Author: Rene

Interview by Catherine M. Herbst

This interview will be published in the magazine Cuarta Pared, a Mexico City publication focusing on architecture art and design. Due april 2006.
Sera publicada en ingles y español.

Catherine, was born in the middle of 5 siblings in 1962, and after being raised in Pittsburgh, PA, Silver Springs MD, Ellicott City MD, and Los Alamos NM., she attended Montana State University and received a Bachelors of Architecture in 1995. In San Diego, she worked in a little firm, worked in a big firm, worked in a tiny firm, then landed at Rob Wellington Quigley FAIA in 1989. The work was comprised of houses for rich people, the Sherman Heights Community Center, Solana Beach Train Station, the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Hall, an early childhood education facility, a couple of competitions, a few big planning studies, a bunch of housing studies, the Balboa Park Activity Center and the Sun Field Station at Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve. Catherine’s work at Quigley’s office won numerous awards from the San Diego Chapter of the AIA. She is licensed in the state of California. In 2000 she formed a practice, Rinehart Herbst with Todd Rinehart, and since then has completed two houses, three additions, an office, and a strawberry stand that was converted into a Wetlands Learning Center for the San Dieguito River Park. The Strawberry Stand received a 2005Honor award from the San Diego AIA Chapter. She is an Associate Professor and Chair of the architecture program at Woodbury University San Diego. She has juried the New Mexico and Arizona AIA awards. Rinehart Herbst is currently working on modest residential work and a small-scale commercial development with nine of her closest friends.

The simultaneously archaic and hyper-modern ‘archetypal fact’ of twenty-first century architecture and urbanism will be the enclosure, the wall, the barrier, the gate the fence, the fortress.
Lieven De Cauter

Aqui es Tijuana / Here is Tijuana, is a two and half year urban research project and foremost, a collaboration between three friends, the anthropologist Fiamma Montezemolo, architect Rene Peralta and the writer Heriberto Yepez. We fused our disciplines and ideologies in an effort to document and rediscover the ubiquitous and unfathomable quality of the city’s urban representation. A project that culminated in a book who’s intention is not to abridge or resolve Tijuana‘s apparent chaos, but to engage the powers that act upon it and render its socio-cultural and urban form(s). Tijuana is similar to many other contemporary models of urban environments, yet it is also a fractal image of itself. A self similar procedural state where in every citizen exits a potential “here” of Tijuana.

In a search of a personal and informal discussion that could originate an innate response to the work, architect Catherine Herbst directs this interview in her San Diego office amid several cups of espresso and the cunning eye of a friend and an “American” trying to grasp the myth and realities that coalesce into images of this near yet bizarre place.

The conversation focuses on Aqui es Tiuana / Here is Tijuana, a 192 page book of images and texts due out in April of 2006 published by Black Dog Publishing, in London and with support from Instituto de Cultura de Baja California, Centro Cultural Tijuana -CONACULTA and Universidad Autonoma de Baja California. As well as an overview of the issues discussed in Worldview Cities Tijuana, a web based project of the Architectural League of New York realized in 2005 at www.worldviewcities.org.
Rene Peralta

Catherine M. Herbst. What is the value of the research as a generative source?

Rene Peralta. It is interesting because we began the research and initially the best thing we could do was put it in a book format and attempted to have an overall perspective of the last ten years through our three distinct personalities, visions, and disciplines. That was as much as we were able to do with it for now, because there is so much information and it is overwhelming and changing rapidly. So to be prescriptive is difficult.

CMH Why the three disciplines? Did you feel they would bring broadness to the discourse?

RP We never really discussed this formally, it just worked out. Heriberto had an idea to write a book discussing literature, literary concepts of and from Tijuana. I was preparing research for a book on downtown Tijuana, on the buildings of the 40’s and 50’s, the pseudo-modernist work. One day, Heriberto and I were discussing the two ideas and we thought to fuse them together, instead of working on a certain part or aspect of Tijuana, why not just ‘a’ book on Tijuana? We decided that we needed a third person, someone who was foreign, who would not be numb by Tijuana, and someone who could see beyond what we already knew. We had just met Fiamma Cordero de Montezemolo and Fiamma was working at COLEF, a think tank with extensive information on Tijuana. Being an anthropologist we thought she was a perfect match. Then a couple of weeks later we were all at a party and we made the deal. From that point on till the end there was much discussion about what direction and whose discipline would take the forefront. I was interested in urban planning and development. Fiamma was looking at the specific social issues and Heriberto had a critical perspective on diverse cultural aspects. Those three views were always in flux and always changing. We began with 13 chapters, later we edited them down to three while keeping the thirteen as sub-chapters. We titled the three, Avatars, Desires and Permutations. In the end we were very pleased with the way it worked out. We made a decision that each chapter would have a geographic order. So, Avatars begins at the border with immigration aspects at the forefront and flows into the city, Desires focuses on the red-light district in Tijuana and expands itself outwards into the city. Permutations, begins in the east and goes to the west, from newest to oldest urban developments. This was the organization and within those travels and chapters there was the discussion of what we thought was central to Tijuana. Sometimes Fiamma would see something curious and want to include it in the book because it was something unique to Tijuana, but since we were sometimes numb to certain issues we would hesitate to include them.

