AISC presented members of the project team of the Mariposa Land Port of Entry border crossing, Nogales, Ariz., with the 2016 IDEAS2 Award for excellence in steel-frame building design during a ceremony on Tuesday at Jones Studio architects’ new office in Tempe, Ariz.
The Mariposa Land Port of Entry is one of the busiest land ports in the U.S. Processing over 2.8 million northbound vehicles each year and serving as the entry point to 37% of the produce imported to the U.S. from Mexico, it was in need of modernization and expansion due to the growth in trade since it was built in the 1970s. Completed in 2014, the updated 55-acre site now contains 270,000 sq. ft of buildings, inspection facilities and kennels for both south- and northbound traffic.
“Simple materials beautifully detailed,” commented William Bradford, an assistant director/project manager with the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Office for Capital Programs, and the owner juror in the competition. “The design fits the desert location.”
The most distinguishing feature of the project is the large amount of exposed structural steel throughout the site. The most prominent of these structures is the large shade canopy spanning across the entry to the port. The canopy’s trusses provide shade from the desert sun, facilitate overhead inspection of vehicles by way of a continuous catwalk and create the dynamic red, white and blue entry threshold to the U.S.
For more about the project and all of this year’s IDEAS2 award winners, see the article 2016 IDEAS2 Awards from our May issue.
(Mariposa Land Port of Entry photo at right: Bill Timmerman)