Fellow Profile
Ophelia Wilkins
“The immediate goal of my fellowship is to build a showpiece development within a year that serves as my host organization’s benchmark for success, and a standard of quality housing and green construction for future development projects.”
— Ophelia Wilkins
Fellowship Host:
Regional Housing Alliance
Durango, CO
Ophelia has focused her young career on contributing to affordable, sustainable and public-transportation friendly design projects for communities throughout the U.S. Most recently, she has been collaborating with former Rose Fellow Nathaniel Corum on developing hogan prototype designs for construction on the Navajo Nation and a community design master plan on Kauai, Hawaii.
Immediately before earning a Master of Architecture degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ophelia traveled across the United States by bicycle, contributing to service projects with local social justice groups. Merging stories and memories from her trip with classroom design lessons, Ophelia became aware of a uniquely American architectural need.
“Issues such as contaminated land and failing communities went largely unaddressed and ultimately seemed inaccessible through the design of a single building,” says Ophelia. She hopes her work with the Regional Housing Alliance (RHA) in La Plata County will be a step in a more productive direction. “My Rose Fellowship aligns with my resolve to focus on reducing the environmental impact of development and encouraging the prosperity of local communities in the rural, western U.S.”
The RHA has a staff of just three. “Over the past year, it has created an innovative and comprehensive action plan from the ground up. Successful implementation, however, includes rolling out a comprehensive land development strategy that will depend on our taking into consideration local geographic and infrastructural realities.” Ophelia will enable the organization to expand its focus and take a serious look at land development issues. “I will be responsible for understanding the social, ecological and economic value of potential development sites, and how each one fits into the RHA’s countywide development strategy.”
Looking further ahead, Ophelia hopes she can help forge a new identity for communities in La Plata County, creating a sustainable model of rural development. “I want to play a role in fusing the RHA’s goals for equitable development with community input and local endorsement.”
Gallery
(hover over image to zoom)
Ophelia Wilkins
by Durango Telegraph / David Halterman
The activities of the Regional Housing Alliance are in the spotlight in a town where home ownership is a high priority.
by Ophelia Wilkins
Only a year old, the Regional Housing Alliance is actively designing its identity and public image.
by Ophelia Wilkins / Engineer Mountain Inc.
Fox Farm village in the town of Bayfield is the site of 8 housing units to be designed by Ophelia during the spring of 2008 and built by Habitat for Humanity during the summer of 2008.
by Ophelia Wilkins
A mesa overlooking the La Plata mountains in the town of Ignacio will be the site of a 280+ unit mixed-income development to which Ophelia and the RHA will serve as design consultants.
by Ophelia Wilkins
The RHA serves three entities: the towns of Durango and Ignacio, and La Plata County. These areas are pockets of density nestled in the mountains of Southwest Colorado where developable land, resources and infrastructure are scarce and costly.
