BORDERS & BANDAIDS

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BORDERS & BANDAIDS READ BETWEEN THE LINES David Glen Polk

Thesis submitted to the faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master’s of Architecture School of Architecture + Design College of Architecture and Urban Studies

Susan Piedmont-Pallidino, Committee Chair Paul Emmons Markus Breitschmid

Defense: June 24th, 2015 Alexandria, Virginia Washington Alexandria Architecture Center National Capital Region

Keywords: lineaments, line, wall, door, gate, threshold, border, boundary, Border Station, Land Port of Entry, plaza, zocalo, market, immigration, trade, Mexico, U.S., New Mexico

Copyright David Glen Polk

Border and Bandaids: process model

BORDERS & BANDAIDS READ BETWEEN THE LINES David Glen Polk Abstract: thresh·old noun \`thresh-`hōld, `thre-`shōld\ _the sill of a doorway _the entrance to a house or building _any place or point of entering or beginning

A threshold can be understood as the visible or invisible division and demarcation of space. It is an age-old concept tracing back even to the first notions of urban space. The largest scaled gestures of thresholds are those lines and walls that divide nations and territories. All complexities of past and current geopolitical tensions simply derive from the interpretations and implementation of the walls and geopolitical lines – or lineaments. It is therefore crucial to comprehend the concept of lineaments on every scale, as it is the base idea that permeates all design. It is design in its purest form.

The following architectural argument will explore Leon Battista Alberti’s theory of lineaments, particularly the wall as an architectural element, as he spells out in his architectural treatise On the Art of Building in Ten Books.

A closer look at Alberti’s treatise and the idea of lineaments will help to better refine the definition and implementation of international borders and treatises. Reconsideration of a lineament in the slightest form has the potential to drastically change the execution and enforcement of a lineament in tangible materials and their assembly during construction.

The chosen design proposes a new U.S.-Mexico Joint Land Port of Entry along the border of Columbus, New Mexico, United State of America, and Puerto Palomas, Chihuahua, Mexico.

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Dedicated to: The WAAC consortium of students and faculty (dotted all over the globe and too many to list) who collectively helped me to challenge architecture as much as it challenges me.

Acknowledgements: To my dear friends near and far that have encouraged me, believed in me, fed me, stayed up late with me, entertained me, loved me, and simply allowed me to be me. Out of all that we have created throughout architecture school, I cherish the unforgettable memories we’ve created most.

Family: I will be eternally grateful for your expression of love and support throughout my pursuit of a Master’s of Architecture that has spanned nearly a decade.

I first must thank my parents who instilled within me a value for quality, higher-education even though you were never able to do so for yourselves. Your support during undergrad positioned me to be able to support myself and complete a Master’s.

To my sister Myhoa who taught me the ropes of the WAAC. Thank you for always lending a hand to build countless models and for being the role model I need.

Thesis Committee: To Susan for always supporting the concept but questioning and challenging the nuts and bolts until it became architecture. I always appreciated your candor and push.

To Paul for asking me the questions you already knew the answers to and guiding me to deeper, more thoughtful solutions. I always appreciated your openness to new ideas yet drive for specificity and meaning within them.

To Markus for always helping me realize a greater potential for architecture with each new thought, model, or drawing. I always appreciated your energy and enthusiasm.

Colleagues: To my co-workers at the U.S. General Services Administration and Design Excellence team, Les, Andrew, Rolando and David. Thank you for pushing me to see excellence in democratic space and helping me to realize the idea of civic space that is truly rooted in real problems, real sites, and real people.

THANK YOU!

BORDERS & BANDAIDS READ BETWEEN THE LINES David Glen Polk Table of Contents: PART I – THEORY • Origin of Geopolitical Thresholds • Lineaments • Construction and Disconnect • Lineaments, Ambiguity and Change

10 12 16 22 26

PART II – BORDER • Southern Border Land Ports of Entry • Line weight, Dashes, & Gradients • Border Commentary

34 38 46 54

PART III – DESIGN • People • Site • Landscape • Program • Circulation • Process Drawings • Process Models • Sustainable Deisng Approach • United States-Mexico Joint Land Port of Entry Plans • Façade, Screens, and Shade • Zócalo: Bi-national Plaza • Ziva: Multi-cultural Center

62 64 70 78 88 94 102 106 118 122 162 170 176

• •

191 192

Works Cited Photo Credits

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The fight over land dates back to even biblical discrepancies of the “Holy Land” and “Promised Lands” of Israel. About the same time in 8th century BCE, the ancient Roman myth marks the birth of Romulus and Remus – sons of Rhea Silivia and Mars, the god of war. Joseph Rykwert in his book The Idea of a Town describes the ritual establishment of the city of Rome. “He refers to this rite in even greater detail in the ‘Life of Romulus’, fitted a brazen ploughshare to the plough, and, yoking together a bull and a cow, drove himself a deep line or furrow round the bounds; while the business of all those that followed after was to see that whatever was thrown up should be all turned inwards towards the city and not to let and clod lie outside. With this line they describe the wall and called it by contraction pomoerium – that is, after or besides the wall; and where they designed to make a gate, there they took out the snare, carried the plough over, and left a space; for which reason they consider the whole wall as holy, except where the gates are” (Rykwert, p.29). The ridge of the thrown up dirt thus became the wall that protected the fertile, sacred land within the city bound and the ditch the beginning of the profane – establishing one of the first large scale thresholds created by man. Bernard Rudofsky further explains the need for urban limits. “The very word urbanity is linked to the Latin word urbs meaning walled town. Hence, a town that aspires to being a work of art must be finite as a painting, or a book, or a piece of music” (Rudofsky, p.4). These bounding lines that took the life of Remus, gave life to a city, and set the limits from which they would operate within, are products of lineaments.

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Top: Paradise - Garden of Eden Bottom: Skull Valley from the Cedar Mountain Wilderness area

Far Left: Jerusalem - The Western Wall; walled cities were part of religious rites; the Holy Land Left: Porta San Paolo - one of the southern gates of the Aurelian Walls of Rome; 3rd Century Above: Capitoline Wolf inspired by the legend of the founding of Rome by Romulus and Remus

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My father being a contractor has always significantly influenced my understanding of the physical world and the built environment around me. As any child, I fed off the opportunity to get down and dirty while understanding the limits of my physical body and the space I took up. My curiosity only grew as I figured out how things worked and were built. One day as my father began drawing up some rough plans for our next house to send off to an architect for review, he sat me on his lap and allowed me to draw a few straight lines so that I would feel important. I did. Even more clearly engraved in my mind than my contribution of a few thin pencil lines, was the realization of what they represented. While visiting the lot where our future house was to be built, my father began talking to some men about important things way over my head and beyond my eight-year-old comprehension. While playing in the dirt pile and newly dumped gravel, there was a new ditch that caught my eye. I then realized that the ditch I saw was no ordinary ditch. It was the unassuming line that I drew a few months back. It was real. It was the footprint of our house. It was (what I later learn to be) the footer. While I did not know much, I did realize that the lines I drew were not simply lines. They meant more. They carried more significance than simply the raw graphite drawn on the paper. That line had thickness. It had depth. It had meaning.

It was in that moment that I became aware of the way architecture and design communicate and perceive lines. It was my first real experience with the ideal of a lineament and threshold. While the origin of the threshold was born of practicality at the entry of a doorway, its meaning is much grander. The ideal of the threshold applies on various scales: interior/exterior, public/private, urban/rural, etc.

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Eye of the Needle; an after hours passage through a small opening in the wall in Jerusalem

In his treatise, Alberti places particular emphasis on the need to identify and cater to different building types in order for them to be formed appropriately and achieve the ideal beauty. He gives structure to his argument in the prologue: “…first we observed that the building is a form of body, which like any other consists of lineaments and matter, the one the product of thought, the other of Nature; the one requiring the mind and the power of reason, the other dependent on preparation and selection; but we realized that neither on its own would suffice without the hand of the skilled workman to fashion the material according to lineaments” (Alberti, p.5). In just one sentence, Alberti wisely, sets up the complex relationship between lineaments (design), material (Nature), and construction (the craftsman).

Top: Great Wall of China 7 Bottom: Great Wall of China 8 A multi-empire endeavor, it was built to enforce the border between China and Mongolia. Unsuccessful.

Lineaments are thus the products of thought and ideas that create form and design. Lineaments are lines, but more importantly the relationship between lines: “…noted the importance of their lines and their relationship to each other, as the principal sources of beauty…All the intent and purpose of lineaments lies in finding the infallible ways of joining and fitting together those lines and ” (Alberti, p.5). At this point is it imperative to clarify that lineaments and material are completely separate, just as Alberti has separated them in the structure of his treatise. While lineaments are considered the idea of design, it is neither a drawing capturing the idea. Immaterial in nature, lineaments however are not void of meaning, gesture or information. Stephen Parcell simply described this relation this way: “Disegno is associated with the ideal realm of geometry, not with the physical realm. Lineaments come first and are developed independent” (Parcell, p.139).

