The Frederick P. Rose Architectural Fellowship

“Design Corps has always worked in small rural communities, and will continue to do so. The fellowship strengthened and reinforced its mission by continuing its work in small rural communities and helping to bring grant funds into low income regions... breaking ground on this building and bringing a surge of support through federal funding has been a significant success.”

— Victoria Ballard Bell

Fellowship Host:
Design Corps
Raleigh, NC

How much can you pack into a 3,000-square-foot building? One such structure in rural Marion, Alabama will soon be home to a job training center, Self-Help Housing, Sowing Seeds of Hope the local non-profit—and most importantly—hope. It’s fair to say, however, that the Marion Job-Training Center would not have been possible without Victoria Ballard Bell’s efforts during her Rose Fellowship.

Working with host Design Corps, Victoria successfully navigated the project’s complicated political, architectural and funding issues. Her grant writing skills alone resulted in a combined $1,552,000 for the project. The grants, which came from HUD and the National Endowment for the Arts, among others, funded the center’s construction, engineering and site costs, as well as the Self-Help Housing Program. In addition, she convinced the county board to donate an acre of land to this project.

During her fellowship, Victoria also found time to become a licensed Architect and to publish Materials for Design with Princeton Architectural Press. The book is the culmination of a seven-year project on the critical relationship between design thought and construction. Victoria holds master’s degrees in both Architecture and Planning from the University of Virginia, and an undergraduate degree in Finance and Studio Art from Virginia Tech. She continues to focus on rural communities in her current position as an architect with Design Corps.

See Victoria’s Project

• Marion Job Training Center »