Pueblo of Laguna Marketplace, NM
The design challenge: develop a preliminary plan for an 80,000 square foot vendor market space which would be an anchor on Main Street and a catalytic project for revitalization, reflective of Pueblo cultural values.
The Pueblo of Laguna project, supported by the Citizen's Institute on Rural Design, builds on the tribe’s vision of a Main Street that supports robust commerce, artists, and food systems, while building on a millennium of history. One key element of their Main Street vision includes a pop-up vendor market, designed for and by tribal members.
In 2021, inspired by the Pueblo of Zuni’s Main Street revitalization project just 100 miles away, the Pueblo of Laguna applied to the Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design (CIRD) to host a local design workshop. The design team was led by To Be Done Studio, and also included designers with deep experience working with Native American communities—including Joseph Kunkel (Northern Cheyenne) and Nathaniel Corum from MASS Design Group’s Sustainable Native Communities Design Lab and Amy Bell from Groundwork Studio.
Earlier stages of work were supported by Michaela Shirley (Navajo), Program Specialist from University of New Mexico’s Indigenous Design and Planning Institute. The workshop was supported throughout the planning stages by the CIRD core team, including Evelyn Immonen and Stephen Sugg from the Housing Assistance Council and Jennifer Hughes and Courtney Spearman from the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Pueblo of Laguna (POL) is first and foremost its people, their relationships to clan and family, responsibilities to one other, and commitment to the persistence of Laguna culture.
This commitment is reflected in their pottery, jewelry, and sewing and their expertise in arid-land farming. Their communal identity centers on the Village of Laguna, the “mother village” and “capital.” Through a local design workshop, the design team and CIRD staff worked with the Pueblo to begin planning the Laguna Main Street project, an economic revitalization project along historic Route 66 where it passes through the reservation. Main Street improvements are focused on attracting new businesses that meet community needs for goods and services and supporting other economic development, like tourism.
Outcomes
Three schematic site options were developed as part of an engaged design process that included participatory site modeling, focus groups, visual preference surveys and of course, good conversations over delicious meals. Each site plan is designed to explore a specific set of themes and to garner additional feedback at the open house.
Option 1 provides a food-vendor only zone at the north end of the site that wraps around a public seating/green space framed on the south by a set of covered vendor stalls. Further to the south a large covered open area creates space for gathering, dance, music and other cultural activities framed by covered art/craft vendor stalls. A fully enclosed art/craft/visitor center is located at the southern end of the site as well as a large vendor parking area.
Option 2 shares many traits with Option 1 however utilizes the circle as the main organizing form. A mixed-art/food vendor area wraps down the northeast side of the site framing views towards a circular covered seating area as well as the primary parking area. This line of vendor stalls wraps all the way down the site creating a promenade. Further south, a large circular open space creates space for dance, gathering and other cultural activities. This is framed to the west by an arts/crafts/visitor center that will include space for the display of flags and other culturally significant symbols.
Option 3 takes advantage of larger enclosed building and parking spaces to accommodate the discussed programs as well as a large "green buffer" that wraps around the north and west sides of the site and connects to the nearby river. Two larger parking areas flank the existing Post Office building. Food vendor spaces are provided to the north, and arts/craft vendor spaces are provided to the south. Large gathering spaces are included on both the north and south ends of the site.
Community feedback helped the design to combine the traditional and the modern. The local input offered dozens of ideas, including material choices, cultural and tribal symbology, honoring the four cardinal directions, and even the shape of the gathering space. One of the proposed design ideas incorporated a circular, open-air amphitheater, embracing connection to the sky above. These initial concepts, arrived at through the community engagement activities, were then developed further and refined back in the studio over the two months following the workshop.