I like to think of lineaments as the lines that represent the purest and simplest geometry of a design, much like the idea of construction lines or even a modern three-dimensional model viewed in wireframe. On a given construction site, a string line or plumb weight holding a string tight used, as guidelines for masonry or other building materials, are the epitome of lineaments. These lineaments then serve are the basis from which foundations and walls are laid upon. Curtis B. Wayne explains, “In their respective natures, there are really only two kinds of wall – one is, in concept, infinitely thin and planar; the other forms a plastic space and is therefore in concept infinitely thick” (Wayne, p.37). A single lineament embodies both ideas: infinitely thin and plastic and infinitely thick. While independent from material, lineaments should be informed by and construction.

In relation to lineaments and political thresholds, a lineament representing a wall or border simply expresses the need to keep something in and something out, often times expressed by an arbitrary line on a map. “Lineaments emphasize the perimeter rather than the area it encloses…their eventual aim to enclose a figure implies that two sides of the line (or angle) are different, as the inside and outside, thus have many duties for which they are responsible. When correct lineaments have been established they address four criteria: locality, proportion, scale, and composition” (Parcell, 147).

Top: Berlin Wall 9 Bottom: Berlin Wall 10 The same controversial wall that literally divived a nation and conequentially the world, sparks two very different reactions.

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I would like to compare this relationship to that which Steven Connor draws with smoke and pipes in his piece Paraphernalia – The Curious Lives of Magical Things. He questions the original function of a pipe. “I am not sure whether channels, ditches and pipes were first used to carry things to where they were needed, or to carry them away from where they were offensive…” (Connor, p.153). His question actually juxtaposes a relationship between what was desirable and undesirable at the time; in other words, a line sets up a connection or disconnection between what is wanted and what is not. “Although in principle pipes can allow passage in two directions, in practice pipes tend to convey their contents only in one direction. This is largely because historically pipes have depended upon atmospheric or gravitational pressure for their motive force” (Connor, p.154). While Connor primarily talks about pipes and smoke, in this case of geopolitics the pipes become lines or walls and smoke being populations and urban space. The atmospheric (or political) pressures are evident, even fossilized, in the distinct urban fabrics on each side of the line. The absence of, or break in a line, also communicates specific openings intended for, thought of, or designed for crossing or breaching the lineament – much like when Romulus picked up the plough and carried it across to form a gate.

Right: Process Diagram depicting relationships set up by lineaments and thresholds

United States first world desireable in prosperity me private legal American north easth heaven safe sacred visible

Mexico third world undesirable out poverty you public illegal foreign south west hell dangerous profane invisible

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According to Alberti, the architect has to consider three main criteria when turning a lineamental idea of a building into tangible form: lineaments, material and construction. Each step along the way, the process of material selection and construction, no matter how accurate, inevitably strays away from the truest sense of the lineament.

While disconnect is inherent, it does not necessitate failure. It is simply a complex relationship. Take for example, the sheer amount of text dedicated to each topic. Alberti dedicates Book I to outline lineaments as the source of design, proportion, harmony and beauty, but in reality the definition and explanation of lineaments within Book I only occupies about three pages. However, in contrast, Book III, which explains how to achieve lineaments in built form, takes up nineteen pages of detailed instruction.

That is simply the nature of its complexity. “Alberti is far more circumspect about how beauty and ornament should be harmonized with on another, largely because he finds it ‘extremely difficult’, and ‘at its most ambiguous and involved’ when dealing with buildings. Nevertheless, is was not an inquiry he wished to avoid, as harmony is central to the art of building” (Tavernor, p.43). Again, the achievement of beauty and harmony is the art and mastery of architecture.

Top: Mime Sword Fight Bottom: Fencing These two illustrations humorously depict the artistry and game behind fencing, in this case alluding to borders and border walls.

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The act of giving birth to a lineament in built form is simply projecting lineaments onto the ground. The complex nature and juncture of lineament, material and construction begins to make specific relations within space.

This relationship is similar to the Sign and Signified. The drawn lines mean much more than the ink they were made with. In The Production of Space, Lefebvre laid out how modern spaces are conceived, initiated and implemented. He introduced the embodiment of modern space according to three interrelated concepts: representations of space, spaces of representation, and spatial practice. (Lefebvre, p.245). The intersection of these interdependent concepts means that there is always tension where each affects and is affected by the other two. This three-part relation is much like dancing a triangular tango, necessitating continued readjustment and shifting to make things work. Not too dissimilar from the relationship between lineaments, material, and construction.

Consider the line I drew as a small child to represent a footer – a relatively simple task. The execution of creating the footer however is much more complex. Referring to foundations, Aberti said, “The ancients used to say, ‘Dig until you reach solid ground, and God be with you.’ The ground has many layers…its position ever changing and uncertain” (Alberti, p.63).

The lineament of a wall projected on to the earth serves many purposes.

The wall naturally has two sides: recto and verso – much like the earlier forms of paper, one being more favorable. As well as a link between two urban spaces laterally, ancient walls linked the heavens and the earth.

These walls were held in sacred regard because they represented sacred lineaments.

Left: The Great Wall of America More than 600 miles of wall has been constructed along the southern border dividing empty desert and running through cities.

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Rykwert helps shed light on the relation of lineaments and political territories. “The spatial strategy of drawing lines therefore is not a political process that delineates internal/external space of Self/Other: strategies also naturalize territorial practices” (Rykwert, p.4). As more people move into cities and a larger portion of the population now lives in planned/ designed urban settings, fewer people live in rural settings causing a shift or adjustment in the way we see ourselves. The same idea of Self and Other. Not only was the lineament of a city wall a division of terrestrial property, but also the union of the terrestrial with the celestial. From that time on, walls began to separate men, nations and cultures. They also separated men from the gods. “The safety, and the sacred, untouchable character of the walls was guaranteed by the union of heaven and earth.

Anyone crossing over the place where earth and heaven were united was an enemy of the life which that union had guaranteed” (Rykwert, p.135).

While the building of the wall was ritual in nature, Rykwert points out again the relation of Self and Other, further classifying Other as a potential enemy. Currently as society continues to globalize, cities begin to meld and people become citizens of the broader international community.

Traveling being more accessible and convenient than ever, allows people to move across borders easily and frequently, especially in geographies where state borders and even country borders are relatively small like in Europe. In contrast to the ease of travel between delineated boundaries, countries must reinforce borders to maintain identity.

Top: Boundary Stone 2 - U.S. Mexico Border Bottom: Boundary Stone 185 - U.S. Mexico Border What began as joint ventures between the U.S. and Mexico to survey and map the new borders after the Guadalupe Hidalgo and Gadsden Treaties of 1849, resulted in 258 boundary stones or obelisks being contructed between 1849 and 1894 from San Diego, California to Brownsville, Texas. Only 52 remain today.

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Hermes was the Greek god of boundaries and was historically represented through a boundary stone, which consisted of a few stacked stones to mark a path or line. Rykwert explains, “Boundary stones are of course vulnerable, because boundaries are” (Rykwert, p.112). This is the time we live in – one of little political or social guarantee. The only difference is we use lines, not stones, which are much easier to erase and adjust than picking up a stone and moving it. The thresholds between nations are as alive as those enforcing and influencing them. “Walls are built and then fall, borders are fortified and then shift, boundaries are demarcated and then transgressed…space and social structures thus are constantly forged, just as they are negotiated and challenged” (Ward, p.2). The walls between nations suffer from the same type of disconnects and complexities as lineaments, material, and construction – as they do also with representations of space, spaces of representation, and spatial practice. This is the fundamental relationship between theory and practice, policy and procedures, Self and Other, Sign and Signified, recto and verso.

Lineaments will change as our identity evolves as a society. Our perception of true harmony, proportion, beauty and ornament will follow.

Therefore lines, borders, boundaries, thresholds, ditches, and walls will continue to be changed, adjusted and renegotiated. Borders are living; they are not static. “An early surviving boundary mark found fairly recently on the Athenian agora, did not proclaim: ‘This is the boundary of the agora’ but ‘I am the boundary of agora’”(Rykwert, p.107). This revelation of this profound statement is two fold. First, the stone takes on life. It is not inanimate. It is living, meaning, wherever that stone resides there too the wall delineating agora. Second, it refers to Self and therefore indirectly identifies both Self and Other.

