San Diego refers to both San Diego City and San Diego County, with populations of 1.5 million and 3 million, respectively. While the city of San Diego is officially the eighth largest city by population in the country, this is partially due to the extensive municipal region which extends far from the tightly knit urban density and the official city territory encompasses a vast region. However, a large percentage of “San Diegans” are technically located in satellite municipalities clustered around the metropolitan area that are more accessible to downtown.

Southern California is known for its extensive, massive, freeway system and San Diego is no exception. This network of many-laned highways connects all the concentrations of people, settlements, and density. The public bus system travels via these highways and is extremely easy to use and cheap. Because it is a major college city with UCSD and SDSU lying outside of the urban fabric, this system is heavily utilized and designed to stem outward from the waterfront downtown. The population, economy, and local culture are concentrated in downtown San Diego. 

The city was the first city in California, as the first Spanish mission was founded in San Diego in 1769. The geography made the city an ideal port, which appealed to foreign sailors. The conflict between local natives and colonizing missionaries created tension. Later, this unique geography appealed to the US government, and many military bases were established here. This has created a more moderately conservative socio-political climate in a state which is largely liberal and laid-back. 

San Diego currently receives one of the highest numbers of international refugees in the country. However, this is widely unknown to locals. A large percentage of recent refugees have been re-settled in El Cajon, an adjacent municipality. San Diego also lies right on the Mexican border, adjacent to the city of Tijuana. Immigration issues in the city — both opposition and support — are largely oriented toward Hispanic and Latino immigrants, both legal and illegal. In today’s political climate, these conditions create strain in a city that heavily relies economically on the military sector and tourism industry. 

Embarcadero Marina Park South was selected as the site due to its downtown location, making the new construction easily accessible for all communities and in close proximity to other important cultural sites. This park extends into the bay and was infilled in 1975 along with Embarcadero Marina Park North. While the latter is heavily used (primarily due to the ease of access from Seaport Village and the city) and in the preliminary process of being updated, the southern park is underutilized despite its prime waterfront location. While the entire bayside boardwalk is heavily used, by both tourists and locals alike, this park is often skipped over. There is speculation that this is partially due to its bottleneck access and its sheltered location behind the Convention Center, which isolates it from the rest of the city. It is also the most southern portion of the developed downtown waterfront, bordering a drastic demographic shift. The parks slightly south (Chicano and Cesar Chavez) are utilized almost entirely by the Hispanic population and are decorated with rich cultural murals. The waterfront just south of Embarcadero Marina Park South is mainly employed for industrial and Navy purposes.

Due to site and social conditions in the surrounding city, funding and support for a refugee-oriented market would be highly unlikely. As such, Welcome Home is also an alternate version to the currently proposed expansion of the San Diego Convention Center. This hybridized project addresses not only the local government’s fiscal desire for more space to host tourist-attracting events but also the community's social need for a place in which to assist and connect with immigrating refugees. The addition of the latter program is the crucial difference between this proposal and the official design scheme propositions. Through site and program, this project brings refugee needs to the forefront of the city’s attention. It gives residents and tourists the space to interact with refugees, fostering an opportunity for cultural education and social empathy. For the refugee population, the building houses services and resources, as well as provides jobs in the marketplace. This project works then, to serve the entire community through a multitude of methods. 

This hybridized program requires an extremely large space for conventions, as well as large rooms for smaller conferences. The current convention center expansion proposal calls for approximately a fifty-percent increase in space. The marketplace is then wrapped around the waterfront face of the structure with an open plaza. The following formal explorations were carried out to generate the configuration of these spaces on the site. 

Formally, the project is comprised of nesting sections that increase spatially in both plan and section. The largest portion is open convention center space while the outer smaller portions are marketplace along the waterfront. The intermediary rooms function as “swing-space”, which could serve either of the programmatic uses of the building. They can be used for various refugee resources or temporary market expansion spaces. They can also be utilized for conventions when necessary. 

The gradual increase in height between spaces provides southern-light and bay views for each section. The shifting creates an occupiable roofscape over the marketplace, accessible from the patios of the existing convention center or the mezzanine level of the new architecture. Service hallways through the swing space contain restrooms and marketplace storage, while also creating thresholds between the market and the large convention space.