UBICACION: McAllen  Tx, US

ANO: 2009

PLOT: 7015.00 SQF

SQF: 5188.00 SQF

COLABORADORES: Luis Lopez (MEX), Kazuya Katagiri (JAP)

This was a very interesting project because we needed to work with a very old structure in the Downtown of McAllen. This area of McAllen is a complete collage of different languages and architectural styles, which means that the identity or integrity is about no identity or no integrity. So the main idea of the project was to work as much as possible with the existing structure and material that were hidden behind layers of new finishes that were applied over the years based on the fashion of these several stages in order to let people know the original personality that the space use to have. So we clean everything, walls, ceiling, floors, etc.  to revile the original materials and we combine these materials with new materials that make references to the everyday life contextual language. The Valley of Texas is basically under construction because of the demand of growth, so you travel around the cities and you can see wood boxes everywhere because there are many buildings under construction, and also row block, etc. We wanted to create a familiar contextual language in order to generate a sense of belonging instead of been floating in the middle of nowhere with a no direction identity or integrity.