Design Workshop Foundation partners with Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California

The Design Workshop Foundation recently announced that it will partner with Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California for its 2025 Community Capacity Building Initiative. The Tribe will collaborate with Design Workshop Foundation, including planners and designers from Design Workshop Inc., to receive pro-bono strategic planning and public space design for the Woodfoords Húngalelti Community. Through this effort, design teams will work closely with the community leaders and stakeholders to advance action to overcome the Tribe’s lack of outdoor recreation spaces.

“The DW Foundation Capacity Building project will be a collaboration with the Washoe Tribe to develop a vision for outdoor recreation opportunities supporting community health and well-being, centered around a catalytic bike park project,” said Sarah Konradi, executive director of the Design Workshop Foundation. “This initiative is key to creating a lasting, sustainable outcome for this community and outdoor recreation. We look forward to working with the Tribe, along with the robust team of partners involved on this exciting project.”

Woodfords Community Council (WCC, interchangeable used with Húngalelti) is the governing body for the Woodfords Húngalelti Community, and are organized under the Washoe Tribe’s Constitution. Húngalelti is home of the Southern band of the federally recognized Washoe Tribe which has lived in the Tahoe area for time immemorial. Its key strengths include strong governance and a rich network of community programs. The challenges are rooted in economic disparity and its rural location as approximately 85% of the community experiences poverty, lack of resources, and high school dropout rates. This project seeks to capitalize on the creation of a bike park for disadvantaged youth and community members. They have secured the designation of a specific, underutilized parcel of Tribal land for the development of a new, centralized community bike park, where children can safely enjoy riding their bikes and engage in physical activity.

“The skills offered by the Design Workshop Foundation are critical to turning our abstract need of outdoor recreation space for families into a concrete, actionable design plan. The process will support our team by providing a clear, evidence-based roadmap for developing a central community bike park, nestled between spaces where community residents can enjoy existing gathering spaces and with an eye toward developing a variety of playground structures,” said Steven Buck Cruz, WCC Vice Chair and Manager for the Washoe Tribe Conservation Corps (WTCC). “The WTCC will be donating labor, while enhancing our knowledge and skill base.”

The WCC also partners with the Washoe Tribe’s Probation Department to collaborate on efforts, such as the bike park, to see community goals come to fruition. By bringing community members into a design process for a shared public space, this effort will move beyond service delivery and empower the community to physically shape their own environment. Once complete, the bike park and community spaces provide areas for healthy outdoor recreation and be maintained by the Húngalelti Conservation Crew and local youth, creating stewardship opportunities within the community. Additional project partners include Alpine County, California Mountain Biking Coalition, Tahoe Backcountry Alliance, and University of San Francisco Architecture Community Design Collaboration.

About Damian Holmes 3707 Articles
Damian Holmes is the Founder and Editor of World Landscape Architecture (WLA). He is a registered landscape architect (AILA) working in international design practice in Australia. Damian founded WLA in 2007 to provide a website for landscape architects written by landscape architects. Connect on Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/damianholmes/

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply