Listening to Communities: Tammy Eagle Bull on Cultural Values and Trusting Your Instincts
By Amy Stone
Tammy Eagle Bull, FAIA, NCARB, AICAE, is the founder of Encompass Architects, a Native American Women owned architecture firm. Tammy is a member of the Ogala Lakota Nation and offers unique insight into how to design for Native clients. Tammy is the recipient of the 2018 Whitney Young Award for her preservation and thoughtful representation of Native American culture. She is the first Native American woman to become a licensed architect in the U.S.
In her interview with Amy Stone, Tammy talks starting Encompass Architects, respectfully representing tribal work, and recognizing architecture as an expression of sovereignty. She advises those just starting their career to focus on listening to clients and communities.
AS: How did you first develop an interest in architecture?
TEB: I grew up in Aberdeen, South Dakota, which is a community that is off the reservation. Both my parents are Lakota and we spent a lot of time with our families back on the reservation. I grew up in these two different worlds. What I noticed most was the built environment. The house I grew up in was vastly different from the houses my cousins lived in. The schools, hospitals, and downtown were so different. As I grew up, I would always ask my dad questions and he started talking to me more and more about architecture and how the built environment affects how people felt about themselves.
My dad was an education director for the region. He would talk to me about the school buildings and projects that were built. Architects would come to the area, consult with very few people, and then deliver a school that in plan was the shape of a bull or an eagle. It was functionally compromised and the tribe would feel very disconnected from the building. He always advocated that architects needed to talk to the people: the community, the students, the parents. He was the one who really talked to me about how the people should be involved and also that architecture was a way to serve our community.
“When we are starting a project, I don’t go in and say, “Here I am and this is what we are going to do.” Instead, it’s more like, “This is your project. What do you want? What is your vision? How do you want to feel? How do you want people to feel when they are there?””
What a unique entry point to architecture! What did you learned about yourself while you were studying architecture and did that reinforce what you were learning growing up?
It was confusing in architecture school. The professors seemed to really encourage developing a look or a signature style. There was very little talk about clients and programming. I was really confused. I knew I didn't want my buildings to be about me.
There were a couple of projects where we had actual clients. I just loved those and wanted to interact with them and had a ton of questions. Those were the ones where I felt like my solution was the best in terms of how I felt about them; it had a purpose. I learned that I really needed that interaction with clients and throughout that process, it taught me to trust myself and trust my instincts.
I love your takeaway. Architecture is not about projecting a style. It’s about understanding others. How did you get your start in the field?
I had worked one year before undergrad and grad school and helped implement AutoCAD at a firm in Kansas. I started grad school at University of Minnesota and after a year, I needed to work to earn enough to finish school. I worked with a local firm doing municipal projects. Through that, I got an opportunity to move to Seattle and work with DLR. They were a good firm and taught me a lot about how to market, how to find clients, how projects are funded. It was also there that I was able to start focusing on tribal work.
Had you intended to stay close to tribal work?
I always knew that I would eventually focus on that. My plan was to try to get as much experience in as many things as possible, knowing that eventually, I would want to open my own firm. After DLR, I moved back to Minnesota and finished grad school and after graduating, I returned to the firm I had worked for. That was where I realized I really wanted to pursue tribal work. My boss told me to go for it and was really supportive.
I later went to Cunningham Group to head up the work with their native client group. Then I got sought out by a firm in Phoenix, a native firm. That is where I really jumped in and started really getting to know different tribes and did some projects. Eventually, a really meaningful project came up that offered me the opportunity to go out on my own. I had an amazing mentor at that firm who really encouraged me to go for it. Who would have thought that this young, native woman would have an older white guy from Kentucky as a mentor? But he totally understood me and what I wanted to do. So I went for this project and that’s when Encompass started.
Oglala Lakota County School District, Batesland School, Batesland, SD. Cultural Studies Room.
As you are working between different tribal groups, can you tell me how your experience translates to these different groups? I know they are all different, but what are some common themes you draw on?
Primarily, what I try to remember is that they are all different. I go in there to meet with them without any preconceived ideas without preconceived notions; that’s true even when I work with my own tribe. When we are starting a project, I don’t go in and say, “Here I am and this is what we are going to do.” Instead, it’s more like, “This is your project. What do you want? What is your vision? How do you want to feel? How do you want people to feel when they are there?”
It’s new every time. It’s always kind of scary. I don’t actually draw anything for kind of a long time. There is a lot of listening and a lot of programming. The idea for the design is kind of slow coming. It has to come from the client. My staff and sometimes the client are like, “Hey, what is this going to look like? When are you going to start drawing?” But after a lot of listening, a design will suddenly come. “You said this at a meeting and this is what we are going to do.”
