La Placita

Design Consultant |

December 2021 ~ June 2022

Status | Built https://www.elpasotimes.com/in-depth/ news/2021/04/23/unaccompanied-migrantchildren-shelter-pecos-texas-oil-camp-bidenadministration/4810041001/

To practice architecture is a process of collecting virtue from everyone and building a place. In the Spring of 2021, the US Department of Health and Human Services opened an Emergency Intake Site (EIS) for unaccompanied migrant children in Pecos, Texas. The Pecos EIS or Pecos Children’s Center (PCC) provides shelter for boys and girls, 13 to 17 years old who crossed the U.S. border without documents and guardians for reasons of political, economic, and social strife. The campus provides the needed capacity to accept children referred by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) into Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) care where they can be safely processed, cared for, and either unified with a sponsor or transferred to an appropriate ORR shelter for longer-term care. The Pecos EIS was intended for use as a temporary measure during one of the largest surges in migration from Central America to the US.

The previous oil man-camp, owned by Target Hospitality, housed a maximum of 1400 migrant children between the ages of 13 and 17, from various parts of Central America. In December 2021, I conducted fieldwork on site, writing fieldnotes of my observations of overall spatial experiences, encounters with children and staff. The design team concluded that the shelter needs spaces for gathering, solitude, and play. In January 2022, the team built a mock-up for the outdoor gathering space.

At the end of one of our workshops, a boy said he was glad to imagine such changes in the shelter even if he couldn’t see it himself. Other kids will live in a better place because of him.

The design team has learned the existing conditions of the PCC and the spatial uses, needs, and desires of children and staff in PCC. From several design workshops between December 1st and December 3rd, many children expressed that they needed spaces of green, gathering, solitude, and play. Those needs largely coincided with those of staff. My own experience on site resonated with them. The team moved away from building a greenhouse and decided to approach the campus holistically. Based on the site analysis and design workshops, the team focused on creating flexible green spaces and improving the accessibility and comfort in the campus.

The team made a site model for children to share their daily paths through the camp using yarn. Through this exercise we were able to see the main pathways the children took. Then, they used water colors to express their emotions at different places in the site model. children expressed very positive emotions in the soccer field and the exit; not as positive in the triage tent, cafeteria, and some dorms.

Mock-up on site, installed between January 21st until 25th, provided space for kids and staff, who needed outdoor spaces to sit, hold class, rest, and talk. The cost for the shade sail installation was approximately $350, excluding furniture and plants. The team proposes to expand the existing mock-up through installing more shades, planting flowers and trees, and providing furniture, speaker, projector. The team came up with three more sites to install shades: 8 wooden decks, southeast corner of the campus, and backyard on the northern edge.