Meskwaki Nation Recreation Center

Tama, IA | Government + Cultural

With goals aligned of delivering a venue to support and encourage healthy lifestyles, community fellowship, and historical and cultural preservation, ISG works with the Meskwaki Nation in Central Iowa to design a community and recreation center.

The Meskwaki Nation located near Tama, IA, and ISG worked together to design a multi-use center to aid in supporting community wellness. This center would support the community through common spaces such as a daycare, space for mixed-use and wellness activities, administrative spaces, fieldhouse, and a tournament gym.

As a site fully integrated into nearby, commercial, and residential areas, the Center provides both interior and outdoor spaces with the capacity to host small and large community groups. One of Meskwaki Nation’s primary goals for the Center is to create a space that enhances the site’s connectivity to nearby parks and trails and improve access, so that every community member has the opportunity to experience all that the Center has to offer. To further meet this goal, site planning will promote multi-dimensional programming by incorporated a new fieldhouse with indoor walking track, wellness center with exercise equipment, locker rooms, a licensed daycare facility, youth programming, multi-purpose spaces, and a teaching kitchen.

Perhaps the most vital component of this project is community engagement. ISG’s community engagement specialists and marketing team created a custom engagement plan and a variety of deliverables designed to encourage participation, elicit feedback, and better understand Meskwaki Nation’s wants and needs. Some of these deliverables include videos, concept boards, image boards, coloring pages, flyers, project updates in the community newsletter, questionnaire for focus groups, and a booth at the Nation’s Pow Wow to present design concepts and receive feedback.