Border fusion / Fusión en la frontera : integrating industry, habitation and exchange in a divided city

The urban fabric of communities along San Diego/Tijuana's la Línea or border wall are characterized by high degrees of spatial fragmentation: -- a condition typical of border interface areas in politically partitioned or divided cities. Despite being centrally located relative to population and activity centers and their economic and social importance as sites for border crossings, these communities are sites of contention which have tended to attract a mixture of conventionally undesirable development programs. The critical interface connecting the US and Mexican halves of the city is, in substantial measure, a "no-man's-land." This thesis considers one such border community, San Diego's Otay Mesa district, and proposes a long-term urban design strategy for its transformation into mixed-use neighborhoods with the border wall itself as a key activating and organizing spatial element. What is a physical expression of urban form in Otay Mesa that simultaneously accommodates frequently conflicting national, local and environmental objectives for the site? How may man-made infrastructures and natural site systems be exploited, restructured and interlaced to facilitate the redevelopment of the site? What design interventions will improve the physical and social connections between San Diego and Tijuana, and support these connections by developing a new activity center at Otay Mesa? What will life be like in the neighborhoods that will emerge from this redevelopment? The proposed strategy takes the form of an integrated urban and landscape design and programming framework developed to achieve and supplement planning objectives for the site while overcoming proximity-related land-use incompatibilities.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Wei, Albert S. (Albert Shuan)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Dennis Frenchman and Adèle Naudé Santos.

• Urban Studies and Planning.
• Architecture.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/42007

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/42007