Tohono O’Odham Cultural Center

LOCATION: Topawa

AREA: 300,000 sq. ft.

CLIENT: Tohono O’Odham

COMPLETION DATE: 2021

The Tohono O’odham Cultural Center & Museum located in Topawa, Arizona honors the past, present, and future of the Tohono O’odham culture. This facility includes courtyards for community gathering, sculptures, and traditional craft demonstrations. WDG worked collaboratively with architects to develop site concepts that protected native plants and mountain views. A dance amphitheater surrounded by terraces of native grasses with views of Baboquivari Peak is a central element of the Center, and supports the goals of creating comfortable usable outdoor space for education, storytelling, cooking, dances, displays, and places to walk or rest.