PERSPECTIVES: A Discussion on Mariposa Land Port of Entry

June 23, 2021 at 1 PM Eastern

Vimeo, FB Live + IGTV (@bmcmuseum)

Completed in 2014, the modernization of the Mariposa Land Port of Entry on the border of Arizona and Mexico has come to represent a new standard for architecture and design for United States border ports, awarded a GSA Design Excellence Program Honor Award In Architecture and American Institute of Architects National Institute Honor Award, among others. Mariposa was designed and implemented by Jones Studio, the celebrated architectural, interior design, public art, and planning firm founded by Eddie Jones in 1979. Imagined as a garden oasis, Mariposa balances the functional needs of a border port with environmentalism and human dignity, prioritizing connection over division and celebrating the natural landscape shared by citizens of the United States and Mexico.

In this presentation and conversation, members of the design team expand on the principles that guided their process, discuss the human experience of traveling through Mariposa, and emphasize the ways in which public art, architecture, and landscape design can offer connection and nurture relationships across borders. 

A presentation on the development and design of Mariposa will be led by Jones Studio Inc. members Eddie M. Jones, FAIA, NCARB (Founder) and Brian C. Farling, AIA (Principal). Maria Salenger, AIA (Senior Associate, Jones Studio) will highlight the commissioned public art works integrated into the architecture. Landscape architect Chris Winters will speak to the garden environment and sustainability central to Mariposa’s success. 

GSA Art-in-Architecture commissioned artists whose work is showcased at Mariposa include Kimsooja (An Album: Sewing into Borderlines, 2013) and Matthew Moore (Passage, 2014). Artist Joan Baron’s poem and accompanying public art piece, The Pledge (2013), will also be discussed.

The landscape of Mariposa Land Port of Entry was designed by Chris Winters + ARC Studios Landscape Architecture (Eric Barrett and Todd Mumma).