 2009 I had the opportunity to be Panama's ambassador to France. In Ricardo Martinelli's government I went there. My daughter was in charge of another project we had, "Bosque de las Cibeles" and with that one we had no more because I had been gone for 5 years.
Henry Faarup Humbert: So when you left, was "Bosques de la Cibeles" basically handing over, transferring the houses or not?
Henry Faarup Mauad: we were building as well.
Henry Faarup Humbert: they were still building
Henry Faarup Mauad: if we were at the penultimate/last stage
Henry Faarup Humbert: ya
Henry Faarup Mauad: yes.
Henry Faarup Humbert: That was when I was at university.
Henry Faarup Mauad: You were at university, exactly.
From there well, my daughter Liz Marie, she's an architect so she took over. In fact, everybody else was in college, the only one who had graduated was her; and married too. So, well, that project was finished.
When I came back to Panama in 2014, were you working in venture capital or something like that?
Henry Faarup Humbert: yes
Henry Faarup Mauad: I spoke to my son and he told me that he wanted to develop a project with me together and well, perfect, we are going to look for a place.
I'll never forget (laughs) the first thing we did was go to Obarrio to look at some land to build a (laughs) building, something like that. A plot of land, well five thousand square metres, we looked at other sides ....
The last thing I would have imagined was that we would be involved in a project to build a CITY because there are 262 hectares of land, but that's fine. The truth is that we saw the opportunity, we saw the land, we met the Rojas-Pardini family, the owners, we negotiated the same year in June, and in September we had already signed. To do the project together where we as promoters were going to develop it, of course a cooperation. And well, from there we started in 2014 to develop everything that is needed to make a city.
Honestly, Porta Norte, we call it a city because it IS a city. In other words, it is going to be a city because it has been conceived as such. I don't know if, before we start, a little bit about Porta Norte. I was wondering if you could give me a little bit of your opinion about your transition from working in a venture capital with me to working in Porta Norte.
Henry Faarup Humbert: Yes, well I worked in that venture capital because I have always been fascinated by the world of entrepreneurship: Startups, companies etc.
So in that venture capital I basically realised that venture capital in Panama, at least at that time, was not viable. So the market, basically, was local and the number of entrepreneurs that there were, that we had access to talk to; you could count them. There could be fifteen in Panama and they were probably two so-called promising ones, and I realised that the market was not really there and that is where I saw that the problem in Panama for creating companies is that there are no entrepreneurs, we need more entrepreneurs.
Since the investor part was not going to be viable at that time, I said: "Hey, you know what? I want to start a new business" and that's where we started talking. We were already talking about reviving "Grupo Colonias" and up to a year before/two years before....
I was always interested in the subject of projects since I was a kid. I went there with you, visiting, and even two years before, I think, in 2012, I took a course in Miami.
Henry Faarup Mauad: So?
Henry Faarup Humbert: where it is signed by Duany's wife, who claims to be a new urbanist. As in 2012...
Henry Faarup: Yes? That's news to me ah. I didn't know about that
Henry Faarup Humbert: Yes, I took an online course, I have it in the office. I'll show you now. I think 2012/2013 and we bought the project, so....
Henry Faarup Mauad: 2014
Henry Faarup Humbert: 2014, but it was before ....
Henry Faarup Mauad: You came up with the idea of urbanism a long time ago.
Henry Faarup Mauad: Jr. yes
Henry Faarup Mauad: You see, interesting. I didn't know that
Henry Faarup Humbert: Yes, basically. So...
Henry Faarup Mauad: That's fine.
Henry Faarup Humbert: When he arrived... So, well, that's when you were in Paris at the beginning and I started to see the land, I went with people to see the land, One of those stops when you came from Paris we, you and I, went there to Panama Norte and we saw that the movement that was in the area was incredible. They were doing the expansion of the northern corridor...
Henry Faarup Mauad: right
Henry Faarup Humbert: towards the airport. From brisas del golf to the airport and we saw that there was also a rather ugly street, Via Panama Norte, now that it is completely renovated and we saw the area; and we saw the incredible potential. It has a similarity to what you saw in Costa del Este, right? In other words, we analysed the growth of the city and we bet on the growth of the city, which is evident today.
Henry Faarup Mauad: it's obvious
Henry Faarup Humbert: Nowadays there is no person who goes there who tells us: this is what it is, this is the north . This is where the whole city comes from, but at that time it was far away....
Henry Faarup Mauad: fully
Henry Faarup Mauad: Jr. To be obvious. Well there you had a whole life there seeing land, seeing value and you've done that a couple of times and you've seen it...
Henry Faarup Mauad: Actually, speaking of that too, "Fuente del Fresno" we were also pioneers there.
Henry Faarup Mauad: Jr.: and they opened up that whole area there.
Henry Faarup Mauad: The only project before "Fuente del Fresno" was "Altos de Panamá" and we were the second ones to do a project there and look at what that is there in the "Tumba Muerto", what "Alto de Panamá" is. All of this has been developed in a big, big way.
Henry Faarup Humbert: yes
Henry Faarup Mauad: And now what is Ciudad Porta Norte. If you don't know the new Panama Norte road, I recommend you to go there.
Henry Faarup Humbert: it's a new world...
Henry Faarup Mauad: You have to go because it's something else, it's a development. It's a big boulevard, 80 metres wide. In other words, two lanes there, two lanes here, a big island. Imagine that the corridors are 60 metres wide, they are 80 metres wide for most of their trajectory and I recommend that you take a walk. Go for a walk with your family on a Sunday and you will see the future it has. For me it is the new development pole of Panama City.
Henry Faarup Humbert: Well, keep an eye on our networks because we are going to, I mean, in the near future we are going to start doing events there and...
Henry Faarup Mauad: also
Henry Faarup Humbert: so that people can have picnics and jogging etc.
Henry Faarup Mauad: Totally, or we're going to do little markets as well.
Henry Faarup Humbert: yes
Henry Faarup Mauad: for people to go and buy their...
Henry Faarup Humbert: yes
Henry Faarup Mauad: but yes.
Henry Faarup Humbert: So, we acquired the land after a good couple of negotiations. I mean, we negotiated, we did a corporate governance, structure, we did, we raised, we talked to friends/family to raise some funds.
Henry Faarup Mauad: Also
Henry Faarup Humbert: Although it was primarily us and we structured the company and started. It was a very small company, we were.... I think there were 3 or 4 of us at the beginning. At the beginning it was processing permits, carrying out studies...
Henry Faarup Mauad: The master plan
Henry Faarup Humbert: master plan
Henry Faarup Mauad: The master plan. I remember when we negotiated with the rojas Pardini family, there was an architectural firm EDSA, I don't know what it was called.
Henry Faarup Humbert: Edward Stone and Associates
Henry Faarup Mauad: ok
Henry Faarup Humbert: who have designed quite a few projects here in Panama.
Henry Faarup Mauad: Quite a few projects in Panama, exactly. We continued to work with them, during that course....
Henry Faarup Humbert: What do you mean, we are still working with them?
Henry Faarup Mauad: Let me tell you
Henry Faarup Humbert: ah
Henry Faarup Mauad: In the beginning
Henry Faarup Humbert Ok.
Henry Faarup Mauad: So that was a few months, I remember I had a trip to China, and well, you all know that China is famous for its virus, right?
Henry Faarup Mauad: Well, I had a virus, a virus that gave me a fever for 33 days straight. I was trying here in Panama, but there was no solution. I went to the Mayo Clinic, which is where I saw Chacho Smith and Floridian. I have a doctor there who got me 7/8 doctors there. In the end they found the cure. I think it was with corticoids and other things that got rid of the fever, but at that time....
Henry Faarup Humbert: Let me, I'm going to stop you there for a second to give you my version and then you can complement it with your version. So that was already in the middle of the new urbanism process.
Henry Faarup Mauad: okey
Henry Faarup Humbert: But when EDSA came; EDSA made a couple of concepts, sketches, we saw them together, we analysed them, the executive committee was there and at a certain point EDSA was designing a new city, but it was focused on the car. In other words, there was no concept of creating walkable spaces of public squares, of this life in the street, which was what we wanted.
Henry Faarup Mauad: right
Henry Faarup Humbert: And we kind of told them that this was what we wanted, but they couldn't get the concept down. So, I remember that at the beginning of the project, I still do it, I took courses on the internet "Coursera". I took one on city design and I took thousands of YouTube videos, and I found this thing about LEED for neighbourhood development, which was LEED, what you know for all structures, but this was for neighbourhoods. Basically I told ESDA, I remember a meeting, a very specific meeting, a very specific meeting where I said "no we want to do this LEED for neighbourhood development and make it walkable" and one of the agents that was in the LEED for neighbourhood development was from the New Urbanism congress.
Henry Faarup Mauad: Exactly, I was going to go, but I had to cancel because of the fever, you know what I mean? I remember I was going to go
Henry Faarup Humbert: Yes, yes. But hey when I told them that's what we wanted to do. I remember they said "I have to investigate to see what that is".
Henry Faarup Mauad: laughter Oh my God!
Henry Faarup Humbert: And I said "hmmm" Chuzo...
Henry Faarup Mauad: yes
Henry Faarup Mauad jr: These people are not like the right people to land the vision of the project and so we started to open the door to another master planner and that's where, as an executive committee, we decided to go to the new urbanism congress.
Henry Faarup Mauad: Exactly, I was even registered and everything, but I had to go to the hospital. To Jacksonville.
Henry Faarup Humbert: Yes. And that, in that executive committee, I remember that came up. I don't know if you remember this part, but there was a person who did a TedTalk called Jeff Speck.
Henry Faarup Mauad: Yes
Henry Faarup Humbert: and I with Edward McGrath contacted him, we did a conference.
Henry Faarup Mauad: with architect Edward McGrath?
Henry Faarup Humbert: with the architect Edward McGrath. We had a conference with him. We did the vision of what we wanted, walkable places. I mean, his TedTalks are literally about walking, about how to create walkable places. And when we told him, we showed him the EDSA master plan he said "Hmmm no, I mean, the people you have to hire are at the New Urbanism conference and it's these three". He told us two others that I'll keep to myself, because we didn't hire them (laughs). And Duany Plater Zyberk & Company. He even worked at Duany Plater Zyberk.
Henry Faarup Mauad: Like this?
Henry Faarup Humbert: and as an executive committee we took the decision to have a north towards walkability, etc. And that's where we decided to go to the congress of new urbanism, the executive committee. So everything in the executive committee we went and you came. It was in that executive committee that you said in the last week "I'm wrong, I'm not going there" and that's where you arrived in Panama after we had gone all that way.
Henry Faarup Mauad: right
Henry Faarup Humbert: those interviews, etc.
Henry Faarup Mauad: Exactly.
Henry Faarup Humbert: I remember at one point I talked to my dad, to my father here, and I told him. I kind of asked him, he was sick, about this new urbanism.
Henry Faarup Mauad: I had lost about 15-17 pounds, I looked all weak. So, I remember we were all in the house together, was Liz Marie my daughter there too?
Henry Faarup Humbert I was Liz Marie
Henry Faarup Mauad: and he says to me: "well, this architect, Andrés Duany, wanted to hire him". and I said: "well, OK then, but how much is it going to cost"?
When he told me that it was about four times more than the architect we had before, at first. My reaction was like this: "you're crazy"? (laughs), but then I thought about it and I said: "? you know what? I'm going to give you a vote of confidence" and I also said to my daughter: "Hey, let's go ahead if you think this is the way to go". I was also convinced, and the money... If you have to go out and look for the money, you look for it and you find it; and well, we hired him. The truth is that yes, it was a great thing, I believe that this is the future. The future not only of Panama, but of the region because it is walkable.
Now we're going to talk a little bit about the project itself so that you can see it and hear it because if it's worth it, it's worth it. Everything we are doing is worth it.
Henry Faarup Humbert And basically what we went to the congress on new urbanism was to look for the philosophy of new urbanism, I explained to my father what new urbanism was. And what he would say to me was "that's old urbanism".
Henry Faarup Mauad: fully
Henry Faarup Humbert: because new urbanism is really inspired by the city that existed before the car existed.
Henry Faarup Mauad: yes it is
Henry Faarup Humbert: So if we don't go a little bit into the chronology of the morphology of cities, cities used to be 100% walkable until around 1920/1930 when the car was born. When the car was born, the peripheries of the cities began to be enabled because the cities were very polluted. There was a lot of density, there were no treatment plants, people...
Henry Faarup Mauad: I mean the factories were inside the cities as well.
Henry Faarup Humbert: Like people, yes...
Henry Faarup Mauad: that was poison.
Henry Faarup Humbert: That was poison. So the factories were inside the city because people had to walk to the factory. The factory dumped its waste into the river, it polluted the whole environment, people had little to live on. But, when the car was born, which allowed people to go to the outskirts of the cities, this idea of romanticism was sold, which was completely true; where you go to live in nature, and you get to the city quickly, and when you are in the city you go to your office and then you go back to the countryside again and that was the beginning of suburban growth. But the big difference was that as that became real and real and real. That is, there was more suburban growth, more suburban growth, what ended up happening was that it ended up creating an overdependence on the car and public spaces began to be lost, and they began to say: "no, here goes only residences and then there goes the mall and here goes the office courtyard", what ended up creating was an overdependence on your...
Henry Faarup Mauad: of the cart
Henry Faarup Humbert: Of the car. That you needed the car for literally everything you did in the day.
Henry Faarup Mauad: of course
Henry Faarup Humbert And the squares were lost, the parks were lost. So when that ended up happening, what began to be created were the gated communities. Which you started to do...
Henry Faarup Mauad: Exactly.
Henry Faarup Humbert: Here in Panama. And now what we're doing is basically going back...
Henry Faarup Mauad: the contrary
Henry Faarup Humbert: or the opposite. As an anti gated community, but in fact there are still a couple of elements of that kind...
Henry Faarup Mauad: the security elements are present, yes.
Henry Faarup Humbert: The security element is preserved, yes, but the concept is that we are going to give the front to public spaces and we are not going to build walls around them because walls go against public space and against walkability. So instead of turning our backs on the streets, we give them the front.
Henry Faarup Mauad: the frontline
Henry Faarup Humbert: We give you the front and thus create the beautiful places you see...
Henry Faarup Mauad: the car actually enters behind the house. The parking goes behind the house, not in front. That's important for that, I mean that's the way to do it.
Henry Faarup Humbert: Something I'd like you to tell us a little bit about your perspective on the project, what we saw in Panama City, and what your perspective was like... I mean, tell us what it was like... Do you remember the visit to Panama City?
Henry Faarup Mauad: Of course, absolutely.
Henry Faarup Humbert: And then the visit to Cayalá
Henry Faarup Mauad: yes
Henry Faarup Humbert: Let's start with Panama City and then Cayalá.
Henry Faarup Mauad: We went to see, because you always have to see, don't you? I like to see, to go there...
Henry Faarup Humbert But... just a little digression. We went to Panama city because DPZ has 3 or more projects in Panama city so we basically went to visit their project.
Henry Faarup Mauad: Panama city florida just so you know
Henry Faarup Humbert: Panama City, Florida, yes. We went to visit the projects that they had already designed...
Henry Faarup Mauad: We went there and I saw them and the truth is very beautiful, but I didn't understand them. They are new urbanism projects, but they are like places you go on holiday, they are not cities.
Henry Faarup Humbert: It's like a beach.
Henry Faarup Mauad: not cities
Henry Faarup Humbert: It's beach, the first one was "Sea Side" that they did.
Henry Faarup Mauad: yes it is
Henry Faarup Humbert: very famous
Henry Faarup Mauad: Very famous!
Henry Faarup Humbert: You know that Sea Side was where they did the Trueman Show.
Henry Faarup Mauad: Like this?
Henry Faarup Humbert: Yes! The Trueman Show is like this man who lived in an ideal, walkable world, and that's why the Trueman Show was made.
Henry Faarup Mauad: Well, we went there, we saw the idea, the truth is that yes, and we continued working on the master plan, but when we went to Cayalá, which is in Guatemala. That is also a totally new urbanism project that started in 2010/2011, right?
Henry Faarup Humbert: Around there. So the new urbanism part started around that time.
Henry Faarup Mauad: So, if you go on the website...
Henry Faarup Humbert: What's more, they were doing around Cayalá, on the outside, they were doing Gated Communities and they went through the same migration as "Grupo Colonias" and went on to do new urbanism.
Henry Faarup Mauad: ahhhhhh
Henry Faarup Humbert: Now onwards they always say that they are just going to continue with new urbanism here onwards, but they also did both...
Henry Faarup Mauad: Ah Look at you.
Henry Faarup Humbert: visions, interesting
Henry Faarup Mauad: The same transition then.
Henry Faarup Humbert: the same transition
Henry Faarup Mauad: The truth is, I mean, when we went to see him there I understood the city. How to build a city with new urbanism. And I urge you to....
Henry Faarup Humbert: Because it is in the centre of Guatemala City. It's not in the centre, it's on the periphery of Guatemala City, but it's completely urban. So it is not a beach, but people live and work there.
Henry Faarup Mauad: I urge you to look at their website www.cayala.com I imagine it is. Because there you will see more or less the idea that we have to do here in Panama. It has grown, it started in 20120/2011 and you will see the number of buildings they have; I mean, there it is like here. The buildings are going to be of medium height, we have 5 floors, some of them go up to 7 if I'm not mistaken, but everything is walkable. Everything is walkable, it's beautiful. It's really beautiful.
Henry Faarup Humbert: And with those ideas in mind we did that. Well, after those interviews we hired Andrés Duany, and at the end of the day we made what is called a charrete.
Henry Faarup Mauad: An epaulette, yes. That's also another new word for me
Henry Faarup Humbert: Why?
Henry Faarup Mauad: because I don't know what a charrete is (laughs). How many people came from outside? How many people came?
Henry Faarup Humbert: As eight
Henry Faarup Mauad: Eight. Between architects, engineers, this...
Henry Faarup Humbert: An epaulette is like a design workshop.
Henry Faarup Mauad: Design workshop, they came. Andrés Duvany himself came. In other words, there are two fathers of new urbanism. Andrés Duvany and...
Henry Faarup Humbert: Leon Krier
Henry Faarup Mauad: Leon Krier, ok. So Andres Duvany we have him next door in Miami. Leon Krier was like German, something like that, or I don't know where Polish.
Henry Faarup Humbert He's like from Liechtenstein, I don't even know.
Henry Faarup Mauad: ah well, we did this workshop they call it charrete. and you came here for a week, 8 days?
Henry Faarup Humbert: one week
Henry Faarup Mauad: We were all working day and night, day and night. On the master plan for Ciudad Porta Norte.
Henry Faarup Humbert: and they stayed in the old town.
Henry Faarup Mauad: in the American Trade, they stayed.
Henry Faarup Humbert: yes
Henry Faarup Mauad: There to live, because this is based/inspired by the old town. That's why we call it the new old town. So that people can imagine...
Henry Faarup Humbert: the way of life
Henry Faarup Mauad: The lifestyle that Ciudad Porta Norte is going to have is the lifestyle of the old town, but in the old town the pavements are small. Here are the pavements, now let's talk a little bit about the pavements. The pavements are going to be WIDE. There is going to be a bicycle lane, a cycle lane, the whole porta norte look. But the beautiful thing was that they were there and they saw what... they lived what the old town was like, the old town, the old town.
Henry Faarup Humbert: yes
Henry Faarup Mauad: It was a nice experience.
Henry Faarup Humbert: And we actually stayed in the old town because there was a conversation with the master planners where they were saying what was the place? what was the historic centre of Panama? What was the most walkable, most admirable place where people want to be, and the answer was obvious, it was the old town. But very few people live in the old town, but why do very few people live there?
First of all, the most expensive price per square metre in Panama. Second of all, it has no parking, so people say....
Henry Faarup Mauad: yes
Henry Faarup Humbert: It's uncomfortable. what do I do with the car parks? what do I do with the supermarket when I arrive? the child and the issue? and also because the goods are sometimes an issue.
Henry Faarup Mauad: You lived there for several years, didn't you?
Henry Faarup Humbert: I lived there for about 6 years at that time.
Henry Faarup Mauad: you can say what it's like.
