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CannonDesign completes new Western Michigan University student center inspired by Indigenous design elements

2024-03-04T12:13:00-05:00

CannonDesign has completed a new student center at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. Replacing the university’s Bernhard Center, the new three-level building contains gathering and lounge spaces, dining, a bookstore, a future on-campus brewpub, and retail, designed as a “beacon of inclusion,” according to the team.

Photo credit: Christopher Barrett

“Located on lands historically occupied by Ojibwe, Odawa, and Bodewadmi nations, the building is designed to be a student-centered gathering place that champions belonging and honors the roots of Native American heritage embedded throughout the site,” the team notes.

Photo credit: Laura Peters

The building’s 163,000-square-foot plan was designed to create “interstitial opportunities” for students to informally engage with each other. Student feedback influenced the design of various social elements, such as a sitting circle derived from Native American culture. Across the sc...

In Celebration of Indigenous Peoples' Day, here are a few selected lectures and events to add to your calendar

2023-10-09T08:00:00-04:00

In honor of today's Indigenous Peoples' Day celebration, we are highlighting a collection of events and lectures advancing the discourse on Native American traditions, rights, and cultures in the built environment that will be taking place this week and throughout the fall.

Affirming Indigenous Worldviews

Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation
New York, Monday, October 9

The fourth AFFIRMATIONS discussion, "Indigenous Worldings," on October 9 at 6:30 PM, features Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui and Paulo Tavares. The discussion will be followed by a response from GSAPP Assistant Professor Emanuel Admassu.

Bridging Academia and Indigenous Communities

University of Pittsburgh Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences
Pittsburgh and online, Monday & Tuesday, October 9 & 10

The school's Department of History of Art and Architecture in conjunction with the Carnegie Museum of Natural History presents special Indigenous Peoples' Day programming on Oct...

Adjaye-led expansion announced at Vermont’s historic Shelburne Museum

2023-05-09T16:50:00-04:00

Adjaye Associates has just been announced to lead the design of the newly-commissioned Perry Center for Native American Art at the Shelburne Museum in northern Vermont.

The project’s brief calls for a “sustainable building with integrated landscape created in collaboration with Indigenous voices whose cultures and people are represented in the works to be stewarded in the space.”

The extension will be 9,750 square feet in total and created at a projected cost of $12.6 million. Once completed it will join the Shelburne’s stock of 39 other structures, the most recent of which, the Pizzagalli Center for Art and Education, was designed by Annum (formerly Ann Beha Architects) in 2011.

Previously on Archinect: Several museum expansions and design research projects among National Endowment for the Humanities grant recipients

“Our team is inspired by the potential of the Perry Center to not only enhance Shelburne Museum as a destination for education but also to amplify and empower the Indi...

UNM architecture chair Chris Cornelius offers NYT an insight into how his Indigenous heritage informed his career

2023-03-10T14:42:00-05:00

Just over one year since Chris Cornelius took up his role as the Chair of the Department of Architecture at the University of New Mexico, the architect and educator has spoken to The New York Times on how his career was informed by his upbringing and his Oneida heritage.

An enrolled member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, Cornelius is also the founding principal of studio:indigenous, a design practice that serves American Indian clients. Back in 2017, to mark Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Archinect included Cornelius’s firm in a list of our favorite contemporary practices led by Indigenous architects.

“In our neighborhood, there were no trees or sidewalks,” Cornelius told The Times about his childhood in a federal public housing project on the Oneida Indian reservation. “When I saw how different life was off the reservation, I began to think about how I could make an impact on my environment.”

Portland State University enlists Australian architect to develop Indigenous Center and surrounding oak savanna

2022-10-13T10:02:00-04:00

Kevin O’Brien, an acclaimed Indigenous architect from Australia, has embarked on a year-long collaboration with Portland State University. His involvement centers on the restoration of a campus oak savanna and the design-build of a facility at the site that will host the school’s Indigenous Traditional Ecological and Cultural Knowledge (ITECK) program.

O’Brien joins the University’s School of Architecture as its 2022 Distinguished Visiting Professor. He will lead a one-week Indigenous design methods workshop for undergraduate and graduate students. He will also meet with students in PSU’s Indigenous Nations Studies program, engage with architects from local firms, and host a public lecture. As stated on PSU’s website, “O'Brien will challenge students to rethink their assumptions about architecture's relationship to the land, how they imagine the city, and how we learn through doing.”

The Queensland-based architect works as a Principal at Australian practice BVN Architecture. He als...

Fentress Architects selected to design the California Indian Heritage Center in Sacramento

2022-05-11T15:26:00-04:00

Fentress Architects has been chosen by California State Parks and the California Indian Heritage Center Task Force to design the California Indian Heritage Center (CIHC) in Sacramento.

Per a press announcement, the site will be a destination where “visitors from across California, the nation, and the world will be drawn to this center of statewide significance for cultural preservation, learning and exchange, land stewardship based on Native American values, and a place to engage all visitors celebrating the living cultures of California tribal communities.”

