Video - Colonia Federal

Amateur Video + Images: Jaipal Singh *
Music: "Polaris" by Nortec Collective, Tijuana Sessions Vol. 1

*3 pics on Revolucion Avenue pics courtesy of Flickr

Concept Review- La Esperanza

Concept Review - Playas Corridor

FOUR SCHEMES FOR THE PLAYAS CORRIDOR
Below represent four ideas on how to organize and orchestrate the physical form of the corridor itself. This area of interest will effectively be my starting point for developing a scheme for the development of the Playas Corridor and adjacent development. Scheme 1 represents the rough ideas of IMPLAN which call for a one-way boulevard couplet scheme with development between the roads. In schemes 2 through 4 I have steered away from couplet schemes and focused on two way boulevard schemes. Currently I am considering a combination of schemes 2 and 3. The main thoroughfare would be shifted to the west (as in scheme 2) meaning more short bridge crossings towards the top of the canyons. However the mouths of these canyons would fall east of the corridor allowing residents of the eastern neighborhoods and Colonia Cumbres to access the canyonlands. The alignment of scheme 3's road would overlay onto scheme 2 essentially becoming a local or frontage road that could serve local needs and be more continuous. Mixed-use development on a more predestrian scale would occur along this frontage road. From here I will begin to explore sectional as well as planemetric qualities of the site and jump scale to understand some of the major intersections.

Concept Review - La Esperanza

Concept Review - Colonia Federal

Basemaps created to clarify site conditions:

Existing + Proposed Border Stations

Flows + Movement Systems
Borders + Boundaries

Out of this understanding came three proposals for the site:

COMMUNITY 'en' BORDER
Opening up the 'space' of the Border to allow the Arts District to flourish and take full advantage of this adjacency to the 'Line' in a continued dialogue between two nations in one place:

CROSS-CANAL CONNECTION
Infusing a large scale pedestrian connection back into Tijuana city, allowing a rich explosion of retail + civic space as well as cultural + performance venues at and along the Tijuana River Canal:

REGIONAL TRANSIT HUB
Amplifying the flows and movement systems already existing on site and proposing a more robust and structure public transit system (trolley, bus) for local traffic as well as introducing a regional transit station to identify the site as an arrival and departure point to/from many locations around the San Diego/Tijuana Region:

Concept Review- Laureles Canyon

The most difficult questions concerning the Laureles Canyon proposals address the relocation of residents in the flood plane. Since the last major flood was 15 years ago (an event that wiped out homes, killed many, and caused more than $20 millions worth of damage to the Tijuana River Estuary) it is difficult to convince current residents who have been living and building here for around 10 years that they could be in danger.

Mexico City - 9 June 2009

Text and Images to come.

Mexico City - 8 June 2009

Mexico City - 7 June 2009

Text and Images to come.

Mexico City - 6 June 2009

Text and Images to come.

Mexico City - 5 June 2009

Text and Images to come.

Mexico City - 4 June 2009

Text and Images to come.

Heriberto Yepez - lecture - 30 May 09 @ Woodbury

"Writing, in Tijuana, means writing about Tijuana."

Yepez is a philosopher, a writer, a journalist, a psychotherapist. Currently teaching at Universidad Autonoma de Baja California, he has published over a dozen books of poetry, essays, short stories and novels. Made in Tijuana (2005) and Tijuanologias (2006) are two of his examples of exploring the history, myth, and culture of the border town we know as Tijuana. His lecture focused on understanding Tijuana as a heterochrony, a time-place, separate from everything else. It altogether bypassed Modernism, and went straight into Postmodernism, thereby exposing itself as a hybrid, as something that isn't natural, and has no identity other than that which it holds. "Tijuanologies", a term popularized by Yepez, are those stories of the city which have given rise to what it has become: Tijuana as a "good time", as "sin city", as border culture, as anarchism, etc. Heriberto proposes that we change these views of Tijuana from "aesthetical" to "ethical." He asserts ethopoetics as the means to viewing Tijuana: adding a dimension of realism and humanity to the myth.

"...the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function." - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Crack Up

Oscar Romo - lecture - 27 May 09 @ Tijuana River Estuary

Oscar Romo is the Coastal Training Program Coordinator for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, based at the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve. He also teaches sustainable development and urban world systems at UC, San Diego. Oscar was helpful in our understanding of the Tijuana-San Diego region through an ecological approach. Not only do the two cities share a similar geography, but there must be a serious coordinated effort and awareness in dealing with the environmental concerns affecting both populations, both urban structures, and both nations. Oscar spent an entire day walking us through the multi-layered systems of understanding such a region through his detailed physical model of the region, various satellite maps, and a thorough site visit through both the Estuary as well as Laureles Canyon (to understand the implications that water in Tijuana has on land in San Diego).