CMH I feel that is a truism, you do grow numb to your context; you may edit it too fast. We have to develop ways of seeing places and sometimes that means collaborating, so you are pulled off your trajectory. We were talking about the optimism of the book. Even though there were certain things you would gravitate towards, for example, people who can read the paper and find out who died and see how many horrible things happened. They miss all the things in between, seeing only the prostitution, drugs and corruption. It’s a bipolar kind of city. By the second, you can exist in the bad at the same time as the good. Maybe that is the analysis of the contemporary city. If you look really closely at any place, do we end up with the same result? Is there no specificity to place?

RP I think you will find similarities in other places. Yet, we did a sort of quantum theory approach to urban research in regards to Tijuana, where we began at the smallest, minute level and go out from there. If you follow this approach with Tijuana you begin to understand the places and events where things began to change. So, if you start at the east and deal with issues associated with illegal land acquisition, then you understand in general how the city was settled. You have to go in and pinpoint those minute concepts and ideas and then you begin to comprehend why the city is the way it is. Until you realize, according to other research that has been done, 50% of the residential plots began with squatters or are of illegal origin. Today you find out that in the new areas this is still happening and it is having a different effect because squatter groups are more efficient and due to the rapid increase in population, the state government hasn’t been able to cope with this issue. So there is a construct within that concept of illegality.

CMH If every one is just moving through, Tijuana as an immigration portal, as the data would support, why is there so much geographic expansion? Has ownership changed? Will Tijuana always be home to more people?

RP Tijuana is a destination now, but this perception has been fading in and out. If you look at the history of Tijuana, originally people came to work in the casinos, nightclubs and bars and other places of commercial activity during prohibition in the 1920’s. People came and settled. Decades later, during the US Brasero program in the period of WWII, Tijuana became a trampoline for migrants into California, replacing the young American workforce that went off to war. In the 70’s, the maquiladora industry established itself and once again Tijuana became a city with abundant job opportunities and a place to reside. From 1970 – 1990 the population of the city doubled. So the condition has fluctuated, becoming a city that to some is a portal, as you mentioned and to others a permanent place. Today, the city is reaching its critical mass and because of the proximity to California (the sixth largest economy in the world) people are coming to Tijuana in search of better wages, which tend to be higher than in other parts of the country.

CMH It would appear that Tijuana does not have a political system that exerts control over the size it has become. We had spoke once of Tijuana splitting into Tijuana and Nueva Tijuana, how do you maintain identity while splitting these big political entities and large amounts of control? Do you think the split is possible, do you think that is its future?

RP It is a possibility for two reasons, the city is growing rapidly and the municipality does not have the infrastructure and economic means to service it. The private sector is considering a satellite city right now. It is a pragmatic issue, but in the last years it has also become a psychological issue as well. In the last ten years the people of Tijuana are becoming a “capsular society”, a term coined by Lieven De Cauter, living in secluded enclaves that are emerging incessantly in the outskirts of the city. Because Tijuana is border town, we have many problems such as homicides and kidnappings due to the illegal drug trade, as well as other types of delinquency and for many inhabitants it is becoming psychological burden, therefore they look for ways to separate themselves from the rest of the city. Tijuana is becoming a true gated community. It is eventually going to divide because everyone that is immigrating to Tijuana is settling on the east and here is where the first break will occur, it is already considered the “Nueva Tijuana”. People perceive that they live in two distinct cities. Residents from this area usually say, ‘I am going to Tijuana’ when they travel west into downtown. Tito Alegria, who is a friend and a researcher at the COLEF, mentions that even though Tijuana is expanding, the traditional and historical core of the city is still the economic/commercial center. It is where the middle class and upper middle class live; it is where all the major services exist and where most of the population from the outskirts comes to work. Even though Tijuana’s clichéd image is of a chaotic city in flux, it operates as a conventional urban condition. The center is still the seat of control and it is located in the same geographical area. Yet, there is now the possibility that Tijuana could bifurcate into a specialized-function city, due the construction of major works of infrastructure in the east, such as a large boulevard connecting Tijuana to the city of Rosarito, a proposed border crossing, and the economic support of the manufacturing industry, all of this could lessen the dependency with the center and the New Tijuana could become an economically self sustaining city with up to a projected one million inhabitants. I believe these two urban entities could coexist. The coastal city of Rosarito was once part of Tijuana, before it separated into its own municipality with the idea that they could survive on tourism. After 9-11, it became difficult, but they are coming along. I believe the socio-cultural conditions for Nueva Tijuana to become independent are already occurring or in progress – the population already has established their own values quite different from Tijuana. I think its evolution is inevitable, we found that out in our research and with this premise we began ‘permutations’ the final chapter of our book.

CMH How do you feel the conditions of Tijuana, and for that matter, an ever more unstable world contribute to the formation of young architectural practices?

