Bylas, Arizona
San Carlos Apache Healthcare Corporation - Clarence Wesley Health Center
A healing space that removes barriers to care, honors tradition, and empowers community
Izeè Baa Gowąh, also known as the San Carlos Apache Healthcare Corporation (SCAHC), is a tribal corporation and organization serving members of the San Carlos Apache Tribe in Southeastern Arizona. Cuningham partnered with SCAHC to deliver three new, urgently needed facilities that eliminate gaps in care and drastically improve health and wellness for the San Carlos Apache Reservation.
The most prominent of these facilities, Clarence Wesley Health Center, is located over two hours east of Phoenix in the remote community of Bylas, Arizona. A previously existing facility, Clarence Wesley Health Center has been an indispensable resource for the San Carlos Apache tribe for over twenty years and sees up to 13,000 patients from its reservation annually.
Due to its site on the Gila River, the center faced costly foundational damage resulting from shifting soils. Rather than spend millions on fixing and expanding a dated building that constrained services, SCAHC decided to invest in a new 37,000-square-foot facility closer to Mount Turnbull, a culturally significant mountain to the tribe and the highest peak of the Santa Teresa Range. The new center increases capacity and expands service offerings previously limited or unavailable due to its remote location, including dental, imaging, optometry, rehab, a lab, pharmacy with drive-thru window, and a shelled area for a wellness center in the future.
The center is dedicated and named after influential tribe member Clarence Wesley. Known as “a Champion of Indian Rights,” Wesley helped improve access and services for Native American communities, strengthening tribal governance to enhance the well-being of indigenous peoples across the United States. The new center honors his legacy, advancing SCAHC’s mission to “heal, serve and empower the Ndee (Apache people) while honoring the traditions through compassionate and respectful patient-centered team.”
Client: San Carlos Apache Tribe
Size: 37,000 Square Feet
Scope: New Construction
Services: Architecture, Interior Design
Delivery Method: Design-Bid-Build
Key Project Contacts:
Enlightening Design Through Cultural Awareness
Cuningham undertakes projects for Native American communities with a deep understanding of the role culturally-competent engagement plays in grasping each tribe’s unique history, cultural values, and community-specific needs. For the Clarence Wesley Health Center, Cuningham engaged San Carlos tribal members with extensive listening sessions to gain insight and inform the proposed design.
Programming began with conversations with providers to establish spatial and technical needs and departmental adjacencies. Working closely with Chief Patient Experience Officer, Tara Kitcheyan, the granddaughter of Clarence Wesley, Cuningham developed solutions to meet the tribe’s cultural expectations for strict privacy.
For the site, symbolism attached to cardinal directions and the tribe’s sacred relationship to nature and the landscape drove massing and building placement. The design team also investigated prevailing wind directions, washes, and sun paths, incorporating key cultural directives.
The symbolic importance of the circle led to the plan’s subtle radial quality which is significant to the cardinal direction meanings—all San Carlos homes share entrances to the east. A high canopy angled upward welcomes people into a spacious double height lobby, bringing in natural light. The western portion of the lobby opens to the west, capturing and framing Mount Turnbull. The design team also incorporated rain chains, to bring importance and light to the water rights injustices the tribe continues to face.
Entering the lobby, a patient ambassador at a welcome desk leads patients to fully enclosed registration rooms offering complete visual and acoustic privacy. In the clinical areas, a station for the care team is designed with five-foot-tall pony walls to keep passersby from seeing computer screens and paperwork. Glass above provides some visual connection while keeping conversations confidential.
Materiality and detailing reflects the surrounding landscape and Apache symbolism while maintaining simplicity. At key moments within the lobby, the tribe invested in terrazzo for durability and abalone—a significant shell used in the San Carlos Apache Sunrise Ceremony to mark a girl’s transition to womanhood—for its cultural significance.
By weaving culture, history, and tradition into the physical design of the Clarence Wesley Health Center, not only does the space enhance healthcare access, but it also fosters a sense of belonging, resilience, and pride among the San Carlos Apache people—ensuring a legacy of care for generations to come.