All Left: David Taylor, Working the Line Some of the 52 surviving boundary stones along the U.S.-Mexico border. David Taylor’s work documenting the remaining obelisks reveals the diverse environments along the border

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The large scale walls along borders greatly impact the way architectural and urban design approach public and civic spaces for any given design problem or solution. It provokes discourse on the open-ness or closed-ness of geopolitical spaces. The discussion is not only about lines but also about landscapes. It is what gives meaning to the words “Four Corners”, “Mason Dixon”, “International Date Line”, “Equator”, “Berlin Wall”, “Thirty-ninth Parallel” or “Iron Curtain”.

The contradictions, discrepancies, exceptions to the complex network of walls creates unique urban conditions like embassies and consulates that provide some like Julian Assange refuge in foreign land or international airports that provide some like Edward Snowden a political safe haven as it is politically considered no-man’s land. Whether viewed as lack of lineamental convergence or the hyper-superimposition of various lineaments, the problematic reality of the ambiguous walls of these spaces renders them in essence no-man’s-land.

Top Left: Humpty Dumpty Jeep Top Right: Fence into the ocean, San Diego Middle Left: Border wall between El Paso, Texas and Juarez Middle Right: Border Wall through vasy desert Bottom Left: Border wall between San Diego and Tijuana Bottom Right: CBP patrol makes surveying border as dusk

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CONCLUSION While the word “wall” may seem simple and straight forward as a common architectural element we interact with everyday, its spatial and historical significance is must more deeply rooted into our culture and identity than we may think. For every line that is drawn and every wall that is raised, decisions are made as to what they mean and contain. They can be the lines of a footer or lines separating provinces. They can be walls within a home or walls between nations. Each is a unique threshold; but, each necessary by at least one of the two sides of the wall. When spelling out the origin of the social contract amongst men, John Locke described it this way: “Government has no other end but the preservation of property” (Barker, 123). Without a doubt, the complexities of an ever-urbanizing world will simply increase as nations continue to establish sovereignty and geopolitical thresholds.

Walls are not static, but plastic ideas that are dynamic in concept in even their detailed construction. Lineaments are living ideas. Boundaries are living. The materials and skilled craft applied to built walls only aspires to achieve the purest beauty and harmony embedded within a single lineament. The process much like the interminable chase of the Grecian Urn that forces us to read between the lines. A reading between the walls will best orient our relationship to fellow man and with architecture. I think Robert Frost said it best in his poem “Mending Wall”. Good fences make good neighbors.

MENDING WALL Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the sun; And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

The work of hunters is another thing: I have come after them and made repair Where they have left not one stone on a stone, But they would have the rabbit out of hiding, To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean, No one has seen them made or heard them made, But at spring mending-time we find them there.

I let my neighbor know beyond the hill; And on a day we meet to walk the line And set the wall between us once again.

We keep the wall between us as we go.

To each the boulders that have fallen to each.

And some are loaves and some so nearly balls We have to use a spell to make them balance: ‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned!’

We wear our fingers rough with handling them.

Oh, just another kind of outdoor game, One on a side. It comes to little more: There where it is we do not need the wall: He is all pine and I am apple orchard.

My apple trees will never get across And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.

He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’

Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder If I could put a notion in his head: ‘Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.

Before I built a wall I’d ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offense.

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, That wants it down.’ I could say ‘Elves’ to him, But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather He said it for himself. I see him there Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.

He moves in darkness as it seems to me, Not of woods only and the shade of trees.

He will not go behind his father’s saying, And he likes having thought of it so well He says again, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’

Robert Frost

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35

Building Relationships Eroding Walls

Building Walls Eroding Relationships

Above: Read Between the Lines Shows the different treatment and priorities of the northern border line and southern border line.

Reading Between the Lines also refers to looking within - looking between the border lines of Canada and Mexico to see where we as citizens of the United States stand.

CALIFORNIA

ARIZONA

NEW MEXICO

miles: 1,954 states: 4 LPOE: 47

BAJA CALIFORNIA

TEXAS SONORA CHIHUAHUA

COAHUILA

NUEVO LEON TAMAULIPAS

Middle: The line of demarcation on the U.S.Mexico border at San Ysidro, Calif.

Above: Southern Border Map showing neighboring U.S. and Mexican states, geographic and political boundaries.

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Right: Southern Border Land Ports of Entry Infographic

San Luis (US Rt 95) San Luis Rio Colorado (Calle 1)

CROSSING TYPES

Andrade (US Rt 186) Algodones (Miguel Hidalgo)

Road always open Road: open year round, but < 24 hrs Rail Major Highways Major roads Rail lines

Lukeville (US Rt 85) Sonita (Benemérito de las Americas) Sasabe (US Rt 286) Altar (Calle Sasabe) Mariposa (US Rt 189) (Nogales-Hermosillo)

Nogales

F

Union Pacific Railway / Ferromex Nogales (I-19 Business) (Plutarco Elias Calles)

CALIFORNIA

*

S

Naco (St Towner Ave) Naco (Avenida Fransico I Madero)

San Diego

Douglas (US Rt 191) Agua Preita (Avenida Panamericana)

Phoenix

Union Pacific Railway (two spans) Paso del Norte Int’l Bridge (S Santa Fe St) (Avenida Benito Juárez)

ARIZONA

S

Good Neighbor Int’l Bridge (US Rt 85) (Avenida Lerdo)

Ensenada

NEW MEXICO

Tucson

BAJA CALIFORNIA

El Paso

S

Bridge of the Americas (I-110) (Avenida Abraham Lincoln) Ysleta-Zaragoza Int’l Bridge (S Zaragoza Rd) (Avenida Zaragoza)

F

Las Cruces

*

S F

Fabens Caseta Int’l Bridge (Ranch Rd 1109) (Avenida Cruz Rey)

Fabens

Fort Hancock (FM 1088) (Porvenir) Union Pacific Int’l Railroad Bridge / Ferromex Eagle Pass- Piedras Negras Int’l Bridge (US Rt 57) (Abasolo) Camino Real Int’l Bridge (South Adams St) (Libramiento Sur)

S

San Ysidro (I-5) Tijuana (Cicuito Bursátil)

* Otay Mesa

SONORA

Burlington Northern Railway Otay Mesa (US Rt 905) Tiijuana (Boulevard Garita de Otay)

*

Tecate

Lake Falcon Dam Int’l Crossing (Farm-Market 2098 Spur) (Carretera a Septima Base Militar) Roma-Cuidad Miguel Alemán Int’l Bridge (US Rt 200) (Avenida Miguel Hidalgo)

TEXAS

S

F

F

Tecate (US Rt 188) Tecate (Avenida Presidente Lázaro)

CHIHUAHUA

Calexico (US Rt 111) Mexicali (Calzada Adolfo López Mateos)

San Antonio

Union Pacific Railway / Ferromex Calexico East (US Rt 7) Mexicali (A la Garita Internacional)

Columbus

Roma

Rio Grande City Bridge (Pete Diaz Ave) (Santa Cruz la Ensenada) Los Ebanos Ferry (Farm-Market 886) (Avenida Adolfo López Mateo)

Union Pacific Railway

* Calexico East

Eagle Pass

Chihuahua

Antelope Well (US Rt 81) El Berrendo (Carretera a El Berrendo) Columbus (US Rt 11) Puerto Palomas (Calzada 5 de Mayo)

F

Santa Teresta (Pete V Domenici Blvd) San Jerónimo (Carretera Samalayuca-el Oasis)

F

Rio Grande City

COAHUILA

Presidio - Ojinaga Int’l Bridge (US Rt 67) (Boulevard Libre Comercio) Amistad Dam (US rt 349 Spur) (Ciudad Acuña la Amistad)

Del Rio

Del Rio-Ciudad Acuña Int’l Bridge (Texas Spur 239) (Francisco I Madero)

*

Laredo

Bridge III-Columbia Solidarity Bridge (US Rt 255) (Carretera a Colombia) Bridge IV-World Trade Bridge (US Rt 20) (Carretera Villa Hidalgo Nuevo Laredo)

F

F

S

SYMBOLIC PORT CLASSIFICATIONS:

F S

*

Fast Port Sentri Port Full Service Port Crossings grouped by USCBP for administrative purposes, with master POE identified by bold blue label

NUEVO LEON

Kansas City Southern Railway / Kansas City Southern de México Bridge I- Puente de Las Americas Bridge (I-35A) (Avenida Guerrero) Bridge II-Lincoln-Juarez Int’l Bridge (I-35) (Avenida Leandro Valle)

F

Hidalgo

Average Daily 1-Way Traffic (2012) 10,000+ 1,000-9,999 1,000+ 100-999 100-999 10,000+ 10-99 1,000-9,999 5+ 100-999 1-4

Anzalduas Int’l Bridge (Stewart Rd) S McAllen-Hidalgo-Reynosa Int’l Bridge (US Rt 281 Spur) (Periférico Luis Echeverria) S Pharr-Reynosa Int’l Bridge (US rt 281) F (Al Puente de Pharr) Progreso (FM 1015) Nuevo Progreso (Benito Juárez)

F

Brownsville

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TAMAULIPAS

Free Trade Bridge (County Rd 509) (Carretera a Banco los Indios) Brownsville & Matamoros Int’l Bridge (Mexico Blvd) (Las Americas) Union Pacific Railway Gateway Int’l Bridge (international Blvd) (Alvaro Obregón) Veterans Int’l Bridge (US Rt. 77) (Cinco de Mayo)

CHALLENGES AND PRIORITIES: Layered with complexity, a border station provides the opportunity for rich investigation of a more functionally driven program as the basis of the thesis.

The grander gestures of a land port of entry explore multiple objectives: navigating very real and very rigid programmatic requirements of a federal facility and an international border crossing, while addressing the political, social, and economic dimensions of the context of the U.S.-Mexico Border.

As the primary federal agency responsible for operating the U.S land ports of entry, Customs and Border Protection has one central mission: maintaining the security of our borders while facilitating trade and travel. As many other law enforcement agencies such as FBI or CIA, the main mission and objectives of CBP oft times obscure or relegate any secondary concern they might have for a port’s design performance aesthetically, or as a public, international space, or as a representation of the cultural, political, and humanitarian ideals of the U.S. Their mission is a continuous struggle to balance the trifecta of travel, trade, and safety.

Typically, the programmatic drivers of a land port of entry are site, pedestrian, officer, and vehicular movement; layered upon officer sight lines, logistical requirements of a port, and safety of officers and visitors. These layered objectives create opportunity to possibly rearrange the combination or order of them to create a more unique experience.

Potential Tenants for a medium – large land port of entry: DHS – Department of Homeland Security CBP – Customs and Border Protection ICE – Immigration and Customs Enforcement FDA – Federal Drug Administration USDA – U.S. Department of Agriculture DOT – Department of Transportation GSA – General Services Administration FWS – Fish and Wildlife Service CDC – Center for Disease Control TSA – Transport Security Administration The pragmatic nature of the border station is what makes it so rich in architectural and urban potential. I did not want to completely reimagine the southern border from a more utopian or fantastical approach disregarding the stringent variables. The theory is rooted on symbolic and tangible corollaries of architectural elements. Lineament. Line. Wall. Door. Gate. Threshold.

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SITE INTO SIGHT: The project in effect is a landscape project. The ports along the southern border are either in larger urban areas, or more often located in remote, powerful landscapes. In either case, the port becomes the door or gate by which commerce and culture are exchanged. It becomes the welcoming or departing handshake to or from the U.S.. The identity of the port as a public building is counter-intuitive – paradoxical even. It must simultaneously fulfill its role as a tool to support CBP’s mission and yet it cannot avoid its responsibility as a federal building to convey our common values.

The anticipation of encountering authority gives weight and significance to all federal buildings. The architecture must embrace and address the anxiety of those that pass, possibly dampening the encounter with cultural interaction. It must communicate the transparency of our system of government with visible, generously scaled public spaces. The chosen program must be a marriage of architecture and infrastructure. Given the nature and location of a land port of entry, they are very site specific. They are on the line.

BORDERS AND BANDAIDS: Logistically a land port of entry must operate smoothly and seamlessly, but that does not mean that the layered objectives and purpose of the port cannot celebrate the seam, embrace the line, or focus not on the disjoining but adjoining of the border.

This is the essence of the thesis. Can the architecture capture the paradoxical ideals of a land port of entry and its many objectives? Should it, and if so, how?

The proposed design sought to look beyond just the line – but the widening of the line, the experience of the line, and the occupation of the line. It creates a third place that serves as a public plaza hosting and celebrating interaction and exchange of goods and culture. The design sought to look beyond to something more lasting and more grand than politics - but on to the people and the existing culture of Columbus, New Mexico and Puerto Palomas, Chihuahua, Mexico where the lines have been blurred for decades. The exploration was not in redrawing the lines, but better reading between them.

43

Borders and Bandaids Conceptual Drawing expresses the border as a geopolitical wound. After sketching the border onto rigid insulation, I slowly dripped xylene onto the insulation and watched it erode and eat away at the base. The bandaids on the right represent symbolic and literal bridging across the Rio Grande where a geogrpahical border exists. The incomplete and imposing fence to the left shows how the border fence pulls the land apart where the political border exists.

45

Conceptual Drawing shows the thickness of a line and its influence at many scales, which can be applied to the southern border

47

Border Stains The above conceptual drawing captures various layered conditions along the southern border. The southern border line is burned onto watercolor paper via a laser cutter symbolizing the imposing political influences.The lighter tea base shows the general distribution of population along the border. The darker ink shows the movement of people across the border.

49

Top Left: Geogrphical border political fault Top Middle: Geographical fault political border Top Right: long section through Purto Palomas, Chihuahua, Mexico and Culumbus, New Mexico, U.S.A.

NORTH AMERICAN GEOGRAPHY

NORTH AMERICAN POLITICAL BOUNDARIES

Bottom Left: North American Geography Middle Left: North American Political Boundaries Middle Right: U.S.-Mexico Geography Bottom Right: U.S. Mexico Political Boundaries

U.S.-MEXICO GEOGRAPHY

U.S. MEXICO POLITICAL BOUNDARIES

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Border Colllage This mixed collaged combines architectural, political and social elements of walls throughout time. This symbolic wall is made of from elements of the Great Wall of China, the Western Wall of Jerusalem, boundary stones, and dotted lines that break for passage. The main gateway shown is that by which Adam and Eve are cast out. Those that look on include Romulus and Remus with the She Wolf, the Cherubim guarding the gate, those erecting the boundary stones, those honoring and memorializing the Western wall of Jerusalem, and the Janus god looking in both directions. The Eye of the Needle leads into the American West. Many American painters focused on the vast, dramatic landscapes of the new frontier which became a symbol of the American Dream.

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U.S. Immigration is one of the most controversial current events without any definitive political resolution in sight. With what has been referred to as a broken system, the future of America’s borders and immigration laws will continue to grab headlines in heated debate. The comparison shown here of Wood’s American Gothic and the parody of Mexican-American Gothic shows how Hispanic culture has not only permeated our borders, but our art, pop culture, and has become an integral part of the very political system that’s up in arms about how to react. Just as Wood read between the lines of the gothic style home and portrayed those he thought would inhabit the house, the U.S. must too read between the lines and see itself for what it is becoming.

Left: American Gothic, Grant Wood, 1930, Art Institute of Chicago.

Right: Mexican-American Gothic, 2012, Unknown.

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The Art of the Horizon I saw the horizon, the horizon is factor x, the horizon is what everything encloses, the horizon divides earth, sea and sky, the world is unthinkable without the horizon, the horizon is a boundary where man cannot come, the horizon exists between the visible and the invisible, the horizon is not inside or outside the world, the horizon of art is factor x.

In reality there is no horizon, I cannot get near the horizon, I try to push the horizon further away, all and everything appears within the horizon, behind every horizon there is another one, everybody has his own horizon.

The horizons are within us, Infinity overflows all horizons.

— Dr. Hugo Heyrman

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The border towns of Columbus and Puerto Palomas have long blurred the lines of the international border. Everyday more than seven hundred school children cross the border into the United States to attend school. Almost all of the children are U.S. citizens or have permission to study in the U.S. Many of their parents or grandparents are not citizens and live in Puerto Palomas. They cannot enter the U.S. to take their children to school and must see them off at the U.S. Land Port of Entry. Some of the parents are U.S. citizens but choose to live in Mexico because it is cheaper. Some own land in Columbus and pay taxes for an address that allows their children to study in the U.S. Some children were naturalized simply because their mothers crossed the border intentionally while in labor. Palomas only has a limited clinic that offers basic health services.

Most childbirth can be performed there; however, many complicated or delicate cases are sent to the nearest hospital, which happens to be in New Mexico.

Both towns are very small: Columbus, pop 2,000; Puerto Palomas, pop.

4,700. The 700 students that cross to the U.S. and back everyday represent a significant percentage of the population. Considering the relatively small port and remote area, the Columbus Land Port of Entry processes its fair share. In addition to the unusually high pedestrian traffic, it processes typical volumes of vehicular traffic for those that go to work, visit family, and even cross over to shop at Duty Free America. The port also handles significant amounts of cargo, mostly produce as semi-trucks line the main road during harvest season, waiting to enter the U.S. The unique situation must focus on the culture of the people. There is no other border station like it along the northern or southern borders.

