Belmopan: a New Capital for a New Country

Abstract

As the British colony of British Honduras prepared for independence, it adopted two important symbols of its emerging identity; the name of Belize was chosen for the new country and a new capital was planned from which this emerging nation would be governed. That new capital was called Belmopan and was to be established inland from the old coastal capital of Belize City. Designed by the British planning and architectural firm of Norman and Dawbarn, this new city followed in the tradition of British Garden City planning, making discrete references to the Mayan heritage of the region, while using the modernist architectural vocabulary typical of so much of the infrastructural development taking place at this time in various nations emerging from colonial status.