The John Belle Travel Fellowship
The John Belle Travel Fellowship is a $10,000 annual 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 purpose of the Fellowship is to expand students’ understanding of the public realm in existing cities through travel and research, and how the knowledge gained might be applied to contemporary planning, architectural design, and historic preservation challenges.
Eligible graduate students from participating schools must be endorsed by the department chair, dean, or equivalent head of their graduate program to apply. Maximum 4 applicants per school. Check with the Graduate Department of your school to discuss your interest and application.
The 2025 Submission Requirements may also be downloaded here.
2024 John Belle Travel Fellow
DAVID ZHANG
Indigenous Environmental Futures: Tracing Future Oriented, Native American Wetland Resourcing Practices
The persistence of the chinampas agricultural system in Lake Xochimilco, Mexico, the resistance guiding Klamath dam removals along the Klamath River, Oregon, and the renewed possibilities of retreat latent in Grand Caillou/Dulac relocation project of coastal Louisiana make up the three case studies at the heart of this research.
You can view David’s complete proposal here.
Past John Belle Travel Fellows with links to their winning proposals
2023
NICOLE NIAVA | Catalysing Climate-Resilient Dwelling
“The John Belle Travel Fellowship provided me with resources and freedom to delve into the unique environments of the Sahel region, to investigate the amalgamation of traditional knowledge and modern land restoration techniques. I am excited to bring this knowledge back to our community, sharing insights and creating a dialogue to help us navigate our collective path towards a more sustainable future.”
2021
WILLIAM HANSEN | Hip Hop Architecture
“Not only did the Fellowship deepen my understanding of the public realm, it helped me engage with communities other than mine. Therefore, the trip helped me develop techniques on how to better serve and listen to the people that are directly affected by the design choices of the architectural practice.”
2022
CLARE FENTRESS | A Forever Home in the City
“The John Belle Travel Fellowship is remarkable in its commitment to both civic space & educating young designers; by yoking the two, it affirms a belief in the social & political consequences of architecture. I'm deeply grateful to be supported in my research by such a legacy.”
2020
SAMANTHA RADICE | The Child, The City, The Street
“The Fellowship offered a chance to pursue a latent intuition about the built environment, explore its prevalence and thus significance in context, and to broaden my understanding of architecture beyond the studio environment.”
2019
JAMES PIACENTINI | Riace Rinasce [Riance Reborn]
“The opportunity to travel, to study architectural history as an act of social justice and cultural engagement made this Fellowship uniquely significant in my eyes.”
2018
MIGUEL SANCHEZ-ENKERLIN | Becoming Magical
“John Belle was clearly someone who left a positive mark on the people, places, and work in his life. In a sense, that legacy served as a point of inspiration for my project proposal but also presented a model of a person who many designers aspire to be like.”