The 2024 Summer Studio included a couple of long road trips to Eagle Butte, some challenging conversations, and a good deal of thoughtful design work by a talented crop of seven interns. A new CO-OP record.
Friends & Citizens is an AIA-award-winning, summer-long design studio that integrates the academic and professional worlds of architecture for a group of interns. Each summer, CO-OP oversees a handful of students from various disciplines, offering them the tools and guidance necessary to complete a theoretical design project in addition to some practical daily work. The students develop their design skills, take part in public policy discussions, learn smart and sustainable land use and urban planning strategies, and most importantly, help build vibrant communities.
Throughout the summer of 2024, seven design students – Cheyenne Miller, Jenda Simonsen, Grayden Imbery, Elissa Hammrich, Dillon Trevino, Rachel Kindt, and Miranda Wangler – explored a master plan for the community of Eagle Butte on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in central South Dakota.
Eagle Butte emerged from the shadows of the Oahe flood in 1950 — a new beginning for a displaced yet resilient community. Today, Eagle Butte is a vital resource center among the vast rural landscapes that make up the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation.
The Friends & Citizens summer interns aimed to celebrate the community by crafting a design that honors the past, uplifts the present and paves the way for future prosperity via a central theme of connection. At the broader town scale, the interns identified a physical and social divide between North and South Eagle Butte that needed to be addressed comprehensively. Thus, the master plan focuses on walkability, traffic strategies, and relocation opportunities. Proposed connectivity solutions included pedestrian paths, pedestrian bridges, street improvements, green spaces, and weather shelters.
On a smaller scale, the interns explored a concept for a mixed-use community center to tie the master plan together. The proposed structure, located at the intersection of Main Street and Highway 212, has the potential to serve as a central hub for the town. The students considered a single exterior pathway running through the center of two primary structures, evolving into a network of four distinct paths radiating outwards, emphasizing a centrally located outdoor space. From a programming perspective, the building includes business incubator offices, vendor spaces, community event space, a daycare, and housing units — all intended to address wants and needs identified by Eagle Butte community members.
Altogether, the F&C summer interns aimed to create a design that is not just a singular building, but rather a tool and a model for addressing the unique challenges faced by the community. Much like the students and the projects before them, which you can browse at the bottom of this page.
