The “busiest land port of entry in the Western Hemisphere” is getting an upgrade, and according to the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), about a half a million dollars worth of new artwork will be part of the package. The San Ysidro Land Port of Entry, the border crossing facility for the San Diego-Tijuana region, has been undergoing a $735 million modernization project spanning more than a decade. Since phase three of the project is included in President Obama’s fiscal 2015 budget, the GSA has begun soliciting contractors, and that includes artists who will be commissioned to provided approximately $500,000 in new artwork for the new buildings.
The plan for the San Ysidro facility is in keeping with the GSA’s “Art in Architecture” program, in which one-half of one percent of the construction costs for new federal buildings is budgeted for artwork. The GSA’s website describes the program:
The GSA provides Alexander Calder’s sculpture Flamingo (1974) at the John C. Kluczynski Federal Building in Chicago as an example:
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Artists have until October 6 to register to be considered for the San Ysidro project. Phase three of the project is expected to be completed in January 2018. About 50,000 northbound vehicles and 25,000 northbound pedestrians cross the border through the facility each day.