There are commonalities between the different tribal nations, just in terms of some of the cultural values and ideas. The idea of the circle is always incorporated in the world view and is typically equated with their culture. The square is something that they equate with the mainstream culture. One project I worked on very early was a treaty site history center in a small town in Minnesota where a major treaty was signed between the local tribal nation and the government. I had an idea to use a circle and a square coming together, interacting and intersecting. We showed it to the client and they loved it; it ended up getting built. That was a big milestone for me because it showed me that I can really take these ideas and people will understand them and clients will get it.
Speaking of milestones, since starting your firm, what have been your key moments?
The first project was a big milestone for me. The client really believed in me. Another big milestone was when I got to design the school for the community that my mom is from and that I consider home now. That was a big milestone for me to be able to do a project for people I know and interact with every day. When I go home, all the events are held there. My father passed away a few years ago and that is where we had his funeral and his wake. Every major event in that community happens in that school. It is meaningful.
“My mission is to prove and show tribal communities that architecture is another way that they can express sovereignty...It needs to extend to our built environment, the one area there that no one has focused on yet. Tribes can see it as a value. Tribes can see that it matters.”
How has motherhood played into your career as you have run your own firm?
I took my daughter to work with me, even as an infant. When I traveled, I would take her with me. She grew up sitting in the background in meetings. She grew up with the business. My son was just one year old when I started the company. Both of them have grown up with me always working and always traveling. I think it’s just a norm for them.
I also tried to keep them involved. I hope I’m showing them that this is a way that I keep connected to my culture and keep connected to my community. I’m trying to pass down the idea of service and figuring out a way to help my people.
Where you are today?
I’m in the sunset of my career [laughs] I wish! Do architects ever retire?
In 2017, my daughter was doing some kind of project for school and we were talking about where you see yourself. It got me actively thinking about working on my legacy and what I wanted to accomplish in life and what I wanted to leave in architecture. I wrote down goals. One of the goals was to be FAIA. The next year was when I won the Whitney M. Young Jr. Award and got FAIA.
2018 was a big year for me. I was also given the Legacy Award from the American Indian Council of Architects and Engineers. That was the same year as the FAIA and Young Whiney Award. It just all came together!
I was asked by the Indigenous Architects from Canada to participate with them in designing an exhibit for the Venice biennale. I was able, myself and a couple of other Native American architects, to work with them on an exhibit on the influence of boarding schools -- residential schools as they are called in Canada -- and I loved being able to participate in that and go to Venice to see it.
Gila River Indian Community Tribal Governance Center. Sacaton, Arizona.
Looking back, what have been the biggest challenges and the biggest highlights?
In college, the biggest challenge was being a minority and especially being Native. When I went to Cornell for that first year, it was shocking to me how little people knew about Native Americans. People thought that I still lived in a teepee. Literally! It was amazing -- the questions and the ignorance. Most of it wasn’t mean-spirited. There was a lot of, “Well, you’re only here because of quotas.” There was a feeling of having to prove myself and prove that I deserved to be there.
That’s isolating and exhausting to be considered ‘other’. As for running a firm, what have been your biggest challenges?
With Encompass, I have found being a minority hasn’t been an issue -- it is being a woman that’s the issue. If I go to a meeting and take with me one of the staff members who is a man, people will always start talking to that man. Even if I have a super young guy, people come up and start talking to him. He’ll defer to me, of course. I’m coming up on 20 years as the owner and it still happens.
“Realize that architecture is a service profession. It’s not about you. It’s about the client.”
I never understand how people are inherently deferential to men and innately second-guess women. Who are you admiring right now and who?
I’m really obsessed with Deb Haaland, the Secretary of the Interior. She is doing amazing things and just makes me so proud to see a Native American woman who is not afraid to stand up to those who have nothing but animus for her.
Ever since I did that interview that you saw with Sir David Adjaye in New York, I’ve been really following his career. Also, Pascal Sablan who won the Whitney M Young Jr. Award this year is just amazing.
What is the impact you’d like to have in and on the world? What’s your core mission?
To prove and show tribal communities that architecture is another way that they can express sovereignty. It’s this idea of taking control over who we are and what we do and how people see us. It needs to extend to our built environment, the one area there that no one has focused on yet. Tribes can see it as a value. Tribes can see that it matters.
What is something you wish you knew starting out that you know now?
I went into architecture with my eyes wide open. I don’t know what regrets I have.
That’s a good sign! Finally, what advice do you have for those who are starting their career or are in school or are even interested in architecture?
Realize that architecture is a service profession. It’s not about you. It’s about the client. Architects do ourselves a big disservice with all this starchitect focus and putting a big emphasis on awards and publications. It takes away from the projects and the client. Know that it’s not about you, it’s not about the reward. You can do good work and get a lot of satisfaction from a client that is happy.