United States Land Port of Entry Calais, Maine
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UNITED STATES LAND PORT OF ENTRY Calais, Maine 4 Background 7 A Team Assembles, A Design Emerges 16 Site Development and Landscaping 22 Security Technology 24 Design of a Second Skin 28 Biographies: The Architect, Engineer, and Landscape Architect 36 The Design and Construction Team 38 U.S. General Services Administration and the Design Excellence Program Our intention is to create a building that embodies the spirit of the United States as welcoming and secure, now and in the future. Robert Siegel Principal, Robert Siegel Architects 2 3 BACKGROUND Since 1935, the Ferry Point Land Port of New Brunswick Ministry of Transportation Entry has bridged the bustling downtowns launched the effort in 1999 to build of Calais, Maine, and Saint Stephen, New a larger land port of entry supporting Brunswick. Perched at the top of an upside- Ferry Point as well as a second port in down-U-shaped stretch of the St. Croix nearby Milltown. All truck traffic would River, Ferry Point marks the shortest be directed through this new third port. route between the Canadian Maritime Provinces and northeastern New England. The respective departments of transport Yet as far back as the 1960s, usage of the ation led the community effort to identify 3/4-acre facility had outstripped capacity. and analyze a new home for the anticipated By 1997, “It wasn’t uncommon to have facility, holding more than a dozen public four- and five-hour-long waits,” says Tim stakeholder meetings concerning site selection Donnell, then-supervisor for the United through 2003. The group, which fielded States Customs Service, now part of U.S. valuable input from both the U.S. General Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Services Administration (GSA) and CBP, Vehicle inspections sometimes took ultimately chose a 53-acre site in southern place along city streets. Calais—roomy enough to allow any future building and to accommodate faster-paced Trucks servicing the paper industry counted changes in security technology. among the traffic congesting Ferry Point and spilling into Calais and Saint Stephen, Upon that selection, GSA, with CBP some of them carrying hazardous materials. as its primary tenant, began the process “The fear was that one of those trucks of acquiring the new land parcel. GSA was going to have an accident on down completed a feasibility study as well as town streets,” Donnell says. Aware of cost estimates and, based on those data, that possibility and best positioned to it secured congressional funding for site understand state and provincial trans acquisition and design development in portation networks, officials of the Maine 2004. Two years later Congress authorized Department of Transportation and the construction funding for the Calais project. 4 5 A TEAM ASSEMBLES, A DESIGN EMERGES In November 2002, New York–based design team that would sit for an interview architect Robert Siegel spotted an the following month. “In preparation for October 31 solicitation for an Indefinite that event,” Siegel remembers, “we realized Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) we didn’t know enough about land ports contract to design land ports of entry of entry to distinguish ourselves from the nationwide. He had just 10 days to very formidable group of competitors on submit portfolio materials, plus a general the shortlist.” statement of design intent, for the two-stage consideration process. Immediately Siegel sent an email to 75 friends and colleagues who cross the Siegel says he began pursuing opportunities border regularly, surveying their encounters with GSA through its Design Excellence there. Questioned as to how long they Program in the mid-1990s. “Design would wait for a primary inspection Excellence is a fantastic initiative: The without feeling frustrated, respondents primary criteria for selection are design generally noted 15 minutes. “When we quality and architectural thinking about asked people about their experiences a specific project,” he says. The land port crossing the border,” Siegel also recalls, of entry IDIQ held particular appeal. “they often described a sense of arrival “How do we move from one place to and a feeling of excitement, which I hadn’t another, and how do we celebrate that? anticipated. It was an event that meant I’ve been teaching since 1986 and the something to people, even though the idea of a threshold is a powerful and border buildings themselves were perceived compelling concept that we explore as utilitarian.” in every project.” To gain additional expertise, Siegel decided After making the selection process’ first to analyze, firsthand, the border and its cut in December 2002, Robert Siegel unique building type. For three days in late Architects assembled an interdisciplinary December 2002 he and project architect 6 7 CANADA Eduardo Ramos visited two dozen land Architects won the IDIQ contract, and in ports of entry along the U.S.