Situated in the political, and often literal, war zone of El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, the Border Crossing Botanic Garden is an exploration of speculative hybrid types. Part social commentary and part typology playground, the project is a collection of border crossing garden species. Pairs of fused program elements produce a taxonomy of the new garden-crossing type. Heavy use of physical and hypothetical collage develops a kit of parts which frames the project’s scope and suggests adjacencies of ideas.

These types of drawings and renderings address the issues and interests of the scheme:

_international logistics
_long-term / short-term cycles
_dispersal of people / plants
_illegal immigration / invasive species
_environmental stewardship
_optimistic cultural mixing
_cynical cultural juxtaposition
_interchangeability of scale
_found objects (ideas / techniques / components)
_urban farming / trade
_evolution / ecology / taxonomy
_interdependent routes
_surface manipulation
_prescribed views
_procedural micromanagement / scheduling
_mapping

The presentation of these issues follows the stories of several botanic “characters” as they pass through the border crossing. These user types include the Trader (represented by Zea mays, corn), the Invader (Eichhornia crassipes, water hyacinth), the Smuggler (Cannabis sativa, marijuana) and the Hitchhiker (Cylindropuntia fulgida, jumping cholla). These stories represent a few of many possible journeys, and illustrate examples of garden programs invading, enhancing, undermining and catalyzing border crossing programs.