Eric Arneson and Nahal Sohbati, of Topophyla, and Gabriel Castro-Andrade, an exhibition designer, were named competition winners of Sign and Line—an initiative aimed at protecting undocumented landscape and construction workers.

Sign and Line was launched last October by the Architectural League of New York and Construction Workers United (CWU), of the Worker’s Justice Project. Its goal is to fortify jobsites from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents.

The competition jury included CWU’s Eduardo Castañeda and Armary Perez, Jacob Moore of the Architectural League, Pentagram’s Michael Bierut, Andy Klemmer (Paratus Group), Elsa Ponce (Studio Elsa Ponce), and Lloyd Westerman, of Westerman Construction. Dattner Architects is a sponsor of the initiative.

The winning proposal by Topophyla and Castro-Andrade, “The Red Line,” is essentially a kit that can be deployed at job sites consisting of red ribbons attached to rope, and signage. The kit has three parts that form a “single operational chain” to prevent “random entry and [keep] intruders contact away from active work.”

The kit organizes job sites into three distinct zones in order to keep workers safe: Perimeter lines, demarcating the job site’s footprint; contact zones, where workers enter the job sites; and work-site contact zones, where workers interface with visitors of all kinds, including DHS and ICE agents. 

Organizing job sites in this manner makes abundantly clear to both workers and federal agents where they can legally enter by foot, and where they cannot; creating a protective buffer between inside and outside.

Previously, Topophyla and TERREMOTO created a resource guide to help protect landscaper workers during ICE raids. “The Red Line” fits firmly into the office’s worker-forward ethos.

Castro-Andrade, an exhibition designer at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has extensively researched labor dynamics under immigration policy.

“‘The Red Line’ shifts responsibility for access away from individual workers and helps management establish the boundaries of private construction sites,” the project description affirms. “It directs potential conflict away from entry points and provides rules and procedures to strengthen the safety and orderliness of jobsites.”

The kits will soon be made available to the public and can be accessed by emailing [email protected].