This is a minimal physical urbanistic intervention with maximum social equity and neighborhood enhancement effects. The project is a small structure that functions as a labor market and service delivery platform for day laborers who wait for casual work every morning at customary gathering points. As this picking up of day workers takes place in cities across the United States, and in other countries, it is also a project that is worth replicating. It is low cost, and could be sponsored by the contractors of the day laborers.

A San Francisco-based project offering a solution for day laborers and the surrounding communities received the Global Holcim Awards “Innovation” prize 2009. The project led by Liz Ogbu and John Peterson of non-profit organization Public Architecture was selected out of thousands of submissions worldwide in the competition for sustainable construction projects. Internationally-renowned sociologist Saskia Sassen and celebrated architect Enrique Norten presented the USD 50,000 prize at the new California Academy of Sciences – itself a winning project from the 2005 Holcim Awards competition.

The second cycle of the Holcim Awards competition has reached its pinnacle: the top sustainable construction projects out of thousands of submissions from all continents have been selected. The four winning entries are a river remediation scheme in Morocco, a greenfield university campus in Vietnam, a rural planning strategy in China, and a shelter for day laborers in the USA. A series of prize-handovers will be held at the site of each project to celebrate the winners and their highly-acclaimed examples of sustainable construction.

The winners of the second North American Holcim Awards competition for Sustainable Construction projects were announced at a ceremony in Montreal. Total prize money of USD 270,000 was presented to nine projects from Canada and the United States that showcase the latest approaches to address critical topics including housing affordability, employment, renewable energy, and water efficiency.

Day labor is a challenging social issue in many cities around the globe. Although industry and commerce utilize this informal or casual source of human capital, day labor is itself not organized at all. The project’s uniqueness lies in its simple and convincing approach to this problem. The idea of establishing formal stations where day laborers are allowed to stay and offer their services is unique.

In many US cities day laborers use street corners as informal hiring sites. For hours on end they wait by the roadside and in parking lots, often in the hot sun and without any amenities, in the hope of securing a day’s work for a day’s pay. The Self-contained day labor station aims to improve the life quality of those who find themselves on the edge of the American Dream.