Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe begins long-awaited planning for central tribal administration headquarters

Mike Lavedure, DSGW Principal Architect – Meghan Marks, Azimuth Construction Services Project Director – Frank Scopetti, Azimuth Construction Services President – Joe Ellington, DSGW Senior Architect. (Photos courtesy Warren LeBeau)

EAGLE BUTTE – To create and develop the future Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Administration Office, the partners from the Blue Stone Strategy Partners group out of Phoenix, Arizona arrived in Eagle Butte on Thursday, September 25th to work with the various tribal directors to conduct a Space Programming analysis of the various departments that will be housed in the future facility. As you know the tribe was forced to vacate the old co-housed Bureau of Indian Affairs and tribal building due to health and life safety concerns twelve years ago. And since that time the departments have been scattered throughout Eagle Butte to continue to serve the members of the tribe and conduct their business. But previous experience has shown that farming out and piecemealing of services has not been the most constructive, efficient, and conducive way for the tribe to service its members and conduct its business. So, beginning to plan for a new headquarters that will house the majority of tribal offices under one roof is not only something that is long needed but a blessing.

The meeting was held at the 7th Generation Cinema complex. Opening the session was Francine Garreaux Hall, the Planning & Economic Development Director. Working and facilitating the collection of information from the department heads was Frank Scopetti, President of Azimuth Construction Services; Meghan Marks, Project Director of Azimuth Construction Services, Joe Ellingson, Senior Architect/Associate of DSGW Architecture; and Mike Lavedure, Principal Architect of DSGW Architecture.

These four partners worked one-on-one with each director to gather such information as to the function of their office, the number of staff in each department, what personnel required privacy and/or heightened security, what equipment is required or needed within the confines of their office, the need for upgraded technology, storage space for files and other materials, accessibility to the public, handicap considerations, sharing of spaces with other departments, and accommodation of growth.

From all this information these experts can draft a building space program that will be the basis for architects and engineers to begin drafting blueprints for the construction a new Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Tribal Headquarters. It is this information that will dictate the size, location, whether the building will be single story or two, the location of offices, the adjacency of offices to one another, the flow of individuals using and visiting the facility, security levels, open and secure storage spaces, daylight accessibility, public assess, handicap accessibility, parking, bathrooms, landscaping, and most of the integration of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe’s culture, history, and beliefs.

Once all these determination factors can be accessed, Blue Stone will first develop “bubble diagrams” to present back to the tribe to begin the layout of the new facility. Upon approval by the tribe, then schematic floor plans can be drafted to further boil down the plans to take the project to design. So, this is only the first of many meetings that these folks will be conducting with departmental directors, the tribe, and the Chairman’s Office.

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