Henry Faarup Humbert: but life there is super. the people are very cultured, a very nice international group.
So what we are doing in porta norte is offering that much cheaper alternative, with modern infrastructure, with parking. So when we say inspired by the old town, it is truly inspired.
It's not "this is the same here" no nono. We are bringing elements that we like and adapting them for today. They are not going to be 100% pedestrian streets but, I mean, just as there are almost none in the old town. We are going to make streets for cars, but also for cycle paths, for cyclists, with lots of trees on the pavements. There are no trees in the old town, so these are elements that...
Henry Faarup Mauad: Tell them about the trees. Because I know you have consulted with specialists, haven't you?
Henry Faarup Humbert: yes
Henry Faarup Mauad: Tell me, explain to me a little bit more about the trees. I don't know anything about that. He is the one who has taken care of all that.
Henry Faarup Humbert: Yes, basically for a place to be comfortable to walk in, it has to have shade.
Henry Faarup Mauad: total
Henry Faarup Humbert: if not, the sun hits you, you get too hot, and so on. So the shade changes the temperature of a place drastically. That's why when you go to a square in the old town, everybody is under the shade.
Henry Faarup Mauad: aha
Henry Faarup Humbert: It's impressive. So we decided to put trees on all the pavements, every 7 metres and in the medians so that it basically forms a green roof. When the tree canopy grows, it basically joins the canopy together, and forms a shade along the length of the project. As happens in some streets in Miami....
Henry Faarup Mauad: Miami, of course!
Henry Faarup Humbert: that form very beautifully in (intelligible). So we hired the architect Luis Alfaro, where we made a design together and we chose 60 different types of species, very big and very leafy trees so that there would also be flowers of all kinds of colours, all year round. We also chose each street is a type of tree and a type of tree with a certain colour, not all year round, but most of the year it has a certain colour.
So in one street we have one called "El Lorito" whose scientific name is Cojoba arborea. In the other one we have the Clitoria fairchildiana, in others we have the llama dorada, we have the Belisario porras and in the first phase alone we have up to 70 different types of species.
Henry Faarup Mauad: wao.
Henry Faarup Humbert: So that will bring a lot of biodiversity of animals: squirrels, birds, all this stuff. But yes, I could go on ad infinitum on the subject of trees.
Henry Faarup Mauad: Henry is quite fond of it.
Henry Faarup Humbert: Yes, and an important issue is that in Panama there are no trees on most of the pavements, but that's not because people don't like it or don't want to do it. It is because the power lines, basically, inhibit trees on the pavements because the electricity company comes and cuts down the trees; but in porta norte all those cables are underground.
Henry Faarup Mauad: of course of course
Henry Faarup Humbert: then the trees will be able to have a lush canopy without having to be cut down by the power lines, which is super important.
Henry Faarup Mauad: ok, talk a little bit about the pavements. Because we are already in one stage. In the first stage we have basically finished all the streets, the avenues, boulevards and we are starting the pavements, building the pavements. But to build the pavements we also had to study and visit, as you said, several projects in the United States, in Europe as well. How pavements are made, how pavements are built; and here we are talking about very wide pavements, about how wide? About a metre more or less?
Henry Faarup Humbert: Yes
Henry Faarup Mauad: and they have a part of cycle route, a part of cobblestones where the benches are going to be; then there are more pavements for walking. There is a way to build the pavement, it is not just cement and that's it, no. We have studied, tested, sampled... We have studied, tests, samples....
Henry Faarup Humbert: I think we have done about 20-odd samples to get to the sample we have today, which is at another level.
Henry Faarup Mauad: on another level.
Henry Faarup Humbert: That was primarily pushed by you. The washed concrete thing, the stones...they're brown stones. You know something I noticed?
Henry Faarup Mauad: What?
Henry Faarup Mauad: Last week, now that we have built the first one and chosen the stone, they are the same shade of watercolours as the north portal epaulette. Exactly the same shade.
Henry Faarup Mauad: Really? look at you.
Henry Faarup Humbert: the same tone. I mean, I put them side by side and it's the same thing.
Henry Faarup Mauad: I hadn't noticed that, it's good.
Henry Faarup Humbert: Now I'll show you side by side. So, basically it is washed concrete, in other countries it is basically common, but in Panama it is not done. So this construction system is not done,
Henry Faarup Mauad: not done
Henry Faarup Humbert: So that's why we had to do a lot of polishing. The contractor didn't know how to do it.
Henry Faarup Mauad: neither
Henry Faarup Humbert: But we've been working on it, working on it, and after the twentieth we said this is the one...
Henry Faarup Mauad: this is it and the pavements have already started.
Henry Faarup Humbert: And we have already started to do the pavements.
Henry Faarup Mauad. How interesting
Henry Faarup Humbert: There is also a curious anecdote there. I remember that you were pushing for this issue of the red cycle routes.
Henry Faarup Mauad: Red light light light
Henry Faarup Humbert: And why red? I looked at a tweet by the former Dutch ambassador Dirk Janssen, where he talks about the pavements in Amsterdam.
