2018 Whitney M. Young Jr. Award: Tamara Eagle Bull, FAIA

Since 2002, when Tamara Eagle Bull, FAIA, the first Native American woman in the United States to become a licensed architect, founded Encompass Architects in Lincoln, Neb., with her husband, Todd Hesson, AIA, the firm has carved out a niche designing schools, government offices, and detention centers for tribes in Nebraska, South Dakota, and Arizona.

Even after all these years, when Eagle Bull meets with prospective Native American clients, she’s still sometimes asked, bluntly, “Are you just here to win an award?” The point, she says, is that many tribes have been burned by designers who impose their own ideas about what a building should look like, regardless of the wishes of the community. “When we begin a project,” Eagle Bull says, “the first thing we say is, ‘We’re not going to draw anything until we understand exactly what you want. It’s not my building. We’re not going to design what we think you need; we’re going to design what you tell us you need.’ ” And she tells them: “We don’t go after project awards.”

A member of the Oglala Lakota Nation, Eagle Bull is this year’s winner of the Whitney M. Young Jr. Award, which recognizes architects who champion social responsibility. Eagle Bull grew up in Aberdeen, S.D. Her father, a teacher, had dreamed of becoming an architect but was discouraged by a non-Native school counselor. “He always regretted not becoming an architect,” Eagle Bull says, “but he saw that I had a knack for design, so he encouraged me.” Frequent visits to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where her parents grew up, convinced her that she wanted to help improve the built environment in Native American communities, where funding is a challenge and buildings by necessity often serve multiple functions.

“Tammy is absolutely committed to tribal work,” says Sam Olbekson, Assoc. AIA, principal of Native American Design at the Cuningham Group in Minneapolis. “And she does it in a way that is very inclusive with her clients. She’s very culturally oriented and a great listener.

She really gets to the heart of what each community needs for a project, and she does it within the framework of Native values.”

Other 2018 AIA Honor Awards: