Tom De Blasis visits Texas A&M graduate students designing Las Lomas playset from TAMU College of Architecture on Vimeo.

Introduction to Border Studio

Fall 2011/ Professor Peter Lang, Department of Architecture
Border Studio: the Children's Outdoor Playset, Colonias Unidas, Las Lomas, Starr County, Texas
Participating Faculty:
Professors Peter Lang, Department of Architecture
John Nichols Department of Construction Science.
Consulting Faculty: Cecilia Giusti, Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning.
Advising Faculty (Department of Architecture): Marcel Erminy, Craig Babe, Michael O'Brien.
The Children's Outdoor Playset is a joint design-build project led by Peter Lang and John Nichols, with graduate students from ARCH 607 and COSC 608. The Playset project is being designed by architecture students over a one-month period during the Fall 2011 semester and then developed and assembled by students in Construction Science with a deadline in early December.
All students will travel to and participate in assembling on site at the Colonias Unidas community center. This unique experience bringing graduate students from two departments in the College of Architecture is helping to build on multi-disciplinary working relationships while also bringing these students in contact with some of the most protracted and difficult challenges facing poverty stricken communities living along the border.
the Borderstudio is a multi-semester architectural design studio developed by Associate Professor Peter Lang focusing on a specific unincorporated community with over 3000 inhabitants in Las Lomas in Starr county, one of the most impoverished counties in Southern Texas.

In 1989 local leaders founded the non-profit community-based organization "Colonias Unidas" to provide assistance towards legalizing property rights and develop a community center for children's after school activities. The Border Studio was developed in the Spring of 2010 as a way of presenting students with issues that commonly afflict many parts of the globe, dealing with migration, informal settlements, widespread poverty and lack of infrastructure. The class researches historical precedents and examines contemporary case studies to better understand this expanding global condition. Over the course of the semester, students exchange ideas with community leaders and develop micro scaled and low impact cooperative projects that can directly benefit the lives of the local residents.

Texas A&M Students discuss PlayScape

Playground on Site

These are pictures of the playground and adult sitting area on site next to the community center. In them you can also see the gazebo that previous students built the year before. Each picture shows a different view of the playground.

Ground Cover by Christina Shafer My task was to research ground cover for the playground. I looked into pea gravel, mulch, wood chips, sand, and rubber mulch. Mulch cost around $700 and can be used for heights up to 10', but because it decomposes and acquires mold and for the fact that it requires refilling 1-2 times a year I decided it was not a good choice. Wood chips cost around $500 and meets ADA requirements, but I was not able to find any companies close to Las Lomas who would deliver. Sand is around $400 and can be used to heights only up to 5'. The reason I decided not to use sand is because it is frequented as a litter box by animals and will end up being tracked inside by those playing in it. Rubber mulch cannot be used because it is way too expensive, on the upper end of $2,500. In the end I ended up choosing pea gravel which I was able to find for around $300 and a place that would deliver. It is durable, a lot of fun for the kids to play in (much like sand in the ability to scoop and pour without the mess), and very easy to clean it by just blowing lightweight leaves out with a yard blower. Although gravel doesn't seem like it would be a "soft" material it actually has an amazing amount of give and movement in the small pea-sized form. I called many companies within 30 miles of Las Lomas that carry pea gravel. I found out that trucks can carry only up to 20 cubic yards. From this we were able to lay down the dimensions of the playground. We decided on a total dimension of 22'x22' with a depth of 1 foot. This will equal to just a little less than 20 cubic yards so we will only need to pay for one truck delivery. After calling all the companies the price ranged from $400-$2,000. I decided to use the company that cost the least. Star Aggregate is the company and is located in Grulla, TX only 11 miles away from Los Lomas. Companies called Soil-Tech 709 W Expressway 83 Pharr, TX 78577 Total= $2,169 Cerda Caliche Sand& Gravel 1163 E Expressway 83 San Benito, TX 78586 Total= $800 Upper Valley Materials 7301 W Expressway 83, Mission, TX 78572 Total= $773 Starr Aggregates 1 Mile S FM 2360, Grulla, TX Total= $410 Southern stone 1100 E. Expressway 83 Donna, TX Total= $960 Bet-ter Hauling Services 1343 W. Nolana, Alamo Total= $740