Many worldviews, brought together.

The existing Heard Museum building was constructed in the 1920s as a private museum. Both the original structures and an expansion completed in the 1960s comprise traditional Spanish architecture, reflecting a time in which Spain was a global colonial power. More recent leadership, who have emphasized a programmatic breadth including exhibits, events, residencies, and a nationally-regarded Native art fair, recognized that in order to fulfill the museum’s mandate of presenting, interpreting, and advancing Indian American art, the renovation’s design must be done with the participation of Native Americans.

We were honored to work closely with the Heard’s Native American Advisory Committee on the renovation. New interiors comprise the museum’s main permanent galleries, holding an exhibit called HOME: Native People, in the Southwest, as well as companion rotating exhibitions. These new permanent galleries bear rounded forms prevalent in Native American architecture and are conceived of as “stones in a river,” featuring bent poplar walls that form a continuous spatial and wayfinding ribbon. Textured articulation of the walls is a subtle reference to Native American basketry.