The Architecture Observer offers an overview of different forms of modern architecture in Central America since the outset of the 20th century. Although modern architectures constituted only a small percentage of the total building production in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, they hold in these countries an evident symbolic significance. Such buildings functioned as models for the desired societal, economic, and cultural changes, or as aspirational placeholders for a future state of modernity. With contributions by Mauricio Quirós Pacheco, Andrés Fernández, Hans Ibelings, Gloria Grimaldi, Sandra Gutiérrez, Martín Majewsky, and others.