Before there was none and now everything, with cycle paths, is walkable. He showed that they wanted to make a similarity as if it were Hollywood, that they wanted to put a red carpet for cyclists to resemble the red carpet, the red carpet to give this highlight. First they put a marquee, literally a carpet, and then they changed the pavement in Amsterdam and put red asphalt with a red marquee and curiously in Panama as well, on the coastal strip.
Henry Faarup Mauad: yes and very nice it is
Henry Faarup Humbert: and it is also cycle route red.
Henry Faarup Mauad: very beautiful, also by the causeway. The causeway above all, a beauty
Henry Faarup Humbert: It's red, so we also wanted to add to what already exists in Panama and create these cycle routes that are going to be at another level. Because the vision of the project is to accommodate the car, but to discourage its use by making walking, the bus, the trolley that we have there, through cycle routes.
Henry Faarup Mauad: There is going to be a trolley that is going to go around, I mean further on, that is going to go around. People should use the trolley to go to work if they are not going to work in the Ciudad Porta Norte and come back, but when they come back they will no longer use the trolley. You walk, use the trolley, but have all the amenities there. All the amenities. The nice thing is that you can go to the squares, go to the supermarket, to the little market... I never forget that, when I lived in Paris. That my wife Liz is in Madrid right now, over there, she must be very happy.
While I went to work, she went to the little market here to buy, to the seafood market to buy seafood or to the one here, but each thing has its butcher, its, the salcuterie they call it over there.
Henry Faarup Humbert: butcher is the butcher.
Henry Faarup Mauad: You go and buy the things that are defined in a certain place and each place has its own speciality, that's nice. In every block there were different things.
Henry Faarup Humbert: And that's really the kind of life we are replicating here. I mean, when we travel, I always say that when we travel, I always say "bothering", but seriously. That we do research and development when we travel because we are really
Henry Faarup Mauad: absolutely.
Henry Faarup Humbert: When I summarise the project. I have to say it in 5 words, I say (I don't know if it will be 5): Porta Norte is a little Spanish village in Panama, a little more than 5 words, laughs. So basically what we want to create is also what you experienced in Paris. You also resonated a lot with all this new urbanism because that's what you lived. You came from Paris and really, when you come back from Europe, you say why can't our urbanism be like that? Why can't we have walkable places? Why can't we have a beer in the square? The restaurant with the benches in the square.
Henry Faarup Mauad: what we used to call the famous neighbourhood life that was once lived and then lost, well we are recovering neighbourhood life.
Henry Faarup Humbert: When you were a kid, what was the cathedral house retreta like when you were a kid, because your dad was...
Henry Faarup Mauad: my father and my mother, of course. The retreta a toilet portrays it...
Henry Faarup Humbert: the retreta is the centre where there are sometimes concerts.
Henry Faarup Mauad: Now they have concerts, before they sometimes had concerts, of course they played music and people gathered there. And that's what we want to bring that back to this time, to return to that time of living life to the full in the neighbourhood. Because I remember perfectly well when I was a kid that I used to play the can, pio pio, la lleva, that is, everything.
Henry Faarup Humbert: laughter.
Henry Faarup Mauad: These are things that I think should come back because it is a healthy development. Nowadays everybody is with screens, especially children, my grandchildren.
Henry Faarup Humbert: addicted to screens
Henry Faarup Mauad: going for a walk in nature
Henry Faarup Humbert: we all live intelligible to the screens
Henry Faarup Mauad: you know the north gate city has a natural river that passes through, it has a butterfly creek, that passes through the middle.
Henry Faarup Humbert: and the maria prieta river
Henry Faarup Mauad. The maria prieta river, it's going to have a lot of vegetation. It's going to be an almost perfect combination between the city and the vegetation. Where one sees today a project where you can go and have a barbecue on the river, he explained. In fact, my grandchildren have even bathed in the river in the summer. We went there for a picnic and they bathed there, there are photographs and everything, and they bathed there.
Henry Faarup Humbert: It was on my birthday.
Henry Faarup Mauad: on your birthday
Henry Faarup Humbert: we celebrate my birthday there
Henry Faarup Mauad: The river starts there. So there's no rubbish, it's clean, it's clean, it's clean. I remember when I was a little girl one of the Sunday trips was to go to the river to bathe and all that stuff.
Henry Faarup Humbert: So to summarise, porta norte is life in the streets, public life outside the door as they say in Andalucía, where people are in the square and with a lot of nature both in the street and in the river, i.e. the river is 2.8 km long, maría prieta 2.8 km long, the mariposa stream is also 2.8 km long. There are going to be giant arbole trees that give incredible shade and so the essence of the project is that living with the neighbourhood, living with nature is to connect, it is to have a hybrid. Where you are in your house and you can go to drink, to buy bread and baguettes in the morning, in the plaza.
Henry Faarup Mauad: That's nice, the bread for breakfast.
Henry Faarup Humbert: I remember when I went to visit them in France, I used to go down in the morning to get the fresh baguette.
Henry Faarup Mauad: That's very tasty.
Henry Faarup Humbert: and that's basically about celebrating the small and beautiful things in life. Take a walk, hold hands, go for a bike ride, let the children run around.
Henry Faarup Mauad: no also don't forget that north portal city is very focused on the elderly as well.
