Tuba City Chapter Tract Masterplan

Project Team

Claudia Nelson, Director, Native Peoples Technical Assistance Office
Kelly Eitzen Smith, PhD., Native Peoples Technical Assistance Office
Laura Carr, Co-founder, Native Peoples Design Coalition (NPDC), and Senior Lecturer, School of Architecture, College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture (CAPLA)
Kenneth Kokroko, Assistant Professor, School of Landscape Architecture and Planning, CAPLA
Greg Veitch, Project Manager, NPDC, and Adjunct Lecturer, School of Architecture, CAPLA
2024 MArch 510E studio, School of Architecture, CAPLA
2023 BLA 301 studio, School of Planning and Landscape Architecture, CAPLA
2023 independent study, School of Architecture, CAPLA

Community Partners

Nelson Cody, Community Development Manager, Tuba City Chapter
Gerald Keetso, President, Tuba City Chapter
Helen Webster, Tuba City Chapter
Angie Williams, Tuba City Chapter
Durann Begay, Executive Manager, Tuba City Local Government
Tuba City Chapter and Community Leaders

Project Details

Project Overview

This project develops a 40-acre tract of land in Tuba City, the largest community in the western region of the Navajo Nation. The local Chapter’s vision for the tract is to empower the Nation’s most vital resource, the Navajo people, who have the knowledge, skills, ability, and innovation to sustain and revitalize their communities. The masterplan for the tract provides a centralized hub for residents to obtain vital services and training, engage in physical, cultural, and social activities, and be a catalyst for Navajo Enterprise opportunities. This combination of resources, infrastructure and support has historically been absent and has resulted in stagnated economic growth, specifically in the small business sector.

In addressing the obstacles and needs, the Chapter engaged in a year-long study with the Native Peoples Design Coalition (NPDC), a UArizona partnership including the College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture, the Native Peoples Technical Assistance Office, Cooperative Extensions Tribal Extension Office and the Office of Native American Advancement and Tribal Engagement, to analyze master planning options for the Tract, including water and energy demands, programmatic needs, economic development, land-use compatibility, and facilities designs.

The study concluded with the ARC510E Community Design Studio, which teaches the comprehensive design of buildings and sites using methods of architectural research and community engagement. Students began the semester with previously developed conceptual masterplans and site feasibility studies. Working in teams of two, they each developed one of three sites within the master plan: the Enterprise, Civic, or Navajo Nations Services site. Two teams were assigned to each focus area, a strategy that the Chapter felt would be the best way to present a variety of design options to the community. In addition to working within site-specific teams, students also coordinated across teams to arrive at two new coordinated master plans. This back-and-forth methodology allowed students autonomy in developing the conceptual ideas that rooted their designs, while maintaining accountability to the larger master planning goals of the Chapter.

This work is part of an ongoing conversation with the Tuba City community and Chapter to develop a self-sustaining community hub in the center of town. Future development efforts, including taking these designs forward from A&E through construction, are in process. The studio was a collaborative effort in which everyone worked together to deliver to the Chapter a tool for change.