IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rppexx/v40y2025i5p1285-1308.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

‘To make a town’: landscape architecture, land, and settlement in the Panama Canal Zone, 1913–1915

Author

Listed:
  • Nicolay Duque-Robayo

Abstract

With construction of the Panama Canal underway, by 1912 the Isthmian Canal Commission (ICC) identified a site for the development of a US administrative centre near its Pacific entrance. After the dismissal of architect Austin W. Lord for his failure to ‘make a town that will be a credit to the United States', landscape architect William L. Phillips joined the ICC to plan permanent settlements along the US controlled Panama Canal Zone (PCZ). Phillips oversaw the planning efforts and construction for several towns - among them the ICC's headquarters in the town of Balboa. His appointment in the PCZ prompts questions regarding the role of landscape architecture in the imperial project of the Panama Canal. In turning to the planning history of Balboa, this article highlights the role of landscape architecture as a design profession complicit in the formation of an informal US empire at the beginning of the twentieth century. Phillips’ work foregrounds the role of landscape architecture in this case study in framing land as site for the development of US property outside the continuous nation-state through the reconciliation of aesthetics and technical expertise.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicolay Duque-Robayo, 2025. "‘To make a town’: landscape architecture, land, and settlement in the Panama Canal Zone, 1913–1915," Planning Perspectives, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(5), pages 1285-1308, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rppexx:v:40:y:2025:i:5:p:1285-1308
    DOI: 10.1080/02665433.2025.2520615
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/02665433.2025.2520615
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/02665433.2025.2520615?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:rppexx:v:40:y:2025:i:5:p:1285-1308. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/rppe20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.