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
Based out of Durango, Colo., the RHA is a young, local government agency that has created an innovative and comprehensive action plan from the ground up. New housing opportunities—both rental and for sale—will complement the RHA’s growing list of services. These include homebuyer education, second mortgage assistance and implementation of an inclusionary zoning policy for the City of Durango.
To meet this challenge, Ophelia is implementing a two-part strategy: improving the performance of existing affordable homes through energy retrofits and homeowner education, and establishing quality standards for new construction through policy recommendations and construction of exemplary development precedents.
“The goal of my fellowship is to rebrand affordable housing in La Plata County,” says Ophelia, “making it synonymous with attractive, high-quality, high-performance homes that residents take as much pride in as their rivers and mountains.”
Prior to her fellowship, Ophelia contributed to design and hands-on construction of straw-bale homes on American Indian reservations from Arizona to North Dakota, as well as long-term space planning for the BART light rail system and a campaign to preserve an historic copra crane in San Francisco. Ophelia holds a master’s in architecture from MIT and became LEED certified in 2008.
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.
