San Diego, CA
From Borderlines to Blurred Boundaries: San Diego-Tijuana as the World Design Capital 2024
When drawing, lines are fundamental elements of composition. They delineate space, outline structures, and define boundaries. When it comes to maps and borders, the line acquires a particular meaning, as this “simple” graphic expression marks a powerful division between regions, setting the beginning or the end of a territory. This line has a profound meaning at the limit between Mexico and the United States, where it constantly blurs and questions the border. In these places, multiculturalism is a daily occurrence, with a continuous negotiation of boundaries present in all aspects of life. The dynamic of these borders involves design and the generation of a complex network of interactions and collaborations.
Rather than being divided into Tijuanenses on one side and San Diegans on the other, this particular region stands out as a community whose essence harmonizes with a deep legacy of cross-border collaboration, rather than being seen as cities separated by a line. As the first binational designation in the history of the World Design Capital (WDC) program, the Tijuana-San Diego region shares a common interest in addressing urban, social, and economic issues through design. Thus, via conferences, policy summits, and workshops, the region seeks to enhance the catalyzation of ideas through its designation.
The region’s connection is visible from its urban layout, which, seen on a map, shows the continuity of roads and bodies of water—such as the Tijuana River—, to architecture developed on both sides of the border. In addition, being the busiest border corridor in the world, some people who constantly move between these two cities live through a concept that we could aptly call a “third nation.” Geographic proximity and continuous interaction have resulted in a hybrid, collaborative, and binational culture, of which several facets stand out.
Several examples illustrate the collaborative spirit that has historically existed in the region, illustrating the concept of the third nation. One notable example is Friendship Park, a small stretch of shared land split by a single fence. Projects like “La Linea Borrosa” (The Blurred Line) also emphasize this ideal, showcasing how borders can serve to connect rather than divide. Many of these initiatives, along with numerous other instances of cross-border collaboration, are now integrated into the program’s venues or serve as references in its conferences, which we will discuss below.
The Salk Institute: A Collaboration Between Louis Kahn and Luis Barragán
A notable aspect of this project is its history of cooperation, particularly between Luis Barragán and Louis Kahn, marking one of the first modern examples of cross-border collaboration. In the 1960s, through letters and phone calls, the two architects established a communication that culminated in Kahn’s visit to Mexico and Barragán’s visit to the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California.
During Barragán’s visit, the courtyard’s design was still evolving. Despite Kahn having proposed several ideas, none had been compelling until that point. It was during this visit that significant interactions were sparked between Salk, Kahn, and Barragán, particularly when considering the central space among the laboratories. This reflection had a profound impact on the project. Although each had always developed an architectural language of its own, subtle but significant points of connection can be perceived in the Salk Institute, particularly in the appreciation of pure forms and water, an element shared between the research center and Barragán’s work.
Explorations of the San Diego-Tijuana Region
One example of the region’s common vision is the research project “Temporary Paradise: A Look at the Special Landscape of the San Diego Region,” a report prepared in 1974 for the city of San Diego by Donald Appleyard and Kevin Lynch. This study promotes a unified approach for shared development and culture between San Diego and Tijuana. This work has been continued by Dr. Bruce Appleyard (son of Donald Appleyard), who reinforces the joint approach between the two cities. Therefore, one cannot discuss San Diego without mentioning Tijuana, and vice versa.
Exploring the cross-border relationship, the project analyzes and presents potential opportunities for developing the area while preserving the common natural landscape. It proposes a human-scale approach, aiming to slow and redirect urban development. This plan ranges from highways and improved transportation systems to pedestrian walkways and bike lanes, and even the construction of a binational airport on the border with Mexico, something that to some extent is already a reality with Tijuana’s international airport.
Cross-Border Exchange: Tijuana Cultural Center and Balboa Park
The establishment of cultural venues in the region is vital not just to enhance Tijuana’s and San Diego’s urban landscape, but also to serve as hubs for exchange and connectivity between Mexico and the United States. As part of the WDC agenda, the Tijuana Cultural Center (CECUT) hosted several events of the World Design Festival powered by Tijuana Design Week. This building, designed by Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, not only symbolizes a fraction of the city’s identity but also serves as a cultural center, hosting a wide range of activities including exhibition halls, conferences, and a museum.
Similarly, Balboa Park reflects this spirit as the heart of recreation and community life in San Diego. This space is the largest urban park in the United States and is home to the San Diego Art Institute, and the Museum of Photographic Arts, among others. It also hosts a series of itinerant events that extend throughout the park. In both CECUT and Balboa Park, the theme of borders is recurrent and enriches the cultural life of both places.
To further strengthen this bond and advance the connection between the cities, the Exchange Pavilion will be installed in both Tijuana and San Diego. In Tijuana, it will be located at Plaza Independencia (near CECUT), while in San Diego, it will be situated at Plaza de Panama at Balboa Park. Reflecting the importance of the WDC to the region, the temporary installation will act as a bridge connecting people from diverse backgrounds, inspiring conversations, and fostering a sense of unity.
What’s Next in the World Design Capital (WDC) Program?
As a biannual designation, rather than a stand-alone event, the WDC program will continue to expand through other events such as the World Design Experience and the World Design Network of Cities Meeting. These activities will culminate in the Convocation Ceremony, a symbolic event marking the official “handover” of the WDC recognition from San Diego-Tijuana to the region of Frankfurt RheinMain (Germany), the next host city.
As this transition arrives, the WDC 2024 program celebrates the San Diego-Tijuana region, highlighting collective achievements across diverse design expressions and inspiring collaborative action to address community challenges. The goal is to equip both cities with new tools to apply design thoughtfully, achieving positive transformations in their context.
Roger Lee Kaehler
OBITUARY
Roger Lee Kaehler passed away on December 2, 2024, with family by his side. He was born in 1940 as the youngest of four, and at three years old, his family moved from Minnesota to the San Francisco Bay Area to find work in the shipyards. After graduating from UC Berkeley, Roger spent two years in the National Guard and two years in the Peace Corps (serving in Nigeria), before teaching math and coaching boys basketball at Kennedy High School in Richmond, CA. In the 1990s, Roger formed a partnership with a friend in Scheller Construction in Novato, CA, and started a new career in real estate development. In his semi-retirement, he and his wife Aggie returned to San Diego County, and Roger spent as much time as possible in his happy place in the Anza-Borrego desert.
Roger is survived and remembered by his wife Aggie; daughter Patsy West; daughter Tammy Kaehler and son-in-law Chet Johnston; daughter Desiree West and son-in-law Vicente Bacilio; granddaughter Isabel Bacilio; honorary grandchildren RJ and Ashley Engler; and dozens of other family and friends who keep his spirit and legacy alive. We will forever remember him as a man with a huge heart, a sharp mind, a smart mouth, a mischievous smile, and more than his fair share of optimism. He usually managed to find the humor in any situation, and in doing so, he brightened the lives of those around him.
San Diego, CA
What did Kevin McCallister’s parents do for a living? ‘Home Alone’ director speaks out
Originally appeared on E! Online
“Home Alone” director Chris Columbus finally put an end to the incessant wondering as to where Kevin McCallister’s parents got the funds to afford their beautiful—and massive — Chicago mansion.
“Back then, John [Hughes] and I had a conversation about it,” Columbus explained to The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published Dec. 24, “and we decided on what the jobs were.”
So what did Kevin McCallister’s parents do exactly? Well, the movie actually included a few hints. If you took note of the dancing mannequins Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) placed in the window to ward off the criminals Harry (played by Joe Pesci) and Marv (played by Daniel Stern), you may have guessed that Catherine O’Hara’s Kate McCallister “was a very successful fashion designer,” according to the director.
As for John Heard’s Peter McCallister, the details are a bit more fuzzy.
“The father could have, based on John Hughes own experience, worked in advertising,” the 66-year-old noted, “but I don’t remember what the father did.”
He did, however, know one thing for sure: Peter did not have a talent for forensics.
“Not organized crime,” he added, “even though there was, at the time, a lot of organized crime in Chicago.”
And with the mystery solved, you can finally practice your “Kevin!” pose in peace. After all, Culkin and Brenda Song’s sons are already doing the same.
“He thinks he’s Kevin,” Culkin recently told E! News of his oldest Dakota, 3. “I’m like, ‘Do you remember going down that down the stairs on the sled?’ He’s like, ‘Mmhmm, yep. Sure do.’ I’m like, ‘Do you remember when he had yellow hair?’ And he’s like, ‘Uh-huh, yep.’”
“‘You’re a lying liar who lies,’” he recalled joking to his son. “That was me!’”
But Culkin’s brother Kieran Culkin — who shares daughter Kinsey, 5, and son Wilder, 3, with wife Jazz Charton—hasn’t quite had the same experience with his kids. In fact, he recently revealed that his children have yet to even see the movie.
“There’s still some scary parts,” the 42-year-old explained to E! News earlier this month. “For the 3-year-old, there’s the tarantula [and] there’s the guy at the end who said, ‘I’m gonna bite off all your fingers.’ That’s scary for a 3-year-old.”
However, the “Succession” star did tease that the first-ever family screening may be coming soon.
“We think they might be ready for “Home Alone” this year,” he revealed. “If not, next year.”
Everyone has medical questions at one time or another, and it’s tempting to search the internet for answers instead of making a doctor’s appointment.
But that doesn’t always lead to the best information, said Holland Kessinger, head librarian at the Health and Wellness Library in La Mesa.
“Anybody can put anything out on the internet,” she cautioned. “We want people to really develop their health literacy and discern what quality and authoritative, reliable health information looks like, and Google is not always it.”
Kessinger said good advice can be found online, and staff at the library can help lead people to reliable sources such as MedLine Plus. For people who want hands-on material, the library has a collection of almost 5,000 items, including books on specific diseases, cookbooks in a nutrition section and children’s material with a play area.
There’s also a DVD section of health-related movies and TV shows plus stations where people can check their blood pressure for free and small offices for patrons to research in private.
“We’re often stressed and emotional when we receive information about our health,” Kessinger said. “And so giving people quality information is really, really key to helping them stay healthy and get help.”
The library is at 9001 Wakarusa St., La Mesa, and was opened in 2002 by the Grossmont Healthcare District, which still runs it.
The district includes Alpine, El Cajon, Harbinson-Crest, Jamul, La Mesa, Laguna-Pine Valley, Lakeside, Lemon Grove, Mountain Empire, Santee, and Spring Valley. District residents can get a library card and check out material, while the library itself is open to anyone for on-site research.
Residents in the district also get priority to participate in programs such as fitness classes and Wellness Wednesday talks, and Kessinger said the library had just over 9,000 visitors in 2023 and about 3,100 in the last quarter.
For district residents who can’t make it to the brick and mortar building, a mobile version will be coming to them sometime in the spring.
Grossmont Healthcare District CEO Christian Wallis, who has referred to the library as the best-kept secret in the county, said a van is being retrofitted and will bring library material to different areas of the district when it is up and running.
“Our library is a unique community resource and one of only a few consumer health libraries in the country,” he said. “The number of users from the immediate surrounding area has grown over the years. The Board of Directors’ intention in developing the mobile outreach library is to ensure everyone in East County has access to high quality, reliable health information.”
Kessinger said the library is not unlike any public library, although this one has just one section.
“It’s consumer health written for the average person,” she said. “Not for a medical professional, not doctors, not nurses, but for the average consumer. So there are very, very few public libraries that focus just on consumer health.”
The library, the only one of its kind in the county, includes an art gallery that is changed quarterly and currently features work created by participants in Family Health Center’s PACE (Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly) program. In January, the gallery will feature work created by the San Diego River Artists Alliance.
One section is for health careers and used by many students in Grossmont Union School District’s Health Pathways program. Students and other visitors can find books on dental schools, medical emergency dispatching and how to become a nurse or a certified nursing assistant, among other subjects.
The library also has sections on men’s and women’s health, a display a vintage medical equipment and plastic models of human organs.
Originally Published:
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