RP This is why I coined the phrase ‘alternative practices’. In Tijuana, there are two ways to work as a young architect. You can work as a construction manager/supervisor for a developer for 5 or 6 years from 6:00Am – 9:00PM, in the sector called the maquiladora of architects. Or try to make it by establishing your own practice. If you choose the latter, the difficulty is in the fact that there is no culture of design in Tijuana, so you basically become a contractor, designing for free to secure the construction contract. Working in the university is a possibility, yet tenured positions are not easy to come by. Many professors are reluctant to leave the stability of their institutions because they want to retire, have a pension and access to housing credits and healthcare benefits. I opted to create a design/research office and it was very difficult at the beginning because the economy or instruments to support this type of practice do not exist here. Coming from London filled with ideas from the AA, I felt I could develop a critical practice with emphasis on design research, the Deleuzian ideal. When I returned to Tijuana I realized the city did not have access to the mechanisms of this ideal (schools and technology). So I had to rethink my situation and searched for projects and the ones I began with where half-contractor and half-architect jobs, which was a real challenge. I realized I had to cross the border to keep from drowning, to teach and have an academic life in the US while maintaining a professional practice in Tijuana. Few architects are able to do this. Many young architects who do not want to follow the traditional paths are forced to leave and go to graduate school and they do not come back. They come and establish themselves near in San Diego or LA to maintain the connection to Tijuana but they don’t return to the city. This brings in an interesting perception of those of us working on various aspects of the city, as architects, designers, and urbanists; we get criticized for taking advantage of Tijuana for our own self-interest and academic credentials. But for me, the only way I could do research on Tijuana is by going outside of Tijuana. The book is a rare example, because where able to get funding from the state, the federal government and the university and then partnering with a British publisher. It was tough to secure. It took two years of hard work, knocking on doors, and meeting people. If you have friends, it is faster. If not, you wait in line because there are so many people who want those funds. We were lucky! Publishing editions in English and Spanish simultaneously, presenting our work outside Tijuana, or going on tour with a book opens you up to a lot of criticism. What people need to realize is that Tijuana does not have the mechanism to work from within.

CMH In reading the other authors and texts on the Worldview site, I found many parallels.

RP It is true. I believe if you take away the images and read the text, mix up the cities you would find those parallels. Caracas, Dhaka or Tijuana, they all become border cities or there is a type of border condition within them. There is a critical instability that shapes each one of the documented cities. I perceived this instability was inherent in cities like Tijuana who came into being during the 20th century. I was impressed to find out that in cities such as Dhaka ,which have existed for hundreds of years in some kind of urban form, deal with concerns that parallel their more current Latin American counterparts. For instance, now more than ever contemporary conditions such as immigration are affecting a city’s demographic characteristics and territorial extension.

CMH When you can blur the images of all the cities, can a place ever be read clearly? Are all cities a construct? Or, after all the analysis and research, is there ever any clarity of a place?

RP No, I don’t think so, speaking for Tijuana it is more a multiplicity of place. The book shows a version of Tijuana that we did not know existed. We found new places and rediscovered Tijuana again. This was the most important part for me, to rediscover the city and continue to study and understand its convoluted representations. I don’t think we will ever have the big picture. I think change in the big picture is too subtle. Tito Alegria seeks to find some clarity as it pertains to Tijuana and the border region. I have asked him to share his insight on how the city functions. I was amazed when he told me that after all the talk about Tijuana’s indeterminacy and how much it changes, every year, every two years, every five years and the instability of place, how little the economic structure has actually changed in 70 years. It is the same place. He has a very objective vantage point because he has studied Tijuana for many years. Yet, I do think he believes that the paradigm is starting to change.

CMH It seems that you cannot really sense the day-to-day shifts…the large picture stays fairly stable, but then it breaks or collapses or redefines its trajectory. Is it the accumulation of small shifts that cause the catastrophic?

RP I was speaking the other day with my wife, Monica about working on a second book titled ‘Illicit Acts of Urbanism’ and construct Tijuana through its history of illicit acts. It would be interesting to come up with a perspective where I could construct a history of contemporary Tijuana through the idea of illicitness or radical change, very violent change. I think we could look at other cities as well, say Shanghai, where change is physically and psychologically violent. Yes, of course there are elements of violent change in Tijuana, but it happens everywhere and it would be very interesting to catalog the history of urbanism through these violent processes. Violent change is opportunistic. Illicitness and violence are forces of global concern.

CMH In Beijing, the hutongs, traditional housing, have been systematically removed and just at the point when they are about to not exist they become the most desired place. It makes me wonder about progress and a future when the colonias become the ideal. Ownership and structure resists the most progress and survives the longest.

RP Tijuana is becoming old enough to begin to construct a history and a past. It’s true, when we look at the outskirts of Tijuana and confront the issues and difficulties; it makes people search for a moment of stability. That moment is the traditional and settled colonias. They have become good places to live. Our past as a city begins during the epoch of early modernism. The old downtown of the 40’s and 50’s is our past. There is a need today of going back and rescuing these artifacts of the past. They recently restored an old theater in the historic downtown. Foreign conservationists and specialists where hired to realize the project. Today it has become a theater for the community. This issue of preservation did not exist before in Tijuana, we never had anything to preserve. Interesting enough the Tijuana Historic Society is only 30 years old. Everything was being used and recycled; everything is fairly new and still working. Now we are preserving and building a history. It is the fear of the future when we look at the developments on the outskirts that instigated this process.

