Border Stations Become
Beacons of Architecture

Border stations, those humble highway plazas that guard the nation's frontiers, are getting a serious architectural makeover.

The federal government, without any fanfare, has begun to enhance and, in many cases, rebuild dozens of the 167 "land ports of entries" to meet modern security and commerce needs. The effort includes an ambitious campaign to elevate these structures, some of which look like run-down car-service stations, into memorable pieces of civic architecture.

"You should look forward to something that's decent rather than going through what looks like a men's room," says Edward A. Feiner, chief architect of the General Services Administration, the government's real-estate developer and landlord. "It should be something that speaks positively of what lies beyond."

The border station in Sweet Grass, Mont., and Coutts, Alberta

From Jackman, Maine, to Del Rio, Texas, small, cutting-edge architecture firms are busy designing a sweeping overhaul in the look and operation of border crossings. Their charge: balance the needs of security and trade with the demands of creating stunning visual cues that welcome travelers into the U.S. -- all while keeping things under budget.

"We want to project a welcoming image for a complicated screening device," says Henry Smith-Miller, partner of Smith-Miller + Hawkinson, a boutique New York firm designing the station in Champlain, N.Y., set to open in 2006. The first two phases of that project will cost $38.8 million while the third hasn't yet been priced.

The architects' renderings show a sleek, modernist glass complex of vehicle lanes and inspection buildings. The design uses skylights to stream light to the facility's northern facade, giving visitors approaching from Canada an illuminated welcome. "It's a metaphor," Mr. Smith-Miller says. "It brings light from the south to the north." The current building is in perpetual shadow. "It looks like Darth Vader," he says.

Such attention to design is a departure. Most border crossings date to the 1960s or earlier, when bootlegging was inspectors' main worry and creating great architecture wasn't a consideration. Mr. Feiner likens those stations to Stuckey's, a chain of squat roadside pecan shops in the South.

The total cost for the upgrades is unknown. An estimate in the late 1990s put the bill to redo over 50 of the facilities at $833 million. But that was before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The Department of Homeland Security, which took over and consolidated the border functions from three legacy agencies, says it is in the process of developing an even-broader five-year expansion program. The eventual cost could be several billion dollars. Money has been appropriated for nine new stations, and funding for seven more is currently before Congress. The total scope of the project hasn't been determined, but it stands to affect dozens of the busiest crossings.

Some critics say the upgrades aren't happening fast enough. "This is true of almost every area of homeland security. The resources for what we need to do are just not there," says Sen. Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat.

A rendering of the station in Champlain, N.Y., set to open in 2006

The makeover began in the 1990s, especially on the U.S.-Mexico border, in response to the explosion of trade after the Nafta agreement and illegal immigration. Now, the specter of cross-border terrorism is generating renewed impetus to expand the government's presence at boundaries.

The designs have sharp aesthetic details that reflect local sensibilities while maintaining modern looks. Designers are placing emphasis on the symbolic nature of border posts as more than places to search trunks and stamp passports.

The crossing at Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., designed by Ross Barney + Jankowski Inc., a Chicago architecture firm, fits that mold. The $12.6 million complex set to open in summer 2005 will be nine times the size of the "sad little crossing" that came before, says Carol Ross Barney, the lead designer. Situated above a major shipping lock near the meeting points of Lake Superior and Lake Huron, the main inspection building is narrow and modern, with angles and plenty of glass. The canopy that vehicles pass through is illuminated so travelers will be able to see it from afar.

The main building has three stories -- unusual for a border station -- and is nestled into the side of a hill, with vegetation covering the roof. The sides have copper cladding, until recently a locally-mined metal. Inside, a 75-foot-long sculpture made from the debris of the Independence, the first steamship to sail in Lake Superior, will double as the main inspection desk. The ship sank in 1853, a mile from the border station.

The border post in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. will include an inspection desk made from wood salvaged from an 19th century steamship that sank nearby.

Terrence Karpowicz, a Chicago sculptor, produced it as part of the GSA's Art in Architecture program, which devotes 0.5% of government building-construction spending to public art. The total cost of the piece is $55,000.

Visitors to these new stations may notice the enhanced looks, but the design has been driven more by the need to beef up security and facilitate commerce. Most are four times the size or more of their predecessors and have more than twice the inspection and immigration staff. The Champlain station, for instance, will go from 150 to 450 staff.

The stations feature more vehicle lanes and more secondary inspection areas. Mandates to include biometric identification devices -- which identify someone through fingerprints or eye scans -- and exit as well as entry processing add to the space needs. Many facilities have to incorporate gamma ray and X-ray bays that can peer into a truck's cargo hold without opening doors.

Yet security and good looks aren't mutually exclusive. The Champlain buildings have transparent facades, something the architects say aids the security mission while sending a welcoming signal to visitors. "The window goes both ways," says Mr. Smith-Miller. Inspectors can peer across a dozen lanes of traffic from throughout the main building. For the traveler, the transparent design belies the bunker-like buildings they might expect from a border station.

Border stations are complex operations, often constituting two inspection areas, truck parking and holding cells for detainees. Many have kennels for search dogs and veterinary stations to inspect cattle. The Sault Ste. Marie crossing has its own shooting range to keep agents' marksmanship skills honed.

The border station in Sweet Grass, Montana and Coutts, Alberta (below, right) serves hundreds of trucks traveling from Mexico to Canada.

Some of the crossings are in remote areas, meaning these new stations will become the most significant public buildings for hundreds of miles. The station in Sweet Grass, Mont., (population 3,609) and Coutts, Alberta, (population 364), serves both sides of the border as a joint project with Canada. Interstate 15, a major trucking route that connects Mexico and Canada, makes Sweet Grass one of the busiest crossings between the Great Lakes and the Pacific.

The station's architect, Kate Diamond, known for designing the control tower at LAX Airport in Los Angeles and a principal of that city's RNL Design, looked to the local Montana grain elevators for inspiration (in addition to reading a lot of Wallace Stegner, an author known for his descriptions of the American West's wide-open spaces).

But the galvanized steel siding she suggested, a material used in agricultural buildings, was a tough sell to the locals. "They felt it wasn't serious architecture," she says. When she explained the beauty of the grain silos and emphasized that the building would have an "overlay of civic finishes" that would identify it as a public building, they warmed to the concept. The $26.5 million facility will open in September.

GSA and its client, the Homeland Security department, are both quick to dispel notions that these are vanity projects. "We want first and foremost functional facilities," says Gregory L. Pence of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, an agency within Homeland Security. "If we can do that and present an appealing presence, then all the better."

Email your comments to rjeditor@dowjones.com.