The Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellowship

Fellowship host organizations are invited to apply in the fall or winter of each year for three-year fellowships that will begin the following September. Invitations are typically based on the availability of fellowship funding for a particular city or region.

Benefits

Fellows are chosen competitively from among the best and brightest emerging architects in the country. They work for three years as part of the host organization’s staff, assisting with real estate development tasks, such as neighborhood planning, site acquisition, site planning, architectural plans, pro formas, financing applications and public approvals. Fellows are expected to help their host organizations improve standards and practices for design excellence, sustainability, and community engagement.

Enterprise provides a grant for the fellow’s stipend as well as an annual allowance for fellowship training and conference fees, travel costs and IDP fees. The stipend for fellows starting in 2009 will be $45,000 ($52,000 in high-cost cities). Enterprise staff and consultants provide technical support, training, coaching, and opportunities for fellowship and peer-to-peer learning.

Becoming a Host Organization

Prospective host organizations must complete an application that includes a draft fellowship plan. The applicant must have IRS 501(c)(3) status or be a Tribally-Designated Housing Entity. It must have a track record of successfully completing real estate projects that promote neighborhood and community development, and there must be a sufficient number of active projects to provide challenging assignments for the fellow. A host must demonstrate a commitment to excellence in design and sustainable building principles, as well as meaningful community engagement in design and planning. The fellow’s supervisor must be identified in the host’s application and have the capacity and mentoring skills to provide effective training and supervision. A strong working relationship with local or regional Enterprise offices is desirable but not required.

Hosts’ Responsibilities

The host provides mentorship and guidance, supporting the development of the fellow’s career by providing the necessary assignments, work environment, supervision, and fringe benefits. While fellows have completed the designs of some small-scale projects independently, work on larger projects is typically supervised by the host organization’s project architects. Typically, a project architect becomes a fellow’s primary mentor and IDP supervisor, although in some situations that role is played by another architect as a volunteer.

The host organization, fellow, and Enterprise must agree at the outset to a fellowship plan, which defines the expected outcomes at the end of the three-year fellowship along with a specific list of planned activities during the first year. This plan is incorporated in Enterprise’s grant agreement that awards the stipend and expense allowance to the host organization. Subsequent one-year activity plans are added prior to the beginning of years two and three.