CMH I think this past is mutual for the region. The southern California landscape seems littered with abandoned buildings from another era. I am thinking of the Salton Sea and Palm Springs. One shift in policy or a natural change and the whole economy of the place changes.

RP It is an election year in Mexico and things will change again, they always do. Tijuana absorbs these changes; it is the first to deal with shifts in international policy promoted by the new government. Tijuana gets affected first.

CMH The fact that Tijuana has an agile economy was demonstrated after 9-11, in multiple ways.

RP That is interesting because my interests in illicit acts of urbanism could be a post 9-11 study. There have been desires of symbiosis or hybridism across the border. I don’t think they will ever happen. There is too much disparity. It is more of an exchange or a parasitic condition, except host and parasite are interchangeable and due to it we survived economically after 9-11. It will continue like this and I don’t believe there will be a time when we become seamless region.

CMH There is not a point in the future when Mexico will take back California? Is it happening, or it is just a pacifistic invasion.

RP It is not an invasion. Some Tijuananense know how to camouflage themselves as Americans, they know how to do it very well. They perceive it as region even though they understand that it’s not a political or physical one. I consider San Diego/Tijuana my region.

CMH Are there Americans that consider their region San Diego/Tijuana?

RP Not yet! But first let’s define Americans.

CMH Sorry! Estados Unidos, gringas like me.

RP I believe the ones that consider it the most are second generation Mexican – Americans with family on the other side, who go back and forth across the border.

CMH The longer I live here, the more present Tijuana becomes. For ten years it has been a meal, an opening, or a lecture. Some thing to do with friends.

RP It is also becoming a place where you can buy an affordable American style house. The American dream crossed the border into Tijuana. They are building 100’s of houses east of Playas de Tijuana, next to Rosarito. I have friends who are architects working in these communities, building homes for people who are buying lots in gated communities where the design codes are written in English, not a word in Spanish. The community codes are so strict and they override the codes of the city of Rosarito or Tijuana. They are creating these ‘American’ style enclaves so tightly restricted in an effort to hang onto the perceived distinction.

CMH Is it for Norte Americanos?

RP Yes it is. This might represent a different kind of invasion. It is violent as well, just look at the way they are leveling the topography and eating up all the great landscape that Baja is known for.

CMH The border ameliorated in yet another way.

RP Three cities, Tijuana, Nueva Tijuana, and these new enclaves. There are a number of Mexicans who are returning after living in the United States and they have adapted to a certain lifestyle that want to have replicated.

CMH That’s creepy. We export flight from participation.

RP It is creepy.

Excerpt from the Introduction of Here is Tijuana.

… Tijuana is a city of avatars, fractures, inscriptions, desires, machines, replicas, con-textures, and permutations. Within the constant self transaction, Tijuana becomes another. (Tijuana after all simulates itself). It is not inadvertently that within academic discourse, mass media and citizens alike (Tijuana) has become a sign of multiple and contradictory meanings. To mention Tijuana is to convene immediate social imaginaries and a click after, fabricate its anti thesis and parodies.
Tijuana, by de-codifying and re-codifying itself as sign and city, (city-sign) functions in the daily adjustment of its space and multifarious or chaotic self comprehension. Who ever want to understand Tijuana must realize that its history, its meanings, and its forms are part of popular culture discussion of the city. Tijuana is a passion shared by its citizens, Tijuana is discussed while watching television and eating tacos; waiting in line to cross to the other side .
Tijuana as an arduous intellectual problem is a passion, a riddle that fortunately or unfortunately we live in. Waiters, architects, managers, academics, laborers, writers, drug dealers, journalist, street vendors, mayors, and opportunists, all wish to define Tijuana and talk about her.
In the 21st Century the inquiries into Tijuana promise new transactions. The processes that alter Tijuana and that at the same time alters, have bifurcated. Tijuana awaits new concepts, experiences, and forms, because if there is something the city cries out for, is that it does not cease to transform itself. Tijuana is barely getting started…

Fiamma Montezemolo, Rene Peralta, Heriberto Yepez

FYI

foto: periodico frontera, www.frontera.info

Hoy en Tijuana se celebro el primer Maratón Internacional Baja 2006 sobre el corredor 2000 al este de la ciudad. Este tipo de eventos normalmente se llevaban acabo en la Zona Rió y antes sobre el Blvd. Agua caliente. Ahora la nueva Tijuana fue sede de un evento internacional y muchos “Tijuanneses” ni se dieron cuenta. Esta zona inicia a formar su propia cultura, su propia vida, despierta y cree que es cuidad. La nueva Tijuana es donde vive la mitad de la población de Tijuana, una zona con un poco más de 30 años, su centro geográfico es el cerro colorado y el límite con la Tijuana antigua es el crucero 5 y 10.

