THE BEYER BLINDER BELLE FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES 2021 FELLOWSHIP RECIPIENT
The Beyer Blinder Belle Foundation is pleased to announce William Hansen as the recipient of the 2021 John Belle Travel Fellowship. The Fellowship will support William, a graduate student at the University of British Columbia, in his investigation of the role of modernist social housing in the genesis of hip hop music. The project’s prioritization of independent field work and active neighborhood engagement impressed this year’s jury.
The John Belle Travel Fellowship is a $10,000 award by the Beyer Blinder Belle Foundation in honor of John Belle, FAIA, RIBA, Hon. PhD, a founding partner of Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners. John devoted his career to the public realm — the planning, design, restoration and adaptive reuse of public buildings and urban centers.
The goals of the Fellowship are to expand students’ understanding of the public realm in existing cities, through travel and research, and to inspire application of that knowledge toward contemporary urban needs and design challenges. Each year, application is open to students of any nationality in their penultimate year of a Masters degree program in Architecture, Historic Preservation and/or Urban Design at 35 schools in the US, UK and Canada.
Other programs of the Beyer Blinder Belle Foundation include the Youth Education Grant. In 2021, the Foundation will continue to extend the Grant to the ACE Mentor Program of Greater New York. For the fourth consecutive year, the Grant will allow ACE to provide scholarships for two high school students pursuing higher education in architecture, urban design, or historic preservation.
In addition, the Department of Architecture at Howard University’s College of Engineering and Architecture and the Beyer Blinder Belle Foundation have established a new annual scholarship program. This year’s grant of $30,000 by the Foundation to the university will support the academic and professional development of three current architecture students.
About the Beyer Blinder Belle Foundation
The Beyer Blinder Belle Foundation advances the role of architecture, planning, and preservation in strengthening the physical and social fabric of our cities, communities, and institutions.
Through fellowships, grants, and other initiatives, the Foundation engages the full cycle of design, from inspiring young people to enter the profession, to supporting graduate research, to enabling thoughtful, socially-conscious design and planning that directly benefits communities.
This mission is inspired by the core values of Beyer Blinder Belle, which from its founding defined an approach to design focused on architecture empowering people—through their interaction on streets and in neighborhoods, and through their connections to the surrounding built environment.
Media Contact: Christina Allan