Construction has begun on the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribal Wellness Center, designed by Gensler, in Flandreau, South Dakota
Gensler’s Minneapolis office is renovating an existing 18,000-square-foot building on the Tribe’s reservation and designing a new 95,000-square-foot structure as part of the project to accommodate the Indigenous organization’s evolving needs
The new building’s exterior is clad in thermally modified wood, a material chosen for its aesthetic, wellness, and sustainable properties.The sinuous curves and geometric patterns in the facade respond to the landscape.
The front elevation is defined by a stretch of lamellas made of wood that change in height, with the basketball court visible beyond. The expansion is “shaped by Dakota approaches to care and place,” Gensler said in a project statement.
That is to say the project is rooted in the Dakota concept ofwicozani, which holistically views health, culture, and connection as a unified whole
Toward that end, the wellness center combines healthcare, recreation, culture, and community gathering into a unified, single campus
Users will have access to an event center, therapy pool, fitness facilities, behavioral health spaces, cultural education rooms, a ceremony room, teaching kitchen, and outdoor wellness amenities
Behavioral spaces are centered around a wellness garden, to connect “healing environments” in proximity to nature. Native and medicinal plantings will be dispersed around the site
Programming is spread across a single level. This approach afforded Gensler the opportunity to bring natural light into spaces far from windows with clerestories that puncture the roof plane.
A multi-height basketball court and workout area will both benefit from a flood of natural light courtesy of the fenestration. Traditional Dakota patterns will line interior spaces throughout the center
Bill Baxley, a principal at Gensler Minneapolis, is the design leader. Baxley shared that community engagement has been pivotal to the project
“An Elder shared that they measure the value of something by how well it supports life,” Baxley noted. “From that moment on, ‘supporting life’ became the guiding principle behind every design decision we made.”
To meet energy benchmarks, the center has a 300-well geothermal energy system, solar infrastructure, and ample daylighting throughout occupied spaces
Another constructionproject underway on the reservationreplaces the tribal office and finance office with a new facility designed by DSGW Architects that will house archival storage, a tribal museum, a gift shop, meeting rooms, and other civic and cultural spaces
The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribal Wellness Center is anticipated for completion in May 2028
GenslerIndigenousSouth DakotaWellness