California Indian Heritage Center location plan. Image via Final General Plan & Environmental Impact Report, 2011.

The 51-acre CIHC will be located at the confluence of the American and Sacramento Rivers in West Sacramento. The project reflects a decades-long collaboration between the state and California Native American tribal governments and communities, along with allied individuals and institutions. The development gained mo...

The University of Arizona launches Indigenous Resilience Center, addressing environmental issues

2021-09-17T13:31:00-04:00

The University of Arizona is launching a new interdisciplinary center that will partner with Native American nations to work on projects that address environmental issues.

Called the Indigenous Resilience Center, the program will be a partnership between Native nations and the university’s Arizona Institutes for Resilience, Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice, and multiple faculty members and academic programs that focus on supporting the resilience of Indigenous communities.

The center’s faculty and staff will work directly with tribal leaders and governments to co-design community-driven solutions that address issues facing Native communities, such as climate change. Projects will focus on areas including agriculture, solar energy, off-grid water resources, food resources, Native plant adaptation, and health.

Karlet...

University of New Mexico announces Chris Cornelius, champion of Indigenous design culture, as new Chair of Architecture

2021-09-10T17:16:00-04:00

The University of New Mexico (UNM) has announced Chris Cornelius as their new Chair of the Department of Architecture. A prominent advocate for the awareness of architecture’s connection with culture, particularly American Indian culture, Cornelius is set to take up the role on November 1st, 2021.

An enrolled member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, Cornelius is also the founding principal of studio:indigenous, a design practice which serves American Indian clients. Back in 2017, to mark Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Archinect included Cornelius’s firm in a list of our favorite contemporary practices led by Indigenous architects.

His work has been recognized through numerous honors, including a Smithsonian Institution Artist in Residence Fellowship from the National Museum of the American Indian in 2003, and the 2017 Miller Prize from Exhibit Columbus. He was also among a grou...

Indigenous tribes are making a push for commercial real estate investment in the hopes of building a future for their communities

2021-07-08T19:52:00-04:00

Native Americans have been systematically dispossessed of their ancestral lands for more than a century, thanks to federal land management policies. But a spate of new real estate projects highlights efforts to reclaim that territory, as tribes invest in land development in an effort to diversify their revenue base and support their members.

Only a handful of tribes have pursued ventures involving commercial property outside of gambling and many still reside in poverty-stricken reservations in the U.S. and Canada. A group from the Squamish Nation is behind Canada's largest development in Vancouver while others have made serious investments in tribal-controlled areas with the backing of some major corporate teammates.

The tribes have themselves been the frequent victim of commercial development schemes historically even occasionally leading to violence and mass protests in both countries. Now, recent developments are causing many to herald a tide change in Indigenous relations that may favor those "long-term leaders" investing in real-estate development now.

The Seattle Times has more on the effort here.

They need much more: $90 Million granted for affordable housing in Tribal communities

2021-04-14T11:50:00-04:00

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has announced over $90 million in grants allocated for affordable housing in Tribal communities. The funds, distributed to 24 Tribes and Tribally Designated Housing Entities (TDHEs) are intended to support the construction of new houses, the rehabilitation of existing housing, and the delivery of vital infrastructural projects.

Awarded as part of HUD’s Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG), the funds are expected to support the construction of approximately 350 housing units. Commenting on the funding, HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge said “this past year was a stark reminder of just how important access to safe, stable housing is — especially in Tribal communities disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The funding HUD is awarding today will support much needed affordable housing investments in Indian Country.”

The Make It Right Foundation's proposal for Native American housing in Montana. Credit: GRAFT

The new...

Architects reconnect with Indigenous traditions in Toronto

2020-09-22T18:30:00-04:00

Smoke detectors and birch trees. These are two things that an architect would not typically mention while talking up an ambitious new building. But for the Indigenous House at the University of Toronto Scarborough, these matters are critical. Here, connections with Indigenous traditions and ways of thinking will be everywhere, from the guts of the building to the landscape that accompanies it.

Alex Bozikovic, The Globe and Mail’s architecture critic, reviews the planned Indigenous House at the University of Toronto Scarborough, designed by Formline Architecture in collaboration with LGA Architectural Partners and landscape architecture firm Public Work.

The Met is hiring its first Native North American Art curator

2019-09-16T15:45:00-04:00

The successful candidate will be tasked with overseeing the museum’s vast collection of indigenous American artifacts, including the Charles and Valerie Diker Collection of more than 116 objects hailing from 50 different Native American cultures, from the 2nd century to the early 20th century. [...] The commitment to hire the new curator also came as part of the Diker gift.

In a recent job listing on the American Alliance of Museums website, The Met in NYC appears to be hiring its first full-time Native North American art curator to lead the museum's new Native Arts program, artnet News reported earlier this month. Hiring the new curator is part of the museum's efforts to revamp its approach to Native American art and culture.

The job listing (which has since been removed) states that the chosen candidate would be in charge of establishing “‘demonstrable connections with descendent communities’ and the ability to ‘develop robust collaborations and partnerships with Indigenous community members,’” Smithsonian.com reports.

