{"id":53396,"date":"2020-06-12T13:40:23","date_gmt":"2020-06-12T19:40:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/architects-earn-design-awards-for-n-m-port-of-entry\/"},"modified":"2020-06-12T19:40:23","modified_gmt":"2020-06-12T19:40:23","slug":"architects-earn-design-awards-for-n-m-port-of-entry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/architects-earn-design-awards-for-n-m-port-of-entry\/","title":{"rendered":"Architects earn design awards for N.M. port of entry"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Cross-border
Cross-border students cross at the new $85.6 million port of entry between Palomas, Mexico and Columbus, New Mexico on May 27. A new Columbus port of entry, designed by Corpus Christi, Texas-based Richter Architects, has earned recognition from the American Institute of Architects and Texas Society of Architects.<\/span>Mark Lambie\/The El Paso Times via AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Columbus port of entry, designed by Corpus Christi-based Richter Architects, has earned recognition from the American Institute of Architects and Texas Society of Architects.<\/p>\n

The port \u2013 with its wide covered walkway, solar panel-topped roof and south-facing windows \u2013 is built largely of the same rusted steel as the border wall. But the look and feel of the port is design to invite in, not keep out.<\/p>\n

The slated roof undulates like the mountainous desert landscape that surrounds it.<\/p>\n

Indigenous plants and grasses thrive in stepped landscaping around the walkways to trap water where rains used to flood the port and clog walkways with thick mud. It makes for a safer passage for the hundreds of U.S. citizen children who cross from Palomas each weekday to attend school in Columbus.<\/p>\n

The new design also re-routed cargo traffic into a new, broadly shaded dock, where U.S. Customs and Border Protection can more comfortably inspect tractor-trailers.<\/p>\n

\"Columbus
Columbus Elementary School students walk alone across the the new port of entry between Columbus and Palomas as the sun rises behind them.<\/span>Mark Lambie\/The El Paso Times via AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The $85.6 million project, finished in 2018, replaced a tired customs building dating to 1989.<\/p>\n

\u201cLand ports of entry generally are very complicated,\u201d said Elizabeth Chu Richter, half of the port design team that includes her husband, David Richter. \u201cThey\u2019re multi-modal. You have passenger vehicles coming through, pedestrians, cargo. or even a dog. There can be a lot of chaos.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat this project tried to do is bring a sense of order and a sense of welcome as you cross the border on a daily basis,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s to really humanize it, to make it a feel-good experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The American Institute of Architects recently awarded the port its \u201cCommittee on the Environment\u201d Top 10 award for design excellence and sustainability. The award judges projects on the basis of their social, economic and ecological value.<\/p>\n

The award jury commented: \u201cA port of entry is a challenging building type. The designers in this project not only met that challenge, but achieved more by showing us how the architecture of any kind can make human environments healthy and dignified. This is a thoughtful, durable building made to last.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Students
Students line up at the new $85.6 million port of entry between Palomas, Mexico and Columbus, New Mexico as they commute to school.<\/span>Mark Lambie\/The El Paso Times via AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Separately, the Texas Society of Architects chose the Columbus port design as one of 19 projects recognized from 205 entries around the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an effort to connect people with the land they inhabit and to create a space where crossing the border can be celebrated, once again,\u201d wrote Jesse Miller, an architect at Megamorphosis in Harlingen, for Texas Architect magazine.<\/p>\n

John Monahan, the union representative for CBP officers in the El Paso field office, which includes New Mexico ports, said \u201cit\u2019s a good-looking port.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAside from the way it looks, it\u2019s more functional,\u201d he added. \u201cThe cargo facility is way better. Before, it was very, very small. Especially during chile season, you didn\u2019t have a lot of room for the trucks to be in there. And it flows better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The port sees a surge in traffic in the late summer and autumn harvest seasons, as farmers in Mexico move green chile, jalape\u00f1os and other produce to processing plants on the U.S. side.<\/p>\n

\"Palomas,
Palomas, Mexico residents pass through the the new $85.6 million port of entry between Palomas, Mexico and Columbus, New Mexico on their way to school.<\/span>Mark Lambie\/The El Paso Times via AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cThere are sequences of emotion,\u201d Richter said. \u201cWhen you cross, there is a certain anticipation. There is an unknown. You don\u2019t know whether it will go easy or hard, whether you will be surprised in some way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chu Richter chimed in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a certain anxiety to crossing borders,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

David Richter continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen there is the passage,\u201dhe said, \u201cwhen you are released. There is almost a magical line that you cross and you feel, \u2018Now I am free to go.\u2019 It\u2019s a little bit of a roller coaster ride.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tried to humanize and clarify that experience,\u201d he said, \u201cso that along the way you are greeted with a pleasant space, natural light, a certain amount of beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cross-border students cross at the new $85.6 million port of entry between Palomas, Mexico and Columbus, New Mexico on May 27. A new Columbus port of entry, designed by Corpus Christi, Texas-based Richter Architects, has earned recognition from the American Institute of Architects and Texas Society of Architects.Mark Lambie\/The El Paso Times via AP The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[4447,815],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-53396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-architecture","tag-associated-press-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53396"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=53396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}