There could not be two more contrasting cities than Tijuana and San Diego. The French Philosopher Guy Dubord famously said, “We grasp reality through spectacle, and spectacle is real.” Immediately, there was the realization that the border could aim to make a spectacle out of the exchanges that were already occurring between the two cultures— the exchange of people crossing the border, the exchange of commuters loading and exiting the trolley, and the exchange of goods via the Mexican merchants— and make them more public and alive, thus activating the site. Many problems were identified with the current border crossing, and solutions were proposed. A common theme in the solutions was the use of manipulating the topography. Pushing the road into the ground created a site that is much more maneuverable by foot. Bridges, viewed as extensions of the landscape, keep pedestrians on-grade and help achieve spectacle. Canopies were peeled up from the landscape for program to be stuffed beneath. The ground plan was pushed down in order to let light into underground spaces, such as parking lots. A grid was laid over the entire crossing in order to create cohesion throughout. Merchants would be able to “plug-in” their bodegas to the grid when necessary, generating an ever-changing, alive, and spectacular public zone.