Three Native American women are changing the narrative at Yale's School of Architecture

2019-07-29T12:06:00-04:00

Architectural Digest recently covered the story of three indigenous women currently enrolled in three different architecture programs at Yale University's School of Architecture. Charelle Brown, Anjelica Gallegos, and Summer Sutton have made history at Yale. Not only are all three women currently enrolled in three academic programs but through their resilience and initiative to represent indigenous people in architecture. Underrepresented groups are using their stories, their struggles, and their own perspectives to change and rewrite the future of the built environment.

Image courtesy of Yale School of Architecture

Brown, currently a senior at Yale, was inspired by her adobe village home on the Kewa Pueblo near Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her family traditions propelled her to pursue an architectural degree, striving to accomplish her goal and attend the Ivy League school. Brown shared with Architectural Digest, "I was obsessed. [...] I was doing anything I could to get into spaces peopl...

Cahokia Mounds outside St. Louis could become a National Park

2019-07-11T11:48:00-04:00

Federal legislation to make Cahokia Mounds part of a new national park could soon be introduced in Congress, according to proponents of the plan. The Cahokia Mounds and Mississippian Culture National Historic Park would also include ancient mounds in St. Clair and Madison counties and Sugarloaf Mound in St. Louis, the last remaining mound in the city.

If the proposed Cahokia Mounds and Mississippian Culture National Historic Park is approved, the thousand-year-old pre-Columbian Native American historical site, which includes mounds in southern Illinois and outside St. Louis, would be the second new national park created in Missouri in two years.

Last year, according to St. Louis Public Radio, Congress created the Ste. Genevieve National Historical Park, an urban historic district that consists of a series of colonial era timber and heavy truss structures built by French settlers in the area during the 1700s.

Cahokia Mounds was named as a World Heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1982; The site is currently listed as a National Historic Landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places.

Paolo Soleri Amphitheater featured at SITE Santa Fe Biennial

2016-08-08T01:28:00-04:00

Architect Conrad Skinner’s five-year research project into the history of the Paolo Soleri Amphitheater plays a lead role in much wider than a line, SITE Santa Fe’s 2016 biennial dedicated to new art from the Americas. The exhibition which features 35 artists and two archival projects including Skinner’s, runs at SITE Santa Fe through January 8, 2017.

Skinner’s project introduces visitors to much wider than a line with a 700 square-foot gallery that includes a photographic mural of the Amphitheater from which projects an arcing concrete bench, architect’s drawings reproduced from Soleri’s sketchbooks, and a micaceous clay model of the Amphitheater by artist Eliza Naranjo-Morse.

The Paolo Soleri Amphitheater re-imagined Western theater space by introducing Native American precedents and represented the turning point in Native American arts education that the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) initiated in the mid-1960s. The Amphitheater grew out of a creative collaboration betw...

Arctic Adaptations: Inuit Architecture Showcased in Venice Biennale

2014-10-30T13:55:00-04:00

For the first time in the 14-year history of the International Venice Biennale of Architecture, the Nunavut flag flew at the entrance to the Canadian Pavilion, an Inukshuk floating at the entrance of “Arctic Adaptations: Nunavut at 15.” The exhibit, curated by architects Lola Sheppard and Mason White, from Toronto-based design firm Lateral Office, coincides with the 15th anniversary of the territory’s creation.

Previously: “Arctic Adaptations: Nunavut at 15” to represent Canadian Pavilion at 2014 Venice Biennale

Make It Right unveils new designs for Native American housing in Montana

2014-06-23T13:10:00-04:00

The Make It Right foundation has unveiled its new home designs for the Sioux and Assiniboine tribes of Fort Peck, Montana. Following LEED Platinum certification and Cradle to Cradle practices, the foundation is known for building sustainable homes for people in need. For the Ft. Peck project, Make It Right plans to build twenty solar-powered homes for tribal members, and develop a sustainable master plan for the reservation of over 6,000 people.

Designers and architects involved included GRAFT, Sustainable Native Communities Collaborative, Architecture for Humanity, Method Homes and Living Homes. The homes will be available to tribal members with a household income of 60% or lower than the area's median income.

Find more information on the Ft. Peck project from Make It Right here.

Indian artifact treasure trove paved over for Marin County homes

2014-04-28T20:36:00-04:00

A treasure trove of Coast Miwok life dating back 4,500 years - older than King Tut's tomb - was discovered in Marin County and then destroyed to make way for multimillion-dollar homes, archaeologists told The Chronicle this week. The American Indian burial ground and village site, so rich in history that it was dubbed the "grandfather midden," was examined and categorized under a shroud of secrecy before construction began this month on the $55 million Rose Lane development in Larkspur.

New US Embassy in Berlin Triggers Architecture Debate

2008-05-11T19:40:00-04:00

It is suggested Berliners nickname the building by California architects Moore Ruble Yudell the "Pancake," in reference to the main-road side that tourists will pass on their way to the Holocaust Memorial. deutsche welle