DHS Customs and Border Protection

Photos

(Click each for a larger version)

DHS Customs and Border Protection photo #1
DHS Customs and Border Protection photo #2
DHS Customs and Border Protection photo #3

Citation of Merit

  • 4240 Architecture Inc.
  • JDL Castle Corp.
  • Division Institutional
  • Location Van Horn, TX

Overview

The architects here responded almost viscerally to their desert site. Invoking images of discarded metal and bone, polished and eroded by exposure to wind and sun, they envisioned a structure that would suggest was shaped by those harsh constants, too. Formed by four discontinuous metal ribbons stretched over simple, low concrete walls, the roof would also perform as an airfoil, drawing southern wind into their undulations in order to pull stagnant air up away from the structure below. The architects "established a thesis and developed it," a juror said approvingly. "It's very conceptual, but it has a practical reason for being what it is." Along with echoing the desert's stark power, according to the architects, the structure's materials, shapes and technology offer mute testimony to the steadfast work of the border agencies it houses.