Henry Faarup Humbert: to persons with disabilities
Henry Faarup Mauad: not the normal elderly and also the handicapped. both
Henry Faarup Humbert: yes
Henry Faarup Mauad: We are also thinking of doing assited living. I don't know how to say that in Spanish. All that because this lends itself to older people going out of their house/apartment, going to the square, talking to their neighbours, buying bread, having a coffee.
Henry Faarup Humbert: I mean all the intersections are wheelchair friendly, you can move from one place to another at the level of the pavement and when you go to Spain you see children as young as 9 years old, they can walk to school on their own and you see the older ones playing in the squares with the ball they throw.
Henry Faarup Mauad: yes yes, that's right.
Henry Faarup Humbert: that's what will end up happening in Panama that if you think about almost the whole city that doesn't happen because it's not enabled.
Henry Faarup Mauad: Our office is at 50th Street and 68th Street, that if you walk to a restaurant there, but every time the pavements are so broken or else I have to cross the street to get to another pavement.
Henry Faarup Humbert: an electric pole
Henry Faarup Mauad: electric pole, rubbish, it's something else. Most of our city is like this
Henry Faarup Humbert: rubbish, you get smoke from the car, the car almost crashing into you is that it's quite
Both in unison: tedious.
Henry Faarup Humbert: So the vision, another component that we are betting hard on in the project is the issue of having an educated community. We have the benefit that around the project there are 14 schools and additionally we are talking to many universities.
Henry Faarup Mauad: That is important, yes.
Henry Faarup Humbert: We are about to, well we are well advanced with a university and that's so that really when somebody does a project in porta norte the rest of porta norte is the campus. It's a campus because you don't buy a metro 2 you buy a metro 2 in a neighbourhood where you can enjoy it because it's the living room of your house. The living room outside your house is the public space and that is basically the vision of the project. We even have space for a large sports centre, because what we are looking for is health.
Physical health, mental health, education, community culture is what we are looking for.
Henry Faarup Mauad: Something important that will help us to maintain all those areas that we are talking about is that in porta norte we are creating a native pH. All of porta norte will be under the umbrella of an original horizontal property system. Of course, later there will be smaller PHs, each project, each building, but to create and conserve all these amenities that are going to be built. This is very important
Henry Faarup Humbert: How do you visualise that porta norte is going to end up. What is the long term vision how it's going to be directed. I mean it's very much aimed at what we were talking about but how....
Henry Faarup Mauad. First with the location of Ciudad, there are several projects being carried out there. There is "Paseo del Norte" which is a tremendous project that has given a lot of value, last week I went for a walk there, it is a beauty. There is "Green Valley/Green city", there are several projects. However, I envision that "Ciudad Porta Norte", in addition to being at the heart of all these projects, will be the heart of the whole area, the area where people will want to live together, not only in Porta but also in other projects, if not in other cities or projects that will be built, that's how I see it. The heart of the whole development pole that is being built there.
Henry Faarup Humbert: When I try to convey that, I see it a little bit further. I think the city will be polycentric, it will have many centres, because that's what ends up happening when cities grow a lot.
Henry Faarup Mauad: Yes, of course.
Henry Faarup Mauad then you obviously have the centre, the banking centre, I don't know what but what ends up happening is that everybody who lives for example by brisas del golf ends up going every weekend taking their car and going to the coastal strip for example.
We already have porta norte and the public spaces that are created around it, basically instead of crossing to porta norte they will come to porta norte and also many people from the city will end up coming to porta norte.
Henry Faarup Mauad: Exactly, total.
Henry Faarup Humbert: We will have large areas for hiking and mountain biking concerts. In other words, we will have an offer that does not exist right now in the city and a nature that has also been lost.
Henry Faarup Mauad: of course
Henry Faarup Humbert: Right now people have to go to Gamboa. The amount of supply that we are going to have in the project, the attraction that we are going to have with all the infrastructure that is being built, I think that today we have come a long way since 2014 when we bought the land.
Henry Faarup Mauad: yes
Henry Faarup Humbert: We have had to do a lot of earth moving. We have improved because we have made a couple of transactions with the neighbours to consolidate our land and we now have the streets of the project, we can basically drive around. The concrete hasn't finished drying out yet, it's still two weeks before we can drive on everything. We are building the pavements, we are going to plant the trees in a month, and when people hear this in the future, they will hear it and they will say: "ah no, all that is over, look at everything that is there, the active life there and all this" and this happened from an idea, from a philosophical conversation that was what we wanted to do.
Henry Faarup Mauad: it's a done deal already
Henry Faarup Humbert: master planners but it's already concrete and it's already completely real and we've had a very nice journey a synergy or complement you and me between us.
Henry Faarup Mauad: First of all, we have had a good synergy, from generation to generation, and we really complement each other a lot. We also have to emphasise something important: there was a huge rocky outcrop there that we started to dynamite and dynamite. A large part of it was used to make the new Panama Norte route, with the contractor MECO we made a kind of arrangement where he dynamited and we shared certain costs and I remember one day we were walking there and I was with my son and I told him that we were going to leave that rock there, let's not cut any more, we are going to leave it and it is a rock that is going to be a beauty. Today we were there this morning.
