Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Harvard Announces Replacement Facility for Native American Program

  • By Matt Jones
  • 03/26/26

Key Takeaways

  • Harvard will begin construction this spring on a new 6,500-square-foot, all-electric building to serve as the central hub for its Native American Program, set to open for the 2027–28 school year.
  • The facility will include academic, social, and cultural spaces—such as offices, lounges, kitchens, and outdoor areas for ceremonies—supporting the program’s broad community and educational activities.
  • The new building replaces a deteriorating 19th-century structure deemed beyond repair and will incorporate Native-inspired design elements, including materials and symbolism reflecting cultural heritage.

Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., recently announced that construction will begin this spring on a new home for its Native American Program, according to university news. The 6,500-square-foot, all-electric building will stand three stories and serve as the central hub for the Harvard University Native American Program (HUNAP)—both its academic and social components. The building will open in time for the 2027–28 school year.

Amenities will include offices, reception and recreation lounges, kitchens, a conference room, and a covered front porch and rear deck. The basement will play home to storage and mechanical space, and outdoor areas will provide space for cultural programming and ceremonies, the news story reports.

HUNAP’s current facility was built in 1873 and acquired by the university in 2023. A feasibility review found that the building’s structure was deteriorated beyond hope of renovation and that renovating the existing structure would “essentially require the construction of a new building within the shell of the existing building,” according to the Harvard Crimson.

HUNAP is a multi-school initiative within the university whose work encompasses “Native American studies, history, and cultural engagement, including academic programming, community events, research and travel grants, and tribal diplomacy efforts.” The facility’s design will invoke Native materials and symbolism; the exterior façade draws inspiration from tree bark and wampum.

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Montclair State University Starts Construction on $120M STEM Building

    Montclair State University in Montclair, N.J., recently broke ground on a new $120-million Interdisciplinary Science Building, according to university news. The university partnered with HoK Architects for the project’s design, and it’s scheduled to open in time for the 2028–29 academic year.

  • Planning with Clarity: Using AI to Make Better Campus Decisions, Not Just Better Designs

    Higher education leaders are being asked to make increasingly high-stakes decisions about campus facilities amid greater uncertainty than ever before. Social and economic pressures, shifting enrollment, and evolving learning models compete with growing deferred maintenance needs to strain even the most robust infrastructure budgets.

  • DLR Group Hires Three for Higher Education Practice

    Integrated design firm DLR Group recently announced that it has brought three new hires on board to help shape its higher education practice in California and the northeast, according to a press release.

  • Agricultural Sciences Complex

    Agricultural Sciences Complex

    Established in 1999, the Education Design Showcase is a vehicle for showing off innovative — yet practical — solutions in planning, design, architecture, and construction. The College of Western Idaho's Agricultural Sciences Complex has been recognized with an EDS 2026 Grand Prize award in the category of New Construction.