65

On NM SR 11 lookig towards Columbus, NM 3 miles away, from the existing Land Port of Entry.

Left: On the border looking into Mexico Right: From Mexico looking towards the border

Left: Layered fences from both sides show different agendas superimposed on one another.

Right: Border fences looking into Mexico

Left: In the U.S. looking westward along the border Right: Border fence looking into Mexico

Parents wait on the border just outside the U.S. LPOE

Students wait outside to be processed

Students wait on the inside to be processed

67

Top left: student looks back towards Mexico after having passed through the doors into the U.S. Middle left: site signage Bottom Left: site signage Right: site signage

After being processed, students await the school bus to take them the 3 miles into Columbus, NM for class. Some 700 students cross the border each day between 6:30 am and 8:30 am and return beetween 2:00 pm and 4:00 pm

69

Center: On the border. U.S. to the right of the fence, Mexico to the left Right: Site plan showing the clustering of the two towns that the distance that separates them.

71

Site Plan

N

0’

75’ 150’

300’

600’

73

Site Plan

N

0’ 1000’ 2000’

4000’

8000’

International Border U.S. Land Port of Entry Mexican Aduana

LPOE Property Line LPOE Potential Property Lines

75

Site Plan N

Aduana Property Line Aduana Potential Property Lines 0’ 100’ 200’

400’

800’

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Having studied the site extensively via census data, maps, news articles, Climate Consultant, historical accounts, geological surveys, and even Google Street View etc., I was still utterly unprepared me at all for what lie ahead. I woke up at 4:30 am to get ready, pack, and hop in the car to make the nearly two-hour journey westward from El Paso, TX to Columbus, NM in time to see the school children cross the border for school in the morning.

What started out as a contemplative, serene drive in the dark would soon change. Blindly following the GPS, I was driving through the middle of nowhere, many times just a few hundred yards from the US-Mexico border.

The darkness swallowed up the road that my headlight illuminated, but I kept pressing on 70 mph into the dark abyss; it seemed like no man’s land.

In the reflection of my rear view mirror I began to see the glow of the rising sun subtly highlight the horizon. And then suddenly everything around me changed and the soft, cool, morning light revealed a gorgeous, dramatic landscape. Rolling hills, adolescent mountains, reservoirs, and lush desert vegetation punctuated the mainly flat, grassy plains. The desert grasslands of New Mexico pleasantly surprised me, as I had previously only known the red, arid deserts of Arizona, Utah, Nevada and Colorado.

The majestic reveal of the horizon came over me as just that, a revelation.

I realized that what ever be proposed must be secondary to, compliment, and integrate into the landscape. I also realized that symbolically, the horizon line and borderline shared many characteristics: present, powerful, influential, yet unattainable, unreadable, and ever changing.

architecture + infrastructure border line + horizon line

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The conceptual images to the right first show the dramatic mountainous landscape of Chihuahuan desert, then shows the play of how a simple yet dramatic gate way could be cut through. This doorway as part of the landscape could also signal a more significant passage. This would be the view from the U.S. looking towards Mexico

The conceptual images to the left show first show the main street of Puerto Palomas begin to come alive at dawn, then shows the conceptual addition of the earth peeling upward and parting to reveal the doorway arcross the international border/threshold. This would be the view from Mexico looking towards the U.S.

83

Proposed concept for a peeling and parting of the landscape to house the joint land port of entry.

Approaching the border into Mexico from the U.S.

85

Top: Approach peeking into the main, public space of the joint land port of entry.

Bottom: concept drawing of the earth physically and emotionally elevating the experience of border crossing.

Looking from Mexico to the international border.

Conceptual drawings considering the permeability of the border by exploring the existing spacing of the border fence. The various shapes can represent any element of the larger land port of entry complex. Visual breaks, physical breaks, doorways, roadway, masses od buildings etc.

87

Most border crossings double up on infrastructure – an aduana complex just south of the international threshold, with the U.S. counterpart usually larger and further set back. Instead of segmenting repetitive functions of two governments that ideally have the same mission for their presence on the border, I sought to consolidate, overlay, share, and arrange the functions so they literally and figuratively face each other. The rearrangement of the functions does not compromise the strict objectives of the federal agencies, but creates an entirely new, more humane experience for those that cross the border on foot, by car, bus or even truck.

The program sought to include the existing, adjacent Duty Free America store as a symbol of the commerce and goods that are exchanged and cross the border, a bi-national plaza and a multi-cultural center laying right on the border.

XX. Right: These diagrams outline the many programatic functions by type for s, m, l land ports of entry and compare them relatively to one another

Small LPOE Main Building Program Public Area Bus Processing Non-Public Enclosed Workspaces Secure Area

Medium LPOE Main Building Program Public Area Bus Processing Non-Public Enclosed Workspaces Secure Area

Large LPOE Main Building Program Public Area Bus Processing Non-Public Enclosed Workspaces Secure Area

Main Building LPOE Program Comparison Public

Public Area Bus Processing Non-Public Enclosed Workspaces

Private

Secure Area

89

Hard Secondary Secondary

Primary

Personal Occupied Vehicle (POV)

Primary

Secondary

Pedestrian

Primary

Commercial

Inspection

Administration

Secondary

Hard Secondary

Duty Free America

Zócalo

Cultural Center

Primary

Administration

Inspection

Pedestrian Secondary

Pre-Primary

Hard Secondary

VACIS

Secondary

Pre-Primary Hard Secondary

These program diagrams begin to spell out the basic, repetitive functions of the mirrored efforts of the U.S. and Mexico to ensure safety, trade, and security.

Personal Occupied Vehicle (POV)

Commercial

Primary

Primary

Secondary

Secondary Primary Primary

Inspection

Administration

Duty Free America

Administration

Zócalo

Secondary

Secondary Hard Secondary

Pre-Primary

Hard Secondary

Primary

VACIS

Pedestrian

Personal Occupied Vehicle (POV)

Commercial

Pedestrian

Personal Occupied Vehicle (POV)

Commercial

Cultural Center

Inspection

Primary

Secondary

Hard Secondary

Pre-Primary

Primary

VACIS Secondary

Primary

91

Secondary

Hard Secondary

The program diagrams to the left begin to explore the rearrangement of the same functions around a central plaza, orienting the focus of the land port of entry away from the hard functions and more towards the human interactions that take place.

Duty Free America

Public Plaza

Cultural Center

Visitor Amenities Landscape

Cultural

International Border Commercial

Zócalo

U.S.A. Primary

Pedestrian México

Office

Secondary

Inspection

México

Personal Occupied Vehicle (POV) U.S.A.

Commercial

DOT

U.S.A.

México

HHS ICE

DHS

FDA

U.S.A.

México

USDA GSA, PBS Field Offices

CBP

Pre-Primary

Hard Secondary Primary

Hard Secondary Primary

Secondary

Secondary

Duty Free America

Public Plaza

Cultural Center

Cultural

Zócalo U.S.A.

Office

Inspection

Pedestrian

México México

Commercial

U.S.A.

U.S.A.

Personal Occupied Vehicle (POV) México

U.S.A.

México

The program diagram to the right begins to explore more in depth the specific functions of a joint U.S.Mexico land port of entry and the relation of shared and distinct spaces to one another.

Warehouse

quarantive incinerator

narcotics processing

HAZMAT

laboratory

janitorial

Storage

Washroom

Hardscape Light

GOV Parking

VACIS dock dock booth

Secondary rail inspection platform

public/driver waiting area Primary

Impound restroom

Flow

Gully interview rooms

truck scale

enclosed truck unloading

Eddy Entry

empty truck inspection

Commercial Processing emergency generator

Horizon Line

Landscape

EXCHANGE

secure violator processing area

Commercial Inspection Lot

Culture

Goods

truck parking

Cargo Processing

Arts

Food

i e Office

narcotics storage vault

building support

mechcanical

Kennel

Trade Compliance Imports

CBP Agriculture Processing

communications

Exterior Exercise Area

Seizure processing

Commercial

Threshold

Exit

truck inspection Primary

Zócalo

holding

Pre-Primary

search

INSPECTION immigration processing

Personal Occupied Vehicle (POV)

HHS

Secondary

VACIS

OFFICE

Hard Secondary

ICE

Bus Processing

restrooms

Border

Reception workstations weapons storage

Portal

DHS training

files c storage

FDA

Relief Quarters

breakroom canopy

Break

baggage inspection

Thickness

restrooms equipment

cashier

GSA/PBS Day Kennel

FMCSA seizure processing

Visitor Parking DOT

mechcanical building support

narcotics processing

Violator Processing & Enforcement

Secondary

Gradient

USDA

processing laboratory

secure violator processing

command room/ worksapce

processing

Primary

kitchenette sally port

seizure area

cashier

lines Janus God

es

Pedestrian

Wall

Door

conference room

ffic l

janitorial communications

93

equipment storage

Fines Penalties & Forfeitures

Counter Terrorism Response

Instead of completely compartmentalizing vehicular, pedestrian, inspection, and school and commercial bus functions, the circulation pattern serves as the driving force to coalesce their layers into closely flowing orders – sometimes parallel, sometimes tangential, and sometimes over lapping. The circulation diagrams deal with the realities of distinct programmatic functions from the most direct pedestrian path to the twisting and turning of cars or semi trucks going through hard secondary inspection, to secure access for border agents and visitors. They address and resolve real turning radii, which varies also according to function. The turning radius of a car is neither the same as a school bus nor a commercial truck with a double trailer.