Henry Faarup Humbert: one of the best views in existence. A view of Panama City North.
Henry Faarup Mauad: We are going to make a big square on top, something for events, but it is beautiful. It's about 20-25 metres high and you can go up there, it's beautiful, you can see all the way to Panama City, even the sea looks beautiful.
Henry Faarup Humbert: And we are already going ahead with phase two, we are already going to start building and we have acquired. So there is a moment coming because right now they have just finished, they have not formally inaugurated the Panama Norte road, but it is already completed.
Henry Faarup Mauad: has incredible traffic
Henry Faarup Humbert: That is being set up next to the fact that we also have our streets. In other words, the access, which is the most important part of any project, is already there. We don't even have to plan it or say it's coming, no, we've already built it, the state's part, the state's part, our part, we've already done it. And it's really much easier to sell the north portal, the idea when the road is ready than when there's only earthworks and underground pipes. People don't see the investment until they see the streets.
Henry Faarup Mauad: now it will be seen, they are already seeing each other.
Henry Faarup Humbert: You see! there is an incredible momentum and I think from here on out it is to keep working and stay focused on following the vision of the project and making it happen.
Henry Faarup Mauad: fully
Henry Faarup Humbert: I take advantage, in the next episode to do something of this nature you need strengths of many disciplines you need to know about everything, you need to know about engineering, trees, architecture, horizontal development, building development, earthworks, permission and too many elements that in future episodes we will be seeing with other members to create a project of this nature you need hundreds of people working in a single north, so the amount of people involved in this project are hundreds of people...
Henry Faarup Mauad: that's right.
Henry Faarup Humbert: working. From laying concrete to shareholders; to all the material suppliers, all the service providers and to create what was also "Costa del Este". It also required a titanic effort from many people and basically it is a source of pride to be part of a model of growth for the city.
Because this is like Spain the new part of Barcelona, it was called the pig plan, it was the widening of Barcelona and I say that porta norte is the widening of Panama City, it is a new model to follow.
Henry Faarup Mauad: Before I finish, I would like to thank several people and companies that come to mind. The first is definitely to the rojas-Pardini family with whom we have made a special bonding and with whom we consider them to be part of our family and we have been working together for 7 years now and we all collaborate with each other. It has been a very nice relationship
Secondly, I would also like to thank the Banco General family who have supported us, even now in the pandemic, and who continue to support us, as always, their good neighbours and we will have good neighbours here as well.
Thirdly, I would also like to thank the magazine Mundo Social who attended the first concrete pouring of "Ciudad Porta Norte", which took place exactly two weeks before the pandemic, where we had the honour of having the President of the Republic, Nito Cortizo, and the truth is that it was a very nice event, which you can see in the March 2020 edition of the magazine "Mundo Social", I think you can see it digitally.
Also to Rolando Domingo who supported us and continues to support us, a person with many ideas, and basically to all the others who have collaborated with us, as we are at a very early stage.
Henry Faarup Humbert: to the staff?
Henry Faarup Mauad: to the staff off course. (laughs) It's also your turn not only to thank me (laughs).
The work team, which is very good, we have all worked in that north, in Panama Norte. It is our north and your north too. The truth is that we are a very complete team. There are not many of us, there are not many of us, but we have done a good job, each one in his own line.
Henry Faarup Humbert I thank all those who have not supported us. the work team, basically I live here every day, and we work in a shared north. here I always say that every day we lay a block but in the end we are building a cathedral instead of a wall, obviously symbolically. Every day we are laying the blocks, building this work of art, this model, this place where in decades, maybe 100 or 200 years, people will look back and say "chuchi", who thought of all this, and the truth is that it was a great team. I always say that I get to see everybody's point of view and my job is to channel the ideas and implement the ideas of multiple people and try to make them real and I invite everybody to share different ideas that they see from all over the world because here we are really doing an international project with a very big international appeal so I also make a call ....
Henry Faarup Mauad: I too... when you say thank you, you forget, but also to the architect Andrés Duany and his team, who have been a very important pillar in everything that is Ciudad Porta Norte, very important. Very important
Henry Faarup Humbert Of course. To Debora, to Ricardo, to the architects...
Henry Faarup Mauad: Ricardo Arosemena?
Henry Faarup Humbert: Ricardo Arosemena
Henry Faarup Mauad: and I call on the future community leaders because here in the project we are going to need a lot of strengths and a lot of initiatives and people to lead initiatives to be a project that grows its own food with trees with gardens, people who push recycling, people who push sustainable development of buildings with or without certification, people who push the cycle route, people who push sports, people who push children to be active and very curious people who set up museums and bookshops. So they have some expertise, some experience in these aspects or they know people, so all this is needed to create a real city and to create this model of culture, this model of city and this model of development not only for the north gate but for the whole city, so that this is a model for the future development of the city.
So that's it, thank you very much dad, a pleasure working with you.
Henry Faarup Mauad: also
Henry Faarup Humbert: With a lot of learning, this is an apprenticeship.
Henry Faarup Mauad: This is learning on both sides, don't think not. On his side too
Henry Faarup Humbert: so thank you dad, see you later, chao!
Henry Faarup Mauad: See you later, bye.
