10/13/2026
On Indigenous Peoples' Day, we at Lee²Design reflect on one of the most meaningful projects in our practice to date: the new home for the Harvard University Native American Program (HUNAP) in Cambridge, MA.
Having recently broken ground, this 6,500-square-foot, all-electric facility will be the first building on Harvard's campus designed specifically as a central, inclusive academic and cultural hub for the Native American students, faculty, staff, and their community.
The initial question asked was what a Native building looks like. However, the question in need of an answer was what identity looks like today, without imitation and in the context of its distinct, historic, eclectic Harvard Square neighborhood. The answer is wampum—the sophisticated shell bead art of the Eastern Woodlands tribes, used for centuries as a mnemonic for community history, harmony, and peace between peoples. Wampum is not merely a motif applied to the facade. Alongside wood bark cladding consistent with the regional wetu building tradition, it forms a consistent, conceptual and material logic of the entire building.
In the words of Jordan Clark (Wampanoag), HUNAP Executive Director: “By creating this building, we are crafting our own historic moment of relationship and commitment between the HUNAP Community and The University. Wampum is not only part of our past, but also plays a significant role in our present, so it is an element that finds the balance and challenges the erasure of native existence today.”
We are deeply honored to be the Architects of this unique project.
