Firm Bio
Andrea Steele Architecture (ASA) is a New York-based architecture practice focused on institutional, cultural, and community-oriented projects. With a growing studio made up of architects, interior designers, planners, strategists and educators from all over the globe, ASA approaches architecture as a way of creating connections and alignments: between a client’s culture and the public sphere; between the local and the universal; between thought and action.
ASA’s current projects include an innovation hub for NASA in Cleveland, Ohio; a cultural heart for downtown Brooklyn comprised of new cinemas and film archive for the Brooklyn Academy of Music; a production studio for the Brooklyn Public Library; galleries for the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts; and performance venues for 651 Arts in Brooklyn. Steele is currently completing the master plan for Pioneer Works, the experimental, interdisciplinary arts-and-science community center in Red Hook, Brookl
trouble from the very beginning. one of the things i did when i had oversight of the project as chairman of the committee that dealt with border issues on homeland security was i think i held something like 15 or 16 different hearings on this issue. many of which just left me frustrated, because a department of homeland security would not be up front about many of the issues, boeing was not up front about many of the issues, they didn t bring the border patrol, which were the ones who really were supposed to use this system. they were planning this thing without really border patrol being involved in the early days. actually, the contract is even written that way, there would be no comment to the border patrol. and it wasn t until it was rewritten. there were many problems with the first contract. fran, the virtual fence, though, it couldn t effectively police 53 miles of a 2,000 mile border. janet napolitano still wants to use some of the technology from this fence going forward
required both in the executive branch and far more oversight that it required from congress. congresswoman sanchez, it is amazing this thing which has cost so much money and which had been talked about and trumped up by so many different presidents and politicians over the years that when they scuttle it they basically are announcing this late on a friday afternoon, it would seem to be kind of hoping people don t even notice, that it s just kind of you know, it s a friday document dump, basically. well, listen. first of all, there were some things we learned from it, there were some things about technology that will move forward with, will you the reality is this was a project in trouble from the very beginning. one of the things i did when i had oversight of the project as chairman of the committee that dealt with border issues on homeland security was i think i held something like 15 or 16 different hearings on this issue. many of which just left me frustrated, because a depart
statement doesn t say that. so people are going to be rightly skeptical, having frankly wasted almost $1 billion. why should we have more confidence? the department will have to prove to congress and the american people that they now know how to effectively manage these programs and spend tax dollars. representative sanchez, some folks are calling this thing just an expensive disappointment. that seems to be an understatement. i mean, $1 billion is that s, you know, that s not just expensive, that s outrageous. well, yes, there were problems from the beginning, and then the contract kept being extended between department of homeland security and the border patrol not the border patrol, i m sorry, in boeing, and it just seemed to us on the committee, every time we did oversight that things just weren t right with this project. one thing we will use some of that technology, but the real answer, which we could never get, was if we even get this project up and going and it s workin
homeland security and the border patrol not the border patrol, i m sorry, in boeing, and it just seemed to us on the committee, every time we did oversight that things just weren t right with this project. one thing we will use some of that technology, but the real answer, which we could never get, was if we even get this project up and going and it s working, would that mean we would needless human ability at the border? does that mean we wouldn t have to have as many border patrol? they couldn t even answer the fact that if the virtual fence worked, would we have less requirement for more border patrol people to work with this system. so it really was a problem. i remember when secretary napolitano came in, even before she was sworn in, and the first thing i said was this sbinet program is not working. the department of homeland security continues to extend and add more moneys to this contract.