To hear more from Siboney Díaz-Sánchez, listen to her interview on the ARCHITECT Podcast Network.
My mother, Beva Sánchez-Padilla, taught me a modified version of musical chairs: When the music stops, everyone works to create a space for the individual left standing. Someone not having a seat is a call to action for the collective.
My colleagues often tell me that I am “political.” Besides the fact that the buildings, land, and infrastructure I use and design are regulated by policy, being an apolitical architect is a luxury I cannot afford. My profession is less than 5 percent Latina. My being is politicized.
As a founding member and co-chair of AIA San Antonio’s Latinos in Architecture Committee (LiA), I work to make the design profession an accessible option for Latinx. Having a space—a community—in which you feel welcomed is powerful. It is important to take up space in a world that historically hasn’t considered the perspectives of people like you.
Though my formal education did not teach me about engaging with users, my upbringing did. Carving out a place and time for communities and earning their trust are simultaneously delicate and heavy skills necessary to cultural preservation and the design profession.
In City Council District 5 within San Antonio’s Westside, 94 percent of the population identifies as Hispanic or Latino/a/x. Though their culture helps power the city’s tourism industry, Westside and similar communities struggle with generations of disinvestment. Creeks, railroad tracks, industrial lots, a freeway, and a jail separate Westside from downtown San Antonio. In 2016, the average per capita income was $13,596, and one in three residents lived in poverty.
Last fall, the City of San Antonio asked LiA to help lead community meetings focused on reimagining capital improvements for Plaza Guadalupe, a public space in District 5. Alleging that the plaza had become a destination for drug activity and violent crime, the plaza’s managing organization had commissioned the design of a permanent fence that would limit access to users. Residents and local organizations saw the project as an attempt to privatize public space.
LiA’s efforts to engage the community came with a humbling learning curve—and we are better for it. When LiA co-hosted a free public event with the city’s Office of Innovation and DreamWeek San Antonio to understand how to better listen and implement feedback, attendees expressed frustration with the accountability, accessibility, and transparency of established engagement processes. When the feedback we received lacked generational diversity, we headed to the nearest middle school to talk to students about their plaza. We had to make the design process and architectural terminology accessible. Understanding how and where residents want to be heard was, and remains, paramount.
Communities expressed concerns that a fence would do nothing to address the systemic and societal issues that some associate with the plaza due to generations of disinvestment: homelessness, drugs, poverty, and racism. They wanted to see investment in health and human services, affordable housing, public education, public transit, and public spaces.
In response, we created two conceptual plans for public voting, both including programmatic, physical, and operational improvements. A version of the more popular plan—a compromise between the plaza management and community groups—was approved by the city’s Historic and Design Review Commission in April. The plaza’s main entrances will remain open, but fencing will be installed around select locations, such as the playground. The city has designated programming funds to activate the space; LiA will hold a youth design justice event there this fall.
Success in community engagement comes in many forms. Because architects are ultimately accountable to communities, we must integrate formal community outreach strategies into our practices. We must also be ready for outcomes tempered by realities.
Architecture is always political.
Editor's note: We regularly publish opinion columns that we think would be of service to our readers. The views and conclusions from these authors are not necessarily those of ARCHITECT magazine nor of The American Institute of Architects.
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