Akron Boys & Girls Club Complex at Akron, AL (designed & built by Rural Studio students)

Most of Akron’s adults commute to Tuscaloosa or Greensboro for work which leaves the children to entertain and look after themselves for an extended period of time every day. Auburn University’s Rural Studio volunteered to design and build a Boys and G …

Alabama Rural Heritage Center at Thomaston, AL

The Alabama Rural Heritage Center is located on Hwy 25 at Thomaston, Alabama in the renovated Home Economics Building of the old Marengo County High School.  Students at Auburn University’s Rural Studio at Newbern, AL designed this facility and handled …

Antioch Baptist Church located in northwest Perry County, AL

Shown is a small church in northwest Perry County, AL that was redesigned and rebuilt by four students from Auburn University’s Rural Studio at Newbern, AL. It was named among the top 100 best designs in the world by New York-based Metropolitan Home ma …

Auburn Rural Studio at Newbern, AL

Established in 1993 by architects Samuel “Sambo” Mockbee and D. K. Ruth, the Rural Studio is a part of Auburn University’s School of Architecture.  The Rural Studio is located in rural west Alabama in the small town of Newbern in Hale County.  Rural St …

Hale County Animal Shelter at Greensboro, AL (designed & built by Rural Studio Students)

Hale County had a legal obligation to provide an animal shelter for the county but had no resources to build it.  In 2005, Hale County representatives approached Auburn’s Rural Studio and requested that they design and build this shelter. Four Rural St …

Lions Park at Greensboro, AL (Rural Studio Projects)

In 2004 the Lions Club, the City of Greensboro, Hale County, the Riding Club and the Greensboro Baseball Association formed a joint committee to manage and care for the future of Lions Park, the largest park in Hale County. They soon approached Auburn …

Perry Lakes Park near Marion, AL (features several Rural Studio designs)

In recent years, Bald Eagles have nested in a giant loblolly pine near the entrance to this 600-acre park. The park contains four oxbow lakes, formed when the Cahaba River changed its course about 150 years ago. Foot trails traverse the park’s mature h …

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church at Old Cahawba Park in Dallas County, AL (completed 1854, recorded by HABS, listed on the NRHP)

Cahaba (also spelled Cahawba), located between Selma and Orrville at the confluence of the Alabama and Cahaba Rivers, was once a thriving antebellum river town and it served as Alabama’s first permanent state capital from 1819-1826. It became a ghost t …

The Subrosa at Newbern, AL (Memorial to Samuel Mockbee)

Samuel “Sambo” Mockbee was an architect and a co-founder of Auburn University’s Rural Studio located at Newbern, AL.  He created a program dedicated to building houses, community centers and other structures for the poverty-stricken communities in Hale …