An axis, not a line of division: Cooperative planning and development on the U.S.-Mexico border, 1960s

Abstract

The article looks at the conversations and ideas exchanged between US and Mexican architects and planners in the early 1960s and their vision of redesigning the borderlands. Through a reading of Robert Evans Alexander's archival material (donated to Cornell University) and primary source material written by Guillermo Rossell, I argue that broader ideas of spatial justice influenced their conceptions of design. Moreover, Rossell brought to the table the idea that the border was a region and thus required a binational, regional design. The binational commission on planning developed in the midst of the Cold War and this was an element in their minds. And a part of this conversation, especially on the part of Mexican architects and planners, was development. Yet it was development through tourism, not industry. The article should be of interest to scholars working on the border, architecture and planning, development, tourism, and collaborative planning.