A student competition entry done with two friends over the summer. The project Borderline Genius arose from the group’s firsthand knowledge growing up together in the southern border region of the United States. Using El Paso as a case study we hope to create scalable and flexible solutions for the entire United States border that can be rolled out across the four states it borders. The border itself is a unique piece of infrastructure, a razor thin, single purpose, multi-billion dollar investment that has had powerful impacts on the cities and states in both countries it cuts through. By studying the communities of El Paso, Nogales and San Diego it was easy to see that the risk of the border failing is not potential, it is current. Like a well-intentioned highway that successfully aids traffic through cities but in exchange decimates neighborhoods and cripples local businesses, the border may (debatably) keep the United States border secure from illegal immigration and drug traffic, but it has utterly failed to serve the cites the walls are part of. The wall in most places seems to have an uneasy relationship with the city, urban fabric is pulled back from the walls. The most expensive piece of infrastructure in many border towns is actually the least noticed or used. Border walls are seen as a necessary evil, to be avoided when possible and crossed quickly. The aim of our interventions is to develop resilient solutions for the Southwest by leveraging the existing border structures while minimizing the socioeconomic consequences of the divide. By creating faster border crossing with better transportation we can aid local economies and by turning the border into not just a wall but a part of the cities it occupies, a linear strip of shaded walking paths, gathering areas and gardens the cities can begin to reconcile and engage with the wall.