Me acaba de llegar mi copia de Aquí es Tjuana/Here is Tijuana! Es un gusto por fin, después de dos años de trabajo, tener la copia en mano. Quedo muy bien Emilia Gomez la diseñadora de Black Dog Publishing hizo un excelente trabajo graficó. Y por medio de este blog quiero agradecer a todos los que participaron, gracias.

En unas semanas llegan las copias para venta y si quieres el tuyo en cuanto salga cómpralo en amazon.com – busca lo por titulo.

Ya se están preparando varios artículos y entrevistas.
El siguiente numero de la revista del DF Cuarta Pared saldrá una entrevista y en la nueva revista emeequis también del DF se prepara un espacio para Aquí es Tijuana.

There is no place on earth where one travels farther in as short a distance as the border between San Diego and Tijuana. This remarkable book documents the complex, desperate, and beautiful life on the “other” side of the fence and the unbalanced symbiosis of two cultures in a loving and loathing grip. Here Is Tijuana! brilliantly depicts the tangled, impossible, skein of ecologies that make the city so fascinating, inevitable, and strangely great.

Michael Sorkin

Tijuana es una asamblea de ciudades, es un caos, es una síntesis febril de la América Latina de las migraciones masivas (la América Latina por antonomasia), es una red de maquiladoras, es el territorio del narco y es el espacio de un desarrollo cultural y artístico creciente. Es la Frontera y es la imposibilidad de la Frontera, es la jubilación simultánea del vicio y la virtud, es la ansiedad de irse pronto y el gozo de quedarse y “nacer de nuevo”.

Este libro, coordinado por Fiamma Montezemolo, René Peralta y Heriberto Yépez es un gran acercamiento a una de las ciudades más vigorosas, dramáticas y divertidas de Norteamérica.

Carlos Monsiváis

In Tijuana you enter and do not exit… Its imaginary traps you and does not let go. I believe this project by Montezemolo, Peralta, and Yepez, transmits this through images… in its variety and richness, conflicts and paradoxes.

Antoni Muntadas

La Linea
circa 1960

Ayer visito Tijuana Michael Bell arquitecto/autor de NY y maestro de Columbia University.
Le di el tour de la ciudad desde el Blvd. 2000 hasta playas.

Con preguntas bastante acertadas le contestaba con un doble sentido.

Al preguntar me sobre le geografía de la cuidad le conteste que cuando San Diego busca la simbiosis con su medio ambiente – Tijuana confronta su geografía de una forma violenta.
If San Diego has Temporary Paradise (documento sobre urbanismo de Lynch) Tijuana has Paradise Express – un hotel en la calle 7!

Sobre mi familia pregunto el oficio de mis padres. Mi papa era músico – pianista. Mi madre se jubilo hace tiempo, trabajo como enfermera. De chico me la pasaba entre el hospital y los bares!

Sobre el libro Aquí es Tijuana, – Es un proyecto multidisciplinario que tiene origen (en lo personal) en los textos de Banham especialmente en Los Angeles, The Architecture of Four Ecologies. A book that talks good about the bad!

Sobre la Revu. La vieja calle Olvera trazada en un plano tipo psuedo Beaux-Arts. Hoy muchos nudie bars donde las morras se desnudan completamente.
But, Michael there is no Donkey show!

Al final me dijo que me invitaría a Columbia University a dar una conferencia pero con la condicion que después de explicar cada tema en forma seria y académica tendría que terminar con algún comentario en doble sentido. Agreed – a huevo!

If Descartes did not know how to get through the labyrinth, it was because he sought its secret of continuity in rectilinear tracks and the secret of liberty in a rectitude of the soul.

Gilles Deleuze

San Diego – Learning From Tijuana
Valencia Park Smart Growth Project

En una vieja colonia de San Diego llamada Valencia Park estoy realizando un proyecto de rehabilitación urbana. En esta zona se encuentran varios terrenos baldíos en diferentes manzanas. En estos ‘solares” vamos a intentar diseñar y construir vivienda para la clase trabajadora. Pero recordemos que estamos en San Diego donde los Tijuanenses tomamos los modelos de vivienda a copiar para Tijuana – el mentado estilo californiano o mediterráneo, y sus desarrollos seriados o Cookie Cutter que vemos en Tijuana y Rosarito. Pero el proposito es Tijuanizar esta comunidad al este del downtown de San Diego. Tijuanizar – por que el proyecto consiste en crear una variedad de propuestas arquitectónicas en los 17 predios. Todos los predios tienen características interesantes – pendientes y orientaciones diversas, frentes a calles principales o a calles secundarias, cada predio tiene la capacidad de contar su propia historia.

La comunidad de Valencia Park esta habitada en mayoría por una población afro-americana y latina, evidente en la diversidad de diseños que los redientes emplean en las fachadas, cocheras, y bardas. Colores – ladrillos – estuco- árboles – flores – rejas, etc. gran cantidad de elementos que personalizan las viviendas – los habitantes de Valencia Park participan en la creación de una comunidad plural donde la identidad de cada usuario esta representada en el espacio publico/privado.

