United States Land Port of Entry, Columbus, New Mexico Building, Architects, United States of America Architecture News

United States Land Port of Entry, Columbus, New Mexico

August 19, 2021

Design: Richter Architects

Location: New Mexico, USA

United States Land Port of Entry in Columbus, New Mexico

A BIA Contest winner

The Chihuahuan Desert at this location extends to the horizon in every direction with scant evidence of civilization to be seen. Grasslands create ribbons of yellow, gold, ochre, sage and grey.

Lone or clustered distant purple mountains break the horizon only occasionally, like huge rocks had been tossed at random. Man’s intervention into nature at this remote, natural and expansive place is sparse and happily not particularly impactful.

Ecosystems and habitats here are healthy and robust. This project site and landscape design create microcosms of regional ecologies – desert grasslands, desert scrub, desert washes, desert riparian landscapes, desert oasis.

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.

Brick masonry is at the core of both the performance and expressive qualities of this design. Its durability is critical to the resilience of this heavy-use facility. Its mass helps moderate the diurnal thermal shifts of the desert just as earthen structures have for millennia.

The unbroken horizontality and desert colors of the random striated coursing creates a remarkable restatement of the expansive landscape horizon, connecting the building to the land that is at the center of culture and community here. This project is certified LEED Platinum and has earned a 2020 AIA COTE Top Ten Award (from AIA Committee on the Environment), a national recognition as one of America’s best designs for sustainability.

COTE Top Ten evaluates sustainability metrics of integration, community, ecology, water, economy, energy, wellness, resources, change and discovery. The use of brick in this project made tangible contributions to performance in integration, community, economy, energy, change and resources.

The most important contribution this project seeks to make is to teach by example to 800+ school children that traverse the site twice a day that a building and its environs can humbly but creatively respect, celebrate, and harmonize with a beautiful, diverse, powerful yet fragile natural place.

Architect:
Richter Architects, United States of America
Name: Elizabeth Chu Richter, FAIA
Phone: 3618169938
Email:[email protected]

Brick Manufacturer:
Summit Brick Company

* Mason Contractor
Beaty Masonry Company, LLC
Email: [email protected]

Photographers:
* Photographer Name(s): Robert Reck; David Richter, FAIA; Elizabeth Chu Richter, FAIA
* Email: Mail to:[email protected]

Brick Industry Association
12007 Sunrise Valley Drive
Suite 430
Reston, VA 20191

United States Land Port of Entry, Columbus, New Mexico
2020 BIA Contest

United States Land Port of Entry, Columbus, New Mexico images / information received 180821

2021 Brick in Architecture Awards

2020 Brick in Architecture Awards

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