Signal Mound

This project is an investigation into the power of the land and the ability to read the histories of the past though the scarred landscape that we exist within today. It looks at how cultures throughout time have chosen to forget the past and either cover up or completely destroy whatever was there before for the needs of the present. “Signal Mound” is a meeting place and broadcast center for the Osage Nation. It is the site of the last remaining Mississippian Indian mound in a city which was once home to hundreds. The Sugarloaf mound, a former communication mound used to send smoke signals, was purchased last year by the Osage Nation who plan on removing the houses on the site and restoring the mound to its original state. This project is a critique of their proposal and a questioning of architecture’s role in preservation, memory and territory and the potential power in not hiding the scars of history but exposing them to strengthen the mound as a relic of time. The project is divided into two halves that frame the mound and create a physical dialogue between old and new that supports a program focused on contemporary discussion and performance for the Osage people.