La idea de rehabilitar esta comunidad y desarrollar estos predios no surgen de algún urbanista o político buscando la re-elección, si no de un miembro de la comunidad – un residente de Valencia Park. Eddie Price, Afro-Americano dueño de un taller de carroceria, quiere rescatar a su comunidad del los proyectos masivos de ciertos desarrolladores y lograr tejer los espacios existentes con proyectos de vivienda digna. Eddie formo una ONG para iniciar el proceso y promover su proyecto en las dependencias de gobierno de la ciudad de San Diego. Eddie me contacto para que le ayudara a ver la factibilidad de cada predio y definir que tipo de vivienda se podría construir.

Viendo que existían 17 terrenos decidí desarrollar un prototipo basado en el programa “Case Study Houses” realizado en Los Angeles en 1945 – 1966. El programa Case Study fue uno de los mejores proyectos experimentales de vivienda en EUA. Pierre Koening , Charles y Ray Eames, Craig Ellwood, Raphael Soriano, Quince Jones entre muchos mas arquitectos llegaron a ser reconocidos por el programa Case Study.

Los proyectos realizados durante este periodo fueron diseñados para la familia de pos-guerra, la familia que intentaba vivir libre, donde la tecnología y la naturaleza (de California) se expresaban en el diseño arquitectónico. Techos bajos, espacios amplios, vidrio, muebles, prefabricación – todo los elementos que la modernidad otorgaba. Me fue un punto de partida diagramático más que nostálgico. Un prototipo para iniciar un proyecto de rehabilitación con elementos innovadores.

El plan maestro consiste en dos etapas. Primero identificar las zonas mas deterioradas e iniciar los proyectos de rehabilitación. Viviendas con problemas estructurales o cosméticos serán catalogadas para después ofrecer a los residentes un préstamo de bajo interés y una accesoria técnica para la compostura de su casa. Se inicia con esta etapa para crear un sentido de comunidad y de orgullo para después construir las viviendas en los predios baldíos. La segunda etapa es precisamente diseñar y construir las nuevas viviendas en estos predios y con ellos “tejer” las zonas existentes. Las intervenciones actúan como acupuntura urbana donde las nuevas viviendas inician un proceso de recuperación de Valencia Park. Tomando en cuenta el prototipo de Case Study se contrataran a seis oficinas de arquitectos para realizar los 17 proyectos de vivienda con la intención de crear diseños diversos que reflejen las cuestiones contextuales de su ubicación. Esto ofrece una máxima variedad de propuestas arquitectónicas, tecnológicas, y de construcción para cada vivienda con el espíritu del Case Study Housing de Los Angeles.

El proyecto sigue en su etapa de planeación urbana y se necesitan hacer cantidades de citas y juntas para poder obtener la aprobación de las dependencias de gobierno, ya que los predios baldíos son propiedad del municipio de SD. Este proyecto intenta preservar la diversidad étnica, cultural, urbana y arquitectónica de Valencia Park. El proyecto es aplicable en cualquier lugar donde se quiera mantener la imagen plural de la cuidad y evitar la homogenización del espacio pulico. Si Valencia Park aprende de Tijuana por que no Tijuana aprende de si misma. Algún interesado????????

Desbancando la utopía: Las vicisitudes del modernismo de Tijuana

Imagenes: Rene Peralta

Publicado en el catalogo para le exhibicion Strange New World del Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de San Diego. Febrero 2006

Rene Peralta

A medida que se redefine el concepto de ciudad los centros urbanos entran en un estado de entropía. Los centros se han convertido en suburbios verticales, o atraviesan un renacimiento de atracciones callejeras simuladas. Desde la época de la prohibición, en Tijuana el Centro ha sido escenario de una amplia variedad de atracciones callejeras. La Avenida Revolución, el principal espacio de diversión de los turistas, se ha convertido en la única experiencia urbana para los que visitan la ciudad. Puestos de curiosidades, bares, zonkeys, y otras hibridaciones de comercialismo y folklore ocupan y actúan en edificios que conforman el paisaje de un laberinto de espejos latino donde todo lo que debería estar en el suelo, vuela y la vida se representa en satín y miniaturas de yeso. Pero hacia el oeste, más allá de la vieja calle Olvera, se alza una serie de edificios anónimos, expresiones veladas de la modernidad y la cultura fronteriza que iban a impulsar a Tijuana a la paradoja de lo universal y el regionalismo.

Desde la ejecución del malogrado “Plan de Zaragoza” —copia de una hermosa ciudad modelo ejecutada en algún lugar del medio oeste de Estados Unidos— estos bastardos del modernismo se han convertido en la apoteosis del diseño arquitecturesco de imitación. Pseudo–modernismo o máquina habitacional provinciana, utopía o espacio basura, estos edificios que en el pasado formaron parte de la “buena vida” de la ciudad y de una oscura e idiosincrásica vanguardia modernista hoy no son sino artefactos de un centro urbano perdido. Sin embargo todavía juegan un papel en la efervescencia cotidiana de la ciudad y pueden apreciarse en todo su esplendor en las innumerables postales que se venden en la Avenida Revolución.

