Big Valley Rancheria

Nathaniel Corum is an architect, planner and a founding member of the Sustainable Native Communities Collaborative. His focus is culturally and environmentally responsive design, with work ranging from the Elder Hogan Homes Initiative, to the Plastiki Expedition cabin, to projects with more than twenty tribal community partners. He has also helped connect over 500 students to real-world design workshops and projects. Corum’s productions and publications include: Native American Green, a PBS episode featuring exemplary indigenous architecture; the Healthy Homes Road Map, an online housing-development tool; and Building a Straw Bale House from Princeton Architectural Press.

Prior to joining MASS, Nathaniel held leadership roles at Sustainable Native Communities Collaborative, Architecture for Humanity, and Indigenous Community Enterprises. A Fulbright Scholarship, a Senior Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas Fellowship, an Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellowship and a Creative Capital Award have supported Nathaniel’s work, which has been featured in Dwell, Domus and The New York Times and exhibited at venues including SFMOMA, the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, and the Perot Museum of Nature and Science.

Nathaniel received a Master of Architecture from the University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelors of Arts in Design Synthesis: Architecture from Stanford University.

"I believe that every project is an opportunity to create a movement. To inspire this momentum, we must be one with the community, and together, go beyond the bare minimum."

Sierra began work with MASS in 2008 focusing on landscape architecture and joined full time in 2009 to finalize design and oversee implementation of the Butaro Hospital, MASS’s first project. Currently Sierra directs the ongoing design and implementation of MASS’s planning and architectural projects and is currently overseeing The Kayanja Center, an academic facility supporting rural health care delivery and research in Uganda, a number of African Conservation Schools in DRC, Tanzania, Zambia, and Rwanda, and the Butaro Hospital Expansion Plan, among others. Those completed include Butaro Hospital, the Umubano Primary School, the Butaro Doctors’ Housing, and the Butaro Ambulatory Cancer Center.

Prior to joining MASS, Sierra worked for four years at James Corner Field Operations, primarily in design and oversight of implementation of Section 1 of the New York City High Line. Sierra has taught graduate level studios at various universities and from 2010-2012, Sierra served as Head of the Architecture Department at the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) in Rwanda. At KIST, Sierra was instrumental in shaping the current curriculum. She is invited to speak regularly, including the keynote address at the Healthcare Design Conference, serving as a Sasaki Distinguished Visiting Critic at the Boston Architectural College, and lecturing at the Carter ‘Lectures In African Studies’ series, the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, University of Toronto, and the American Institute of Architects, among others. Select features of Sierra’s work with MASS Design Group include A+U Magazine, Lotus, Mark Magazine, and Detail.

Sierra received her Bachelors of Arts in Art and Architectural History from Smith College and her Masters of Landscape Architecture and Masters of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania.