San Diego infoSite, 2005

CLOSEUP Teddy Cruz with Fonna Forman
Artist

Teddy Cruz’s San Diego infoSite is a commissioned work of ephemeral architecture that was inserted within existing strategies of cross-border recycling. The temporary structure combined salvaged materials with elements related to recycling processes—such as truck beds used to transport crushed cars to recycling plants—and dynamics of transit and transportation. The design components not only characterize the “spaces of flow” in the border region, but also refer to materials that are utilized in the construction of emergency habitats. Through the transformation of use—the way in which a packing material can become a building material—Cruz posits a sustainable architectural practice.

In a city in which public space is increasingly diminished and demarcated by parking lots, the decision to locate the San Diego infoSite on the site of twenty-eight parking spaces in front of the San Diego Museum of Art was, in part, fueled by a desire to appropriate the space for alternative public use. The San Diego infoSite was a temporary architectural strategy for the (re)occupation and recovery of a public space that had hitherto been primarily associated with traditional white cube exhibitions.

Curators: Osvaldo Sánchez and Donna Conwell
Venue: Balboa Park, San Diego

Construction
Quijada Gutiérrez + Associates

inSite production
Daniel Martínez
Márgara de León Joy Decena
Zlatan Vukosavljevic
Esmeralda Ceballos

Individuals acknowledgments
Victoria Hamilton
Michael Behan
Michael Ruiz
Beverly Schroeder
Kathleen Haseneaur
Garry Papers
Carolyn Wormser
Cynthia E. Kodama
Heath Fox
Derrick Cartwright
Don Mullen
Darlene Davies
Vicki Granowitz
Jeffrey Kirsch
Dan Mazzella
Nancy Rodríguez
Paul Ricci
Michael Singleton
Donald Steele
Michael Stepner
Joyce Summer
Jack Farris • Beth Murray
Gary Stromberg
David A. Lang
David Kinney
Mark Berlin
Ali Fattah
John Peterson
Richard Weyerhaeuser
Nancy Higgins
Debbie Petruzzelli
Jose Jaime Samper
Aaron Gutiérrez • Norma Medina

Organizations
Center City Development Corporation
City of San Diego
Balboa Park Committee
City of San Diego Park and Recreation Board
Balboa Park Cultural Partnership
San Diego Museum of Art
City of San Diego Development Services
Balboa Park Special Events (Developed Regional Parks Division)
The Timken Museum
Mingei International Museum
The Old Globe Theatres
House of Hospitality
San Diego Art Institute
Hospitality Ink
House of Hospitality
Balboa Park Visitors Center

Sponsors
The San Diego Union Tribune
The United States Embassy in Mexico City