two thousand
ten
Cinco Camp by Ed Soltero, AIA
p r o j e c t Cinco c l i e n t Roger
Camp, Brewster County
Black
a r c h i t e c t Rhotenberry d e s i g n t e a m Mark
c o n t r a c t o r Ekstrom
Construction
p h o t o g r a p h e r Hester
9 / 1 0
2 0 1 0
Wellen Architects
Wellen, AIA; Daniel Dominguez; Robert Reed + Hardaway
When Malcolm McLean devised the now-ubiquitous metal shipping container in the 1950s, his idea transformed the cargo transport business. The movement of goods on a global scale was greatly facilitated by what became known as inter-modal steel building units. Today, as America’s insatiable appetite for goods from China continues to grow and reverse trade with that country stagnates, empty containers continue to stack up at inland freight transit terminals around the United States. The Chinese government apparently does not want them back because it’s cheaper to fabricate new ones. Enter Rhotenberry Wellen Architects, a Midland firm with an intriguing concept for re-using a few of those abandoned containers to create a place of respite on a remote, rugged, and dry spot in far West Texas. The owner is Roger Black, a renowned graphic designer who routinely revitalizes his corporate clients’ venerable brands through digital media, so it was not a stretch for him to take on the task of enhancing this harsh and desolate place. Cinco Camp comprises five 8’ x 20’ containers that have been sensitively sited at the foot of Castle Mountain in far-flung Brewster County. While the notion of creating an abode with the containers was a simple one to embrace, the actual feat proved quite the opposite. The units were finished out in the contractor’s yard and transported 150 miles to the desert site, an unenviable task for anybody unacquainted with this forbidding region. Nevertheless, the new man-made form appears as strong as the landscape, yet respectful.
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