South Bound

North Bound

South Bound

North Bound

South Bound

North Bound

South Bound

North Bound

Commercial

POV

POV

Commercial

POV

Commercial

POV

Commercial

Return to Mexico

Enter U.S.

Return to Mexico

Visitor Parking

Secondary Non-Commercial Inspection

M-VACIS

Employee Parking

Non-Commercial POV

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Future Nexus Lane

Primary Inspection

Commercial

Primary Inspection

Secondary Commercial Inspection

Storage Trash Impound Lot Septic Area

97

Here both the program and circulation highlight and thicken the purpose and presence of the international border. Instead of repeating a set of inspection booths on both the U.S. and Mexican territories, a single set of shared inspection booths share the load.

Rather than say four dedicated booths on each side, six shared booths can fluctuate and change direction based on the flow of traffic.

In the morning when most of the traffic is headed northbound into the U.S., more booths will tend to northbound traffic. In the evening when most of the traffic is headed southbound back to Mexico, the booths have the ability to change direction of traffic in the lane to cater to the need.

The singular moment of primary inspection occurs directly on the line. However, the vehicular circulation acts as an eddy, which revolves around the main public plaza. It creates a heightened sense of liveliness and interaction. It creates a moment of pause, as the cars are forced off the main direction of the grid to veer this way and that way, slowly maneuvering through a complex of raising earth.

The forced change of direction forces vehicles to slow down for the security of the joint federal complex, the safety of the pedestrians, and to create a more calming and pleasant experience distracting from the inevitable anxiety of the border checkpoint.

99

The circulation patterns are inspired by the inefficiencies of an eddy in the flow of water. It creates a moment of linger, pause, interruption and mixing - all of which are typically not seen as desirable. These characteristics set the stage for a safer and more energetic nucleus which houses the public plaza and cultural center

Pedestrian Vehicular Bus Commercial

101

Pedestrian Processing Sight Lines

POV Processing Sight Lines

Bus Processing Sight Lines

Commercial Processing Sight Lines

Combine Joint LPOE Sight Lines

103

The general exploration in massing the joint border complex sought to explore the principle facades or faces of the buildings. On the most basic level, paired border stations face away from each other.

Even on the few occasions where joint border stations exist (along the northern border, never on the southern), the massing simply clusters the building and the main facades still outward, away from the border.

The intention of the peeling of the earth upward and parting is based on the natural phenomenon of gullies. But it also presents an opportunity for the main faces of the complex to be both inward and outward, maybe for just a moment, maybe architectonically, or maybe just symbolically.

Left: A gully is a way that nature creates greater surface area for higher absorption for water run off

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Other than the landscape itself, there are two main materials employed throughout the complex: rammed earth and corten steel. The north-south running facades that cut across the border use rammed earth, to help emphasize that the land is the same on both sides.

The east-west running facades that runs parallel to the border use corten, to help emphasize that the border is cut through the land. One warm and natural, the other cold and foreign.

Both materials appear in local vernacular old and new. Both weather uniquely.

However, the corten steel also has the potential to stain concrete below, which is intentional.

Right: weathered corten steel, Far Right: rammed earth

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111

113

115

117

119

121

Annual Solar Radiation

Summer Solstice Shadow Study

Summer Solstice Solar Radiation

Spring/Fall Equinox Shadow Study

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Spring/Fall Equinox Solar Radiation

Winter Solstice Shadow Study

Winter Solstice Solar Radiation

+ + active and passive sustainable technologies incorporated into the landscape while helping to offset the need to bring in dirt for berms

-

-

-

natural ventilation supplementation

horizontal geothermal loops buried rather than excavated

rain water

plennum space air distribution

shower water drinking water sink water

500,000 gallon total linked cistern

125

membrane reactor greywater system

fl sh water irrigation maintenance

Left: Existing Columbus, NM U.S. Land Port of Entry

Commerical

LPOE OFFICES

POV

Duty Free

Zocalo (kiva)

Commerical

Oficinas Federales Mexicanas

Site Plan

0’

127

62’ 125’

N 250’

500’

ain

il in

fi es

POV o

er ial

Bus Duty Free e i an e eral

fi es

North Peel

West Peel

fi es Duty Free

POV

BUS

BUS

o

er ial

o

er ial

East Peel West

fi inas e erales

e i anas

South Peel

ScalePlan = 1” = 150’ NN Site 0’

129

62’ 125’

250’

500’

Site Plan

0’ 375’ 750’

1500’

3000’

N

Site Plan 131

0’

100’ 200’

400’

800’

N

Legend: 1. Bi-national Plaza (upper zocalo) 2. Bi-national Plaza (lower zocalo) 3. Vertical Circulation down to Kiva 4. Bus stop 5. Pedestrain Crosswalk 6. U.S. LPOE Main Building 7. Pedestrian Processing 8. Public Restroom 9. Interview Rooms 10. Holding 11. Sally Port 12. Mechanical 13. Loading/Buildging Service 14. Narcotic Vault/Seizure 15. Employee Parking 16. Kennel 17. Controlled U.S. Employee Entrance 18. Duty Free America Store 19. Controlled Mexican Employee Entrance 20. Federal Office Building 21. Mexicano Aduana - Pedestrian Processing 22. Employee Parking & Entrance 23. Public Restroom 24. POV Primary Inspection Canopy 25. POV Main Building 26. POV Processing 27. POV Interview Rooms/Holding 28. POV Secondary Inspection 29. POV Hard Secondary 30. Vehicle Impound 31. Sally Port 32. CBP Parking & Staging 33. Mechanical/Storage & Future Expansion 34. Bus Primary Inspection Canopy 35. Bus Main Building & Inspection 36. Bus Impound & Staging 37. Commercial Primary Inspection Canopy 38. Commerical Main Buildings 39. Commerical Scale & VACIS x-ray inspection 40. Commerical Staging & Waiting 41. Commerical Impound 42. Commerical Loading/Unloading Docks 43. CBP Loading Docks 44. CBP Patrol Parking 45. Narcotics, Contraband, & Seizure Processing

4

8

10

9 11 6

13

12

14

16

15

17

18

7

42 33

5

31 2

43

45

4

32

45

42 43

44

3

27 28

29 26

3

3

24

34

35

39

38 37

38

40

39

1

25

2 3 4

30 5

41

36

19 22

21

20

23

Site Plan 133

0’

100’ 200’

400’

800’

N

Site Plan 135

0’

50’ 100’

200’

400’

N

ZOCALO - INTERNATIONAL PLAZA

COMM

POV PROCESSING KIVA - CULTURAL CENTER

CROSS SECTION ALONG THE BORDER

0’

50’ 100’

200’

400’

ZOCALO - INTERN U.S. LAND PORT OF ENTRY

COLUMBUS, NEW MEXICO - 3 KM

CROSS BORDER SECTION

0’

50’ 100’

200’

400’

KIVA -

UNITED STA

MERCIAL PROCESSING

COMMERCIAL PROCESSING

NATIONAL PLAZA

CULTURAL CENTER

ATES

ADUANA MEXICANO

PUERTO PALOMAS, CHIHUAHUA

MEXICO 137

ZOCALO - INTERNATIONAL PLAZA POV PROCESSING KIVA - CULTURAL CENTER

CROSS SECTION ALONG THE BORDER

ZOCALO - INTERNATIONAL PLAZA PUERTO PALOMAS, CHIHUAHUA

ADUANA MEXICANO KIVA - CULTURAL CENTER

CROSS BORDER SECTION

MEXICO

UNITED STATES

COMMERCIAL PROCESSING

COMMERCIAL PROCESSING

A U.S. LAND PORT OF ENTRY

COLUMBUS, NEW MEXICO - 3 KM

139

POV Processing Elevation - 1/16” = 1’ 0’ 12’ 25’