–Canadian late 2003 the firm got its first chance at UNITED STATES boundary. Like stitching a seam, the pair conceiving larger land port facilities. From totaled 839 miles driving back and forth a five-team shortlist GSA tapped the New over the imaginary line in the landscape. Yorkers to conduct a program development Siegel and Ramos noted that some ports study for the new land port of entry in clung to natural boundaries and others to Calais, and in 2005 GSA chose the same busy highways. Some buildings punctuated team to design the facility itself. sleepy rural landscapes, while others appeared embedded in denser urban Frederick R. Amey, the Boston-based environments. GSA project manager who saw the Calais project to completion, explains Commonly, though, these Prohibition-Era that land-port traffic traditionally flows facilities revealed their age. The creation down the middle of a port site. To undergo of the Department of Homeland Security primary inspection, vehicles pass through had combined the United States Customs a structure reminiscent of a toll plaza; Service and United States Immigration further stages of inspection may take and Naturalization under the CBP banner; place in adjunct zones that often require Siegel observed buildings that included CBP officers to cross active traffic lanes. bifurcated changing rooms, supervisors’ offices, and other features as if they still In determining a first design decision housed two mutually exclusive agencies. for Calais, Siegel did not take that Equally frequently, the ports were small configuration for granted. The architect in scale and approachable—seemingly credits civil engineer Tom Kennedy, a casual vernacular roadside structures. Says principal at Arup, for helping to rethink Siegel, “We wanted to maintain that sense the arrangement. Siegel recalls the collab of openness, even in a facility that would orators’ shared interest in minimizing be many times as large.” Robert Siegel pavement to preserve the landscape, and Site Plan 8 9 says that that requires carefully choreog substantial reduction over a comparable between the passenger and commercial and transferring detainees through this raphing traffic. Otherwise, “you have to 100,000-square-foot port. zones without having to cross traffic lanes area lessens opportunity for flight. create a gigantic sea of pavement in order or endure Maine’s winter weather. to accommodate vehicle turning.” Siegel could have distributed the area to In all, the design consolidates secure a building or buildings within this smaller Kennedy also points out that, compared perimeter functions within the footprint Concurring, Kennedy also notes that footprint, and then configured that scheme to a single bar building, Siegel’s bifurcated of the building. “It was clever,” Amey tightly defined circulation prevents in numerous ways. Kennedy remembers scheme “allows the people who work there says, “because it minimized the fences “gymnastics,” such as a difficult turn the philosophical discussion that ensued, to feel safe and secure and to do their and other obstructions that could give the for a commercial vehicle to back into an hypothesizing, “As a border crossing, do we job in the most efficient way,” because port the appearance of a detention facility. enclosed bay for whole-truck inspection. want to draw a line in the sand, or to blend the geometric forms minimize distances It represents, in a very positive light, So the design team decided that its work, in and be welcoming?” Siegel echoes the between different functions. It also creates our federal agencies’ work at the border.” as Kennedy puts it, “would be decided question, asking whether, in the post-9/11 sight lines that allow officers to visually He continues: “CBP officers require a by a process, not a building: We want era, “buildings become fortresses, or do confirm fellow occupants’ safety. regulated sequence of movements. In many functionality to turn vehicles around; we make great buildings that are open?” ways, the designer’s role is to address these we want the minimum number of moves Siegel’s two-part massing takes additional safety issues for both visitors and CBP staff for trucks. The facility also needs to be Siegel chose to be welcoming, by evoking advantage of the site’s topography. The before any form-making can take place.” intuitive, so any driver knows where to go the approachable, informal structures of ground ascends slightly in the midpoint Starting with a frugal approach to the without necessarily reading signs. If you his research road trip. A majority of the of the port site; “Rob said we could work facility’s impact on the landscape, Siegel’s take those parameters as a guide, you’re port program is housed in a mirrored pair with the rise of the site, manipulating design serves the best interests of CBP staff providing a performance-based solution of L-shaped volumes at the center of the it to cost-effectively place staff parking and incoming travelers while cutting an rather than a design-based solution.” site, 48 feet apart at their closest point.