metro

Buildings’ fate sealed

Mivi condemns an apartment building erected by the Caja de Seguro Social in the 1940s.

The government has set aside $180,000 to relocate the building’s residents, but concerns remain.

LA PRENSA/CARLOS LEMOS

falling down: Ten years and four months later after Mivi ordered the Calidonia buildings destroyed, officials are still seeking a resolution to the problem, while residents worry about where they will go.1033793

When Josefa Olivardía and her two sons came to live in Renta 10, in the old neighborhood of Calidonia, a pound of meat cost 25 cents and 10 cents bought five bread rolls, leaving her money to spare.

Olivardía's apartment building was one of several built by the Caja de Seguro Social (CSS) between 1944 and 1947 to generate revenue for its Programa de Invalidez, Vejez y Muerte (IVM). Each building had 134 apartments and was rented for $23 a month.

Fifty-five years later, Olivardía still occupies Number 93, alone now that her boys have grown up. She doesn't have much desire to leave now, although the front balcony is crumbling and the government condemned the structure some 10 years ago.

The architect and historian, Eduardo Tejeira Davis, described these war-era CSS buildings in his Guía de Arquitectura y Paisaje de Panamá (2008) as epitomizing the Panama's early modern movement in architecture. At the time, the government's plan intended to fix up the working-class districts of El Chorrillo, Santa Cruz and El Marañon.

A half century later, little of that "modernism" remains in the 11 CSS buildings left standing in Panama and Colón. Ferns spring from deep cracks in the buildings's outside walls crumbling and several decades of paint flakes form piles on the ground below.

The Ministerio de Vivienda (Mivi) issued a resolution in January 1998, recommending Olivardía's building for demolition because of its "deplorable" condition. Ten years and four months later, Mivi and CSS officials are still seeking a resolution to the problem, while residents worry about where they will go.

"This building is coming down in October," said Gilberto Córdoba, Mivi's Director de Arrendamiento.

According to the last census, 35 families in Olivardía's building Renta 10 have a rental contract with CSS. The rest of the building's 99 residents are considered "intruders."

The CSS has set aside $180,000 to relocate both classes of resident, allotting $3,000 for those under contract, and $850 for "intruders."

As October approaches, the mumbling among residents of Renta 10 gets ever louder. Legal and illegal residents alike wonder where they will find an apartment for $225 a month, knowing that the government's compensation money won't stretch far.