Project Details
- Project Name
- U.S. Land Port of Entry, Columbus, N.M.
- Architect
- Richter Architects
- Client/Owner
- U.S. General Services Administration (GSA)
- Project Types
- Infrastructure
- Project Scope
- New Construction
- Shared by
- Hanley Wood
- Project Status
- Built
Expanded Coverage of the 2020 COTE Top 10 Awards appeared in the October 2020 issue of ARCHITECT.
A Land Port of Entry on the U.S.-Mexico border leverages the ecologies of the Chihuahuan Desert to create a transparent, welcoming, and sustainable environment for visitors.
What were the main design goals of the scheme?
Elizabeth Chu Richter, FAIA, principal: Ports of entry are complex projects; there are a lot of moving parts. You have to be efficient and economical, and on top of that, you have the added value of sustainability, flexibility, comfort, and that welcoming presentation we want for travelers.
David Richter, FAIA, principal: The environment here is extraordinary; the natural beauty is profound. It has an incredible macro scale, where you can see for dozens of miles—and because it’s sparsely populated, there are vast areas where there’s virtually no sign of human intervention at all. But immediately at the site, it’s quite neighborly. It’s a porous border and a cross-cultural place, so we wanted architecture that is very connected to the land, and that is scaled to the pedestrian, despite the wide open spaces. There are lots of pedestrians that cross back and forth, every day.
How were sustainable strategies prioritized in this design process?
Chu Richter: The Chihuahuan Desert is what binds the two countries together here. So the resources, the beauty of that land, is what we wanted to share and preserve. Because we had to create distance between the border and the processing—it’s about 500 feet—we wanted to create this opportunity to showcase the beauty of that environment. To create these park-like grounds that people go through every day and appreciate.
One of the factors about this site is the rain. You have a lack of water—it’s a desert—but you also have summer monsoons, which send an over-abundance of water and result in flooding. Managing and harvesting water are sustainable elements that we worked into this landscape.
Another is daylight, which we harvest in the port of entry building via roof monitors—an integrated modular system we designed that maximizes light capture. We tried to bring in a sense of transparency and openness.
What is the biggest lesson learned from this project?
Richter: We were obviously proud that the building was certified LEED Platinum—you don’t get that without being diligent and scrupulous, without doing everything that you can to be sustainable. But it’s about more than making sure that your paint doesn’t off-gas. When we first started doing work in the desert years ago, we were struck that it’s about what’s under your feet and over your head—the earth and the sky. Sustainable design is a matter of making sure your heart and head are in the right place.
Metrics Snapshot:
ECOLOGY
Mandatory Metrics
Percentage of site area designed to support vegetation: 54
Percentage of site area supporting vegetation before project began: 42
Percentage of landscaped areas covered by native or climate-appropriate plants supporting native or migratory animals: 100
For a full list of metrics, visit aia.org.
Project Description
This project is a winner of a 2020 AIA COTE Top Ten Award.
From the AIA:
The project is a remote port of entry in the Chihuahuan Desert adjacent to Puerto Palomas, Mexico. Best known for its frontier history and Pancho Villa’s brief incursion, this border crossing now accommodates daily pedestrians, private vehicles, commercial (primarily agricultural) goods, and 800-plus school children who cross each day to go to school in the United States.
While providing safe, efficient, and expanded international entry processing for people and goods, this new port of entry design aspires to welcome travelers to America with architecture that inspires and conveys our country’s better virtues—architecture that serves and respects all people, embraces culture, conserves resources, nurtures ecology, protects habitat, celebrates diversity, and conveys a love of the land. The design’s integrated and expressed response to this breadth of sustainability opportunities is the mechanism for creating and conveying this message. The rhythm and silhouette of photovoltaic, clerestoried roof monitors echo distant mountains. Colored brick strata and weathered steel extend the patterns of earth and grasses that reach the horizon. Terraced native landscaping and sculpted ground plane tell visitors the story of the scarcity, the power, and the harvest of water in the desert. Shaded exteriors and daylit interiors shelter and harness the desert sun.