POV Processing Elevation - 1/16” = 1’ 0’

12’

25’

50’

100’

50’

100’

141

POV Processing Section - 1/16” = 1’ 0’

POV Processing - 1/16” = 1’ 0’

12’

25’

12’

25’

50’

50’

100’

100’

143

U.S Land Port of Entry East West Section - Pedestrian Processing

U.S Land Port of Entry South Elevation

U.S Land Port of Entry West Elevation 1/8” = 1’

0’

12’ 25’

50’

100’

13 15 12

11

10 8

9 3 2

5

1

15

7 4 14

LPOE Main Building Plan Pedestrian Processing

6

LPOE Main Building Plan Pedestrian Processing

Legend: 1. LPOE Main Building Entrance 2. Pedestrian Processing 3. Secondary Screening 4. Exit 5. Public Restrooms 6. School Bus Stop 7. Interview Rooms 8. Holding Cells 9. CBP Offices & Detainee Processing 10. Secondary Pedestrian Processing & Cashier 11. Consulate and Visa services 12. Vertical Circulation to upper LPOE offices 13. Duty Free America 14. Controlled, One-way Entrance into international plaza 15. Pedestrian Crosswalks to international plaza

N 0’

145

12’ 25’

50’

100’

Looking toward U.S. Land Port of Entry from Bi-national plaza

Looking toward U.S. Land Port of Entry from Duty Free America Store

147

SKY-BRIDGE CONNECTING COMMERCIAL INSPECTION

SECONDARY INSPECTION

ANTI-RAMMING DEVICE

COMMERCIAL HEADHOUSE

REFLECTIVE CANOPY

SHARED PRIMARY CANOPY BI-DIRECTIONAL/NATIONAL BOOTHS

COMMERCIAL QUEUING ANTI-RAMMING DEVICE

COMMERICAL PRIMARY SECTION

SECONDARY INSPECTION

Commercial Primary Inspection Canopy & Bridge

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Commercial Primary Inspection Canopy & Bridge

Commercial Loading Dock - Hard Secondary Inspection

Commercial Loading Dock - Hard Secondary Inspection

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Bus & Commercial Hard Secondary Inspection

x-ray section through commercial primary canopy 0’

2’

4’

8’

16’

153

Bus Primary Canopy

POV Primary Inspection Canopy looking toward the U.S.

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Vehicular Primary Inspection Canopy 0’

secondary inspection

2’

4’

8’

16’

hard secondary inspection

main building

primary inspection canopy & booths

POV Primary Inspection Canopy from the border

157

POV Secondary & Hard Secondary Inspection

POV Primary Inspection Canopy looking toward the U.S.

POV Secondary & Hard Secondary Inspection

159

Pedestrian Processing at POV Maing Building

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163

Looking South toward Joint LPOE & Puerto Palomas, Chihuahua beyond

165

In Puerto Palomas, Chihuahua looking North Northwest toward the Joint LPOE and the U.S. beyond

Just like many other aspects of the design, the facades considered the layered objectives of Customs and Border Protection by integrating various aspects of program, massing, circulation etc, so they are holistically approached and designed. The facade sought to simply convey the architectural elements of wall, door, and gate as membranes, filters, and lenses, that speak much more about why they are there than how they were put there.

One simple grid was developed and manipulated in two different orientations. The horizontal orientation for the more prominent north-south facades and the vertical for the east-west facades, each also appropriate for sun/shade considerations respectively.

Also in the spirit of movement and transit, the perforated metal screens are actually in the pattern of tire treads or shoe treads, depending on their location of the project. Subtle alterations of common materials in this fashion really root this building complex to its specific location and function. There is not other building type quite like a land port of entry. And there is not other land port of entry quite like the Columbus-Palomas Joint Land Port of entry.

167

East/West Layered Facade Concept

All Layers

Base Grid (4’x8’)

Perforated Metal Screens

Vertical Fins

169

North/South Layered Facade Concept

All Layers

Base Grid (8’x4’)

Perforated Metal Screens

Horizontal Fins

171

Pedestrain Promenade - colonnade & rammed earth walls

solid - segmented rammed earth walls

void - aperture/screens

columns

conceptual section through pedestrian promenade

173

The bi-national plaza serves as the nucleus of the project. While the purposes of the land port of entry is primarily manifested through infrastructure, the essence and richness of the project comes to life here at the core. The usually domineering architecture of federal facilities, is dampened here by the landscape that hides the mass of the building, shifting all of the focus architectonically and symbolically to the open, public space. The gradual lifting of the earth pulls people in towards the public plaza where the complex is reduced to four facades. The two principal facades face each other north-south. Mexico looking toward the U.S. and the U.S looking toward Mexico. It sets up a centripetal relation rather than centrifugal. It focuses within...or between the gradient lines of two intersecting cultures.

Top Right: Native American tapestries Below: Zocalo, Mexico City

The plaza offers a welcoming space for parents to wait to see their children off in the morning and then receive them in the comfort of the shade, protected from the high desert afternoon sun. The hardscape pattern coupled with varied landscape of the plaza resembles a Native American or Native Mexican tapestry breathing life, color, texture, and rhythm into the space. The plaza serves to thicken the border line by allowing (at least within the bounds of the plaza) for people to occupy the border, bending its limits to show that it is more than just an arbitrary line imposed on a map. It acts as a true democratic space of two peoples.

More than just a place of waiting or congregation, flexible spaces allow for impromptu events. It has ample seating, hard and soft-scaped paths, a small amphitheater, and ample space to host markets and festivals where vendors from both sides can buy and sell goods without having to cross into the other country - but exchange within the border itself.

The term zócalo is taken from the main public plaza in Mexico City for its symbolic reference as a cultural plinth.

Zocalo - Upper Plaza on the border looking toward POV Primary canopy 175

PATTERN OF NATIVE TAPESTY 8’

LOCAL, DURABLE MATERIALS A

granite

4’

B

concrete

2’ 1’ 1’

C

brick pavers travertine

2’

B

4’

C

D A

8’

D

4’

A

2’ 1’ 1’

B C D

2’

A

4’

B

8’

C

4’

D

2’ 1’ 1’

A

2’

D

4’

A

8’

B

SHADED SEATING TO WAIT FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN

FLEXIBLE PLAZA TO HOST BI-NATIONAL MARKETS

EXCHANGE OF GOODS, CULTURE, AND EDUCATION

B C

PLAZA - LANDSCAPE/HARDSCAPE DETAIL

ROCKS BEDS HELP COLLECT AND STORE RUN-OFF

0’

2’

4’

8’

NATIVE PLANTS & SHADE TREES: HONEY MESQUITE MEXICAN BUCKEYE DESERT WILLOW ARIZONA ASH ARIZONA SYCAMORE

16’

ACCENT PLANTS: GRAMA VARIATIONS YUCCA VARIATIONS HARVARD AGAVE DESERT BROOM INDIAN RICEGRASS

1

1

1

2

8

7

3

9

4 6 10

10

5 6

Zocalo: Bi-national Plaza Plan 3 0’

8 7

2 1

1

1

177

8’

16’

32’

64’

1. Predestrian Crosswalks 2. School Bus Drop Off 3. Zocalo - Lower Plaza 4. Zocalo - Upper Plaza 5. Border Skylight to Kiva below 6. Ramps down into Kiva, Multi-Ciltural Center 7. Vertical Circulation into Kiva, Multi-Ciltural Center 8. Shaded Waiting Area and Market Space 9. Ampitheater 10. LPOE Canopy and Booth

COMMERICAL INSPECTION

BUS CANOPY

UPPER ZOCALO

COMMERCIAL DOCK

PEDESTRIAN CROSSWALK

SHADED WAITING AREA FLEXIBLE PLAZA BINATIONAL MARKET

DEDICATED CBP/ SCHOOL BUS LANE

INTERNATIONAL PLAZA - LAND/HARDSCAPE DETAIL

ROCK BEDS AND SURFACE DRAINAGE

NATIVE DESERT VEGITATION AND XERO-SCAPE

Zocalo - Upper Plaza on the border looking toward POV Primary canopy

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Again pulling from indigenous southwestern culture, the kiva is another architectural symbol of community. Unique in its vernacular architectural response, a kiva was simply an underground, circular cultural hall that hosted a myriad of larger events ranging from community gatherings, religious rituals, and even celebrations.

