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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2006 > June > 20 > Entry
Line drawing
I’m opposed to — appalled by — the proposal some lawmakers have made to build a barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border. So I find it a bit odd that the New York Times would ask a handful of prominent architects and designers to come up with a border fence.
Explaining it as a “classic design challenge” — huh? — the Times admitted that some designers turned them down, saying the challenge, however imaginary, wasn’t politically correct to begin with.
Those who did participate thankfully turned the idea of a barrier on its head.
Enrique Norton, who’s spent his career with one foot in his native Mexico and one foot in the U.S., proposed greater transportation infrastucture between the two countries. That’s smart.
Eric Owen Moss, who is designing the National Library of Mexico City among other projects around the world, imagines a procession of light columns that would illuminate the border and beckon toward the tunnels that would criss-cross underneath — tunnels adorned with murals celebrating the hybrid culture of the border. That’s nifty!
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