United States Land Port of Entry - San Ysidro, California

On average in 2015, U.S. Customs and Border Protection welcomed 1.05 million people to America through land ports of entry daily. A majority of inbound traffic originates from Mexico, but only one quarter of the nation's 167 land ports are located on the southern border. This combination of traveler volume and port density converges on the San Ysidro Land Port of Entry, which processes 50,000 northbound passenger and commercial vehicles and 25,000 pedestrians in the San Diego–Tijuana corridor every day. 

The jury was awestruck by the sheer magnitude of operations at San Ysidro, whose modernization is taking place in three phases. Fully operational since December 2014, phase one includes northbound primary and secondary inspection canopies that accommodate 34 lanes of traffic, as well as a northbound headhouse and the port operations buildings. Embracing logistics as its foremost concern, the design team sized and configured infrastructure and buildings to reduce wait times; budget, officer safety, and nonstop usage further informed master planning of the site, as well as construction phasing. 

Jurors noted how the successful planning of the land port thus far has social, economic, and environmental dimensions, as speeding up border inspection also increases traveler satisfaction, facilitates commerce, and reduces air pollution. Phase one embodies these values in overt ways, as well. The Design Awards panelists deemed the new structures’ dynamic and unintimidating appearance a visual antidote to the anxiety of border crossing, for example, and extolled the project team for pursuing water-management strategies that protect a nearby watershed and estuarine wildlife refuge.

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