The entire Bodwé Group family of companies has begun work on a large and complex school campus redesign for the students and staff of Many Farms High School in Many Farms, Arizona. Deep in the desert of Navajo Nation, the project will span 15 months, taking the current site, originally designed as a sprawling college campus in the 1960s, and condensing it all into a single, large, interconnected building complex with a variety of new amenities.
“The opportunities this will bring for these children brings joy to my heart,” reflects J. Scott Winchester, citizen of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi and Seven Generations A+E education consultant for the Many Farms project.
Students and faculty will benefit from a wholesale renovation, including redesigned classrooms, media center, fine arts room, auto shop, traditional medicine garden, gymnasium, physical education and athletic fields, and locker rooms. Beyond these improvements, the project also includes new student dorms for over 100 students and 30 units of off-site staff housing that will help Many Farms to recruit additional talented teachers and administrators more easily.
In addition to the new and updated amenities and buildings, the learning environment will be enhanced through critical upgrades, mostly unseen, such as state-of-the-art safety and security measures as well as mechanical and environmental systems. “It will be an entirely different experience in terms of human comfort, both mentally and physically,” explains Winchester.
This project represents the largest partnership to date between Bodwé Professional Services and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Our work with Many Farms High School began as part of our many and ongoing BIA school assessment projects, travelling across the country to take inventory of facilities and offer our guidance as to their condition and future usefulness. All four firms within the Bodwé Group – Seven Generations A+E (7GAE), WBK Engineering, Blue Star Integrative Studio (BSIS), and The Steelhead Engineering Company – have contributed to this important work. Because of this, we are fortunate to come into this project with a great deal of knowledge about Many Farms High School and its surrounding community.
“The Bodwé companies have conducted 34 school site assessments for the BIA in the last several years and Many Farms was our first one. Our report coined language regarding the need for a ‘contiguous building’ that has become central to the BIA design requirements. It’s fantastic to see our recommendations quickly become a funded project that will have such tremendous impact for the students and staff, and the community. We are honored to now participate in the design phase, and I couldn’t feel better.” — J. Scott Winchester
