The MHA Interpretive Center in New Town, ND is a collaborative space created for the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation. The Affiliated Tribes desired a space where they could use living history to tell the story of the Great MHA Nation. 

The Interpretive Center’s purpose is to offer ongoing development and sustain the unique educational tourist’s attraction for the three Affiliated Tribes. The center offers travelers locally, nationally and globally a unique experience embedded in culture, oral tradition and the interesting history of the MHA Nation.

Nature and the use of natural materials were essential to the design of this space, so WholeTrees was asked to engineer and provide raw trees for the structure’s interior round timber Earth Lodge, the outdoor biophilic Amphitheater, decorative exterior trellises, and the larger than life wood shade structures at the main entrance. Large diameter White Oak columns and dynamic Black Locust angled columns and beams will make up these structures.  Teaming with engineers, architects and steel fabricators, we were able to achieve a modern take on this age old practice of building with natural materials in their truest forms.

Architect: DSGW
GC: Woodstone Inc.
Engineer: Engineering Ventures