Estas reliquias pseudo–modernistas funcionan como entramados que se corresponden con los peatones, los letreros de neón, las calafias, los vendedores ambulantes y todas las otras manifestaciones programáticas que inventa el Centro. Ocupan esquinas, manzanas enteras, o se alzan como construcciones de relleno, invisibles a simple vista, escondidas detrás de capas de pintura, anuncios y neón. Sólo un arquitecto preparado o nostálgico podría dar con esas construcciones entre toda la diamantina. La mayoría de estos inmuebles se construyeron entre 1930 y 1960, por lo que sus diseños son una mezcla híbrida y excéntrica de motivos art deco con una alta dosis de sensibilidad modernista. Los edificios presentan un amplio repertorio modernista y una mezcla ecléctica de idealismo utópico: Fachadas libres y jardines–terraza a lo Corbusier, esquinas de cristal a lo Gropius, todo ello combinado con interiores suntuosos de imitación Mallet–Stevens y otras combinaciones espúreas.

El edificio de Calimax en la 5ª Calle fue la primera gran tienda de esta cadena local de supermercados. Con sus esquinas redondeadas y el efecto estilizado de sus bandas, así como la caligrafía curvilínea de sus letreros, es uno de los más puros edificios ”art–decorosos” de la ciudad. Hoy en día todavía funciona como tienda de alimentos, y los pisos superiores se utilizan como espacio de oficina. Más al norte en la 5ª, el edificio de la Delegación del Centro es una variación interesante de principios Corbusierianos, con terrazas ajardinadas y ventanales longitudinales. El edificio se alza orgulloso en una esquina y, curiosamente es esta ubicación, que obliga al uso de una esquina achaflanada, lo que delata su condición de fraude arquitectónico.

Los letreros, tomas de aire, y otros apéndices añadidos recientemente penetran las fachadas de estos edificios y funcionan como sistema de respiración artificial. Estas construcciones son monumentos a su propio fracaso, olvidados en el centro de la ciudad. Y sin embargo, parecen mantenerse en un estado de perpetuo de reciclaje, en vez de caer en el descuido que podría esperarse. Funcionan como artefactos, como Aldo Rossi definiría cualquier construcción que juegue un papel en la creación de la memoria colectiva de un lugar.

La zapatería Diseños Variety opera desde un edificio cuadrado blanco en la Avenida Constitución que incluye un amasijo de avisos y graffiti, anunciando la “variedad” de funciones que se cumplen en el interior del edificio. Ubicado en el centro de la manzana, el inmueble resulta prácticamente invisible desde la calle debido a la gran marquesina que lo bloquea y crea una disyunción espacial entre la circulación y el transporte al nivel de la calle, así como con el programa interior del edificio. La elegante esquina en bloque de vidrio es una alusión inconsciente a las que se dan en los edificios estilo Bauhaus.

El modernismo nunca fue parte de un estilo nacional en Tijuana, como lo fue en otras ciudades latinoamericanas en las que encarnó un proyecto para de futuro. Sólo el modernismo tropical de la ciudad de La Habana pude compararse con el tijuanense, dado que los edificios están reutilizados y fueron producto de la economía del turismo y los casinos durante la época de Batista.

La arquitectura de rasgos nacionales llegaría a Tijuana de la Ciudad de México durante las décadas de los setentas y ochentas con un brutalismo modernista patriótico de construcciones de cemento armado y elaboradas fachadas cinceladas (un revestimiento que pretendía resaltar la aspereza y el grano del conglomerado, emulando con nostalgia la artesanía de la construcción). El Centro Cultural Tijuana es el ejemplo principal de esta filosofía nacional moderna. Es un edifico perfectamente contextualizado sin el consentimiento de su autor. Al igual que los otros monumentos de origen engañoso de la ciudad, el CECUT ha sido interpretado como una “imitación,” especialmente del Cénotaphe de Newton de Étienne–Louis Boullée.

La creación de la Zona Río y su intención de mexicanizar Tijuana despojó al centro urbano de sus sedes políticas, religiosas y financieras, y de las ideologías que los abarcaban. Para unos un centro y para otros una periferia, más psico–geográfico que geográfico, el origen de Tijuana siempre está a medio hacer y se transforma mientras está todavía en proceso. Grupos de restaurantes, pequeños comercios y farmacias representan la economía actual del centro, mientras que por las noches los bares, clubes de alterne y salones de masajes apelan a la imaginación de lo prohibido. El Centro fue un día parte de una visión de la ciudad que iba más allá de la retórica de la frontera a pesar de su interesante cercanía a la frontera. Hoy el Centro representa el espacio urbano del deseo.

El Centro era el lugar donde los cabarets presentaban a las grandes orquestas, cuartetos de jazz y otras manifestaciones musicales que hoy apenas se dan. Era el lugar de la “buena música”, como asegura un conocido bartender que sirvió en el Aloha, Club 21, Frechis Bar y hoy en el Coronet Piano Bar. Sí, Tijuana ha sido un centro de actividad jazzistica desde la década de los veinte. Músicos de Nueva York, San Francisco, Los Angeles y San Diego cruzaban la frontera para tocar una sesión, divertirse o ahogar sus penas en los bares locales. El famoso bajista de jazz Charles Mingus dedicó un disco a la ciudad, “Tijuana Moods”, una orgía musical de ritmo y representaciones de los sonidos y la vibra de la ciudad.

Toda la música de este disco se escribió durante un periodo muy amargo de mi vida. Me había quedado sin esposa y huía para olvidarla con una expectativa de Tijuana. Pero ni siquiera Tijuana pudo satisfacerla, a pesar de las corridas de toros, la pelota vasca, cualquier cosa que pueda imaginarse en una ciudad salvaje y abierta.

Nacido en Nogales, Arizona, y criado en Watts, Mingus murió en Cuernavaca, México y estaba obsesionado por la frontera dislocada de Tijuana que veía como una ciudad distópica en un país fantasmagórico.

La música del Centro se convirtió en un fenómeno internacional, creando un efecto de imitación, el llamado “Tijuana bandwagon”, que designaba los intentos de quienes querían recrear los sonidos latinos que había escuchado en alguno de los muchos bares de la ciudad. Este ambiente se hizo tan popular que en la década de 1930 había un bar de jazz en Baltimore que se llamaba el Club Tijuana. En 1921, Jelly Roll Morton consiguió un visado para trabajar en Tijuana y compuso el Kansas City Stomp, y The Pearl, inspirado por una hermosa mesera llamada Perla, que trabajaba en el Kansas City Bar. Gary McFarland y Clark Ferry grabaron su disco Tijuana Jazz en 1965 y de 1962 a 1968 Herp Albert ganó seis premios Grammy con su famoso Tijuana Brass.

El Centro es el lugar dónde se aunaban la música y la vida urbana. El Escamilla Photography Studio, ubicado en la 2ª Calle, tiene un interior modernista temprano con un enorme espacio de gran teatralidad. “El estudio se diseñó como un espacio escénico para acentuar las cualidades artísticas de la arquitectura”, explica Carlos Escamilla cuando describe el edificio que su padre construyó entre 1950 y 1953. “Los clientes se ‘vestían’ de largo como si fueran a salir de noche y cruzaban su portalón para tomarse un retrato”. Hoy, los pisos superiores del estudio funcionan como almacén de recuerdos grabados en celuloide y la mayoría de los retratos que él toma son fotos polaroid de clientes que están de paso en el estudio.

Al pasear por las calles del Centro uno adquiere consciencia de que Tijuana quiso una vez ser una ciudad corriente. La singularidad de los edificios y el fracasado planeamiento Beaux arts fueron el espíritu del zeitgeist cultural de Tijuana antes de las chabolas, cartolandias, espacios basura y otros patrones improvisados que surgieron como paradigmas urbanos y artísticos contemporáneos. Hoy, los edificios todavía son modernistas, pero ya no tienen esa vida. Se han incorporado a las pluralidades de la ciudad posmoderna.

Mientras uno camina entre los vendedores ambulantes, la mercancía callejera, los puestos de lustrabotas y el tráfico peatonal, el movimiento se despliega. El Centro es un “espacio ensayado” donde todo el espacio urbano se experimenta mediante las múltiples capas de construcciones y acontecimientos. Falsos, construidos o no con mala intención, los edificios del centro de Tijuana son parte de una noción que fluctuó entre lo universal y lo local, emergiendo como un producto cultural difícil de sobrepasar, incluso en las condiciones actuales de los fenómenos fronterizos.

Traduccion al Español: Fernando Feliu-Moggi, PhD
Edicion y Derecho: Rachel Teagle, PhD

News

g e n e r i c a estará participando en la exposición Strange New World del Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de San Diego. Iniciando en el mes de Febrero 2006 en el Instituto de México en Estados Unidos, Washington D.C, proyecto dirigido por Rachel Teagle, PhD. Y en Mayo del mismo año, en las instalaciones del SDMCA en San Diego. Participando con una instalación y un texto en el catálogo sobre la arquitectura y vida nocturna de la zona centro de Tijuana en los años 40’s – 60’s. Para mi interpretación – una muestra que intenta ir más allá de los clichés de la frontera – un vistazo a la dinámica cultural de la ciudad.

EnProceso

Con el propósito de investigar nuevas metodologías del diseño que sean capaz de generar una serie de prototipos (o genotipos) iniciamos una colaboración con el artista digital Alex Dragulesco de la Escuela de Artes Visuales de UCSD. EL trabajo de Alex trata con temas sociales y políticos por medio de juegos digitales, algoritmos, lenguaje computacional, arte en red y simuladores de inteligencia artificial. El taller de arquitectura de 7mo semestre que estoy impartiendo con Juliette Milner utilizara los procesos digitales de Alex para generar propuesta para el diseño de un teatro en la ciudad de Encenitas, California.