This Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) facility has the stature and presence of a United States government building and at the same time is approachable without being imposing to those pursuing immigration and citizenship services. The CIS's core values of integrity, respect and ingenuity are conveyed throughout the design. To achieve this, our design focuses on a concept of perception and experience, the individual and the community - the Citizen and the Country. These dualities manifest themselves in the design in a variety of ways - inside and outside, solid mass and dramatic openness. These dualities are defined architecturally to celebrate the experience of becoming an American Citizen.
The experience of coming to the building serves as a metaphor of the experience of coming to America for many immigrants. While an immigrant's perception of the United States is one thing prior to arriving in the country, it is often different than the experience once here. In the same way, the CIS facility is perceived from the highway as a simple box, but as one gets closer and finally enters the building, the details of the design are revealed. The walls of the building are slightly tilted away from each other in areas to break the mass of the simple box. This subtlety creates a sophisticated reading of the building that changes as one approaches from different directions. The simple box's shadows create depth where it is not expected from distant vantage points. The light seen through the glass of the Ceremony Room will act as a beacon from the highway and surrounding areas. Seen from the highway, super graphics stating "I Will Support and Defend the Constitution" are imprinted on the glass wall enclosing the Ceremony Room. These words are taken from the "Oath of Citizenship" that one must declare during the Naturalization Ceremony. When viewing these graphics from the inside of the building, one will see that the words are actually made up of smaller text containing the Constitution of the United States. Again the duality concept of the perception from far away and the experience up close is strengthened. In addition to the American flag denoting the visitor entrance, it metaphorically supports the entry canopy that turns into the pergola surrounding the Ceremony Room.