Above: US-Mexico Border. Originally was an unseen 'line'. For years, it was simply the black fence extending into the water. Earlier this year, a second, taller fence was installed. This second fence creates a 'no-man's land' condition (...which is not so different from the Berlin Wall).

Tito Alegria - lecture - 28 May 09 @ El COLEF

Tito Alegria (Phd, USC) is professor and researcher at the Deparment of Urban and Environmental Studies at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte. His understanding of the urban economics helps in the ongoing dialogue between Tijuana and San Diego, and the larger US and Mexico relationships. Through his research and analysis, we come to understand the Tijuana-San Diego region as two cities, two economic and urban systems, rather than one all-encompassing metropolitan region (as put forth by Michael Dear). Tito's argument is that although the Tijuana economy is highly dependent on San Diego, the San Diego economy is not dependent on Tijuana. Tijuana's growth depends on the adjacency of structural differences between Mexico and the US. "What is bad for the Mexican economy is good for Tijuana."

Project 4: Playas de Tijuana

Playas de Tijuana is the coastal community of the city, a middle class suburb surrounded by lower income communities in the adjacent canyons. Working from the basic development ideas put forth by the Institute of Municipal Planning of the city of Tijuana (IMPLAN), the goal is to aid in the visualization and urban design of the specific partial plan currently developed. Current plans are to create this zone into a new economic and civic center for the larger community.

Project 3: Laureles Canyon

In continuation of the previous studio's research and planning for the edges of the Canyon creek, this studio will focus on the center area of the creek with the intention to conserve part of its natural characteristics. Currently, the area is inhabited on both sides of the creek by squatter settlements on the East side and more formal housing on the West side. The client (Oscar Romo c/o The Tijuana River Estuary) desires to reshape and conserve much of the creek's flood plain to utilize the space for community ammenities.

(place images here)

Project 2: La Esperanza

The site for the new La Esperanza Community is located in the Lomas del Valle area on the eastern edge of the Tijuana city limit. The area of the site for the proposed community is 1.3 hectares (3.2 acres). Lomas del Valle is part of a group of colonias created in the last 10 years by the city and state government through the relocation of families from high risk areas throughout the Tijuana and informal land acquisitions. The character of the community still preserves a rural quality and lacks sewer services. It is largely populated by low income residents that live in self-built homes. The client is Fundacion Esperanza de Mexico, A.C., a non-profit organization founded in 1990 to promote the development of such communities interested in increasing their quality of life through self-help.

Project 1: Colonia Federal

Above: La Casa del Tunel

Colonia Federal is a small community on the Tijuana side of the US-Mexico Border immediately adjacent to the San Ysidro Border Station. The older community consists of 8 blocks of relatively low residential lots (2-3 story buildings, typical). Currently, there are 500 hundred residents in the area. Adjacent to the housing is a deteriorating shopping complex, once intended as an economic anchor for the area, but now home to a variety of informal occupancies. In addition to the neighborhood, this area is host to a series of informal programs and economies, dealing with everything from taxi and bus transit, pharmacy and health care, auto import and title agencies, as well as tourist shopping. Finally, with the adjacent highway infrastructure (both existing and proposed), this area is essentially cut off from the center of Tijuana, and the greater region. Although this has helped maintain a relatively safe and authentic feel to the place, there is great concern for the neighborhood's future economic sustainability.


At the heart of Colonia Federal is la Casa del Tunel (the Tunnel House) owned by Luis & Gerda Ituarte. This historic Arts Center was once the location of an illegal tunnel which many used to cross the US-Mexico border before it was discovered in 2004. After several years of litigation, the owners have once again claimed this building with a vision to establish an artists community hoping help spark a new life and energy into the larger community.

Luis Ituarte

Preliminary meeting with Luis (Prof. Rene Peralta speaking)

Home for future potential community garden plots

US-Mexico Border (from La Casa del Tunel's Balcony)

US-Mexico Border traffic (from pedestrian bridge)

Street vendors work their way through the bumper-to-bumper traffic

Yellow taxis line the streets immediately outside the border crossing

Tijuana River Canal (1960's government project)

The only South/West pedestrian connection from Colonia Federal into Tijuana City

Illegal immigrants in the process of deportation...getting sent back into Mexico

Photos are typically not allowed here - this was taken in haste at 5:45am one morning while we were crossing into Tijuana. Illegals are lined up, names listed, and sent on their way. Many of them are from various parts of Mexico (not Tijuana), and have no relatives, no home, no money. Often, they find their way into Colonia Federal knocking on doors asking for help. As a resident, who's to know if someone is knocking on your door for legitimate need, or if they have criminal intentions behind their motives? There is need for a Migrants' Center.

Streetscape at the edge of Colonia Federal

The streets just outside Colonia Federal are lined with these auto agencies, looking for business with car imports. Across the street are many pharmacies, dentists, and health care providers primarly attracting US residents looking for cheaper services without the need for health insurance.

Enter Tijuana