Since most parents of the school children cannot even pass the doors of the existing land port of entry, attending parent-teacher conferences, school plays, or other events is out of the question. Similarly to the kiva, the excavated cultural hall generates an opportunity where parents, students, educators, community leaders or any citizen, can come together. It houses a cultural hall and performance space, exhibition space, classrooms, and meeting rooms. This flexible space is meant to provide an opportunity for casual or formal encounter that does not currently exist.

Much like the plaza above, this multi-cultural space lies directly on the border line...in this case also under it. The only architectural indicator below the surface however, is the long, linear skylight that lies on the border. The void of the actual border creates a poetic play of light and shadow. While the border may be static (even if just for now), the light dances around the room showing that the influence and weight of the threshold remains constantly dynamic. The downward spiraling ramps into the lower kiva also create an eddy of circulation and down play the border line itself bringing citizens of one country across the line into the other but then back into their home country by the time they reach the lower level. It is this precise mixing or cultural, commercial, and cultural symbols that creates a space that is loved and well used.

The Great Kiva in the Chettro Kettle plaza

6

6

9

5

5

0’

3 8

7

4 11

UP

10

10 UP

1

2 7

7

4

4 7

8

3

5

5

9

6

181

8’

16’

32’

1. Kiva Cultural Hall & Performance Hall 2. Inner Lobby & Atrium 3. Foyer 4. Exhibition Space 5. Classroom/Meeting Room 6. Restrvooms 7. Storage 8. Janitor 9. Vertical Circulation to Zocalo above 10. Ramps up to Zocalo above 11. Mechanical

4 7

Kiva: Multi- Cultural Center

6

64’

Section along the border 6” = 1’

Kiva: section along the border 0’

8’

16’

32’

64’

International Plaza above Kiva Cultural Center below

NS Section across the border Kiva: section 1/16” = 1’ crossing the border 0’

8’

16’

32’

64’

EMBEDDED STACKED GLASS AS RISERS ALLOWS FOR SOFT AMBIENT GLOW

LARGER APERTURES IN SEATING AREA ALLOW MORE GLOW ON THE NORTH SIDE

STAIR DETAIL 1” = 1’

183

BORDER SKYLIGHT

“KIVA” CULTURAL CENTER

ZOCALO & KIVA CULTURAL CENTER SECTION

LOWER PLAZA

UPPER PLAZA ZOCALO

VERTICAL CIRCULATION

RAMP WAY

INNER LOBBY ATRIUM

EXHIBITION SPACE

CLASSROOM/ MEETING ROOM

SOFT AMBIENT LIGHT FROM STACKED GLASS RISERS

UPPER PLAZA “ZOCALO”

SOFT AMBIENT LIGHT FROM STACKED GLASS RISERS

LOWER PLAZA

DROP CEILING

RADIAL BEAM STRUCTURE

NATURAL LIGHT POURINS IN FROM VERTICAL CIRCULATION CORE

PLAZA STAIR DETAIL

INNER LOBBY/ATRIUM

RAMP WAYDOWNWARD TO CULTURAL CENTER

185

EXHIBITION SPACE

Ziva Skylight - Winter Solstice

Ziva Skylight - Spring/Fall Equinox

Ziva Skylight - Summer Solstice

187

Ramp down to Inner Lobby and Kiva

Kiva Inner Lobby and ramp up to surface 189

Inner Lobby with a glimpse into the Kiva

BORDERS & BANDAIDS READ BETWEEN THE LINES Works Cited: Alberti, Leon Battista. On the Art of Building in Ten Books. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1988. Print.

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Print.

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Rykwert, Joseph. The Idea of a Town: The Anthropology of Urban Form in Rome, Italy and the Ancient World. Cambridge, MA: n.p., 1976. Print.

Ward, Janet, Marc Silberman, and Karen E. Till. Walls, Borders, Boundaries: Spatial and Cultural Practices in Europe. New York: Berghahn, 2012. Print.

Wayne, Curtis B. Shape of Things That Work: The Fourth Architecture. S.l.: Createspace, 2013. Print.

Parcell, Stephen. Four Historical Definitions of Architecture. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s UP, 2012. Print.

Tavernor, Robert. On Alberti and the Art of Building. New Haven: Yale UP, 1998. Print.

Sadowski-Smith, Claudia. Globalization on the Line: Culture, Capital, and Citizenship at U.S. Borders.

New York: Palgrave, 2002. Print.

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Unwin, Simon. Doorway. London: Routledge, 2007. Print.

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BORDERS & BANDAIDS READ BETWEEN THE LINES Photo Credits: Photo Credits: All photographs and drawings produced by David Polk, unless otherwise noted. p13 p13 p14 p15 p15 p17 p18 p18 p19

p19

p23 p23 p24 p27 p27 p28

p30 p30 p30 p30 p30

Paradise – Garden of Eden; http://widehdwalls.com/41105-paradise/ Skull Valley from the Cedar Mountain Wilderness area; http://www.oddlyhistorical.com/tag/ weird-science/page/3/ Jerusalem – The Western Wall; Golasso, 18 November 2005; https://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/File:Westernwall2.jpg Porta San Paolo, Rome; Larry Amoroma, 2009; http://larry-amoroma.blogspot.com/2009/12/ advent-calendar-roman-gate-1.html Capitoline Wolf; Benutzer Wolpertinger, June 2005; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:She-wolf_suckles_Romulus_and_Remus.jpg Eye of the Needle; ; http://www.joe-ks.com/archives_may2013/EyeOfANeedle.htm Great Wall of China; http://thegreatwallofchinaheritagesite.weebly.com/facts-and-a-travelguide-to-the-great-wall-of-china.html Great Wall of China; http://www.gala-wisata.co.id/tour/detail/best-of-beijing-shanghai Berlin Wall; Haure-Petersen, Rasmus; German Unity: 25th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall; BBC News, November 20th, 2014; https://bbisnewspaper.wordpress.com/2014/11/20/ german-unity-25th-anniversary-of-the-fall-of-the-berlin-wall/ Berlin Wall; Haure-Petersen, Rasmus; German Unity: 25th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall; BBC News, November 20th, 2014; https://bbisnewspaper.wordpress.com/2014/11/20/ german-unity-25th-anniversary-of-the-fall-of-the-berlin-wall/ Mime Sword Fight; http://themetapicture.com/page/6/ Fencing: http://briandruciak.blogspot.com The Great Wall of America: https://iliketowastemytime.com/great-wall-america Did You Know... Century-Old Obelisks Mark U.S.-Mexico Boundary Line? http://www.cbp.gov/ about/history/did-you-know/obelisk Did You Know... Century-Old Obelisks Mark U.S.-Mexico Boundary Line? http://www.cbp.gov/ about/history/did-you-know/obelisk David Taylor, Working the Line, 2010; Taylor, David, Luis Alberto. Urrea, and Hannah Frieser.

David Taylor: Working the Line. Santa Fe, NM: Radius, 2010. Print http://www.dtaylorphoto. com/category.cfm?nL=0&nS=0 Humpty dumpty Jeep: http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/110212_border_roundup/ border-roundup-suspect-pleads-guilty-murder-brian-terry-killing/ Weaponized Architecture; http://thefunambulist.net/2014/05/18/weaponized-architecturereport-from-the-wall-of-the-fortress-of-the-globalized-north/ https://coarpeacemission.org/crisis-at-the-us-border-what-does-jesus-tell-us-to-do-a-catholicquandry-or-is-it/ http://www.bbc.com/mundo/video_fotos/2011/04/110412_galeria_fotos_muro_mexico_ estadosunidos.shtml http://thefunambulist.net/2014/05/18/weaponized-architecture-report-from-the-wall-of-thefortress-of-the-globalized-north/

p36-7 Border Marker, Josh Denmark; http://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/photo-gallery/photo/2013/12/ images-interest-border-marker-jd p50-1 Google Earth p55 American Gothic, Grant Wood, 1930, Art Institute of Chicago. p55 Mexican-American Gothic; http://www.freakingnews.com/Mexican-Immigration-Pics-35709.asp p99 Eddy http://ayresriverblog.com/2011/08/18/the-water-does-not-flow-there/ p104 Gully Erosion http://passel.unl.edu/pages/informationmodule.php?idinformationmodule=10860 25423&topicorder=18&maxto=7 p109 Weathered Corten Steel http://www.immediateentourage.com/corten-steel-texture/ p109 Rammed Earth http://nica7project.com/rammed-earth-overview/ p126 Existing Columbus, NM LPOE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Columbus_Port_of_Entry.jpg p174 Zocalo: http://eldeforma.com/2013/08/27/razon-retirada-cnte-zocalo/ p175 Native American Tapestries http://www.instappraisal.com/appraisal/pre-1900-nativeamerican-tapestry p180 Kiva: http://www.nps.gov/chcu/planyourvisit/casa-rinconada.htm

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