Lemoore, California
Tachi Palace Casino
Revitalized tribal gaming facility highlights Tachi-Yokut culture, brings community prosperity
Cuningham’s redesign and expansion of Tachi Palace Casino creates a physically and symbolically cohesive entertainment experience that celebrates and strengthens Tachi-Yokut tribal culture.
Previously a series of disconnected, crowded spaces with low ceilings and long, narrow hallways, Cuningham’s design modernizes and expands the casino with a revitalized user experience prioritizing discovery, culture, and comfort. The casino’s once obscured entryway is replaced by a striking porte cochère, exterior lighting, and landscape design that opens sightlines and seamlessly welcomes guests. Inside, vertically striated acoustic elements visually connect the first and third levels of the casino, and an open-layout game floor allows for more thorough use of the space. The renovation also connects the adjacent entertainment center and hotel via a walkway.
Collaborating closely with tribal historians and community members, Cuningham focused on three areas when incorporating Tachi-Yokut cultural motifs into the new space: cultural knowledge and traditions; connections to landscape and nature; and artistic, material, and architectural heritage. Central to this is a celebration of the Tachi-Yokut’s connection to Tulare Lake, a sacred cultural focal point that sustained the Tribe for centuries until a series of exploitative policies, heavy farming, and unsustainable land-use practices caused it to disappear. Other cultural motifs include light fixtures reflecting the tribe’s woven Milky Way baskets, metal elements evoking the native tule grass, and carpeting references the region’s sloughs.
Client: Santa Rosa Rancheria Tachi-Yokut Tribe
Market: Entertainment
Size: 53,967 Square Feet
Scope: Addition, Renovation
Services: Architecture, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture
Delivery Method: Design-Bid-Build
Key Project Contacts:
“Gaming gives us self-sufficiency and prosperity. It allows us to develop housing programs for our people; youth recreation and after school programs; and elders’ programs. But it also lets us reconnect with our culture and language. We’ve always been very giving people–not only do we help our tribal members, but we’re good neighbors to those outside the reservation. Tachi Palace is something that benefits the entire community.”
Leo Sisco
Tribal Chairman
Sustainable design elements like LED lighting and a high-efficiency HVAC system, coupled with state-of-the-art technology such as high-tech Turf acoustic paneling, extends the casino’s lifetime and reduces its carbon footprint. These measures, combined with a flexible floor plan equipped to easily handle future renovations, advances the Tribe’s desire that the building continue to be sustainable for seven generations in the future.
A restaurant, sports bar, and food market broadly establishes Tachi Palace Casino as a recreational hub for the remote Tachi-Yokut community—in turn creating opportunities for the Tribe to build community, reinforce traditional culture, and provide a variety of amenities often lacking in rural settings. Tachi Palace Casino is now reaffirmed as an essential source of revenue, employment, and community for generations to come.
