Harmon’s Karmous-Edwards house in Raleigh’s Coley Forest neighborhood will be open for public touring during Triangle Modernist Houses’ “TMH Modern 2010” tour in Raleigh on September 25. Completed in 1998, the house features deep overhanging rooflines and natural cedar shingles. It is nestled into the edge of a large corner lot, preserving most of the property for a park-like setting. Porches and a large terrace extend the indoors into the landscaping. The house was featured in Raleigh Metro Magazine in 2006.

Harmon’s award-winning Strickland-Ferris house in the Laurel Hills neighborhood will be featured in the first-ever homes tour sponsored by the Triangle section the American Institute of Architect’s North Carolina chapter (AIA Triangle) a week later on October 2. Completed in 2004, the house perches on a steep, wooded hillside above Crabtree Creek on broad-shouldered wood trusses for minimal site disturbance. The northern elevation features a glass and steel façade from floor to ceiling. A butterfly-shaped roof seems to hover above it.

The Strickland-Ferris house has received both AIA North Carolina and AIA Triangle design awards. In 2009, it won the Grand Award in Custom Home Magazine’s Custom Home Design Awards. It has been featured in Architectural Record, Dwell, Wood Design & Building, and Raleigh Metro magazines, and was included in Triangle Modernist Houses’ 2009 fall homes tour.

Frank Harmon Architect PA was founded by Frank Harmon, FAIA, in 1985. For more information on his firm and other projects, visit www.frankharmon.com.

For more information on the TMH Modern 2010 Tour, visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/2010.

For more information on the AIA Triangle homes tour go to www.trianglehomestour.com.

June 3, 2010 (RALEIGH, NC) –  Architect Frank Harmon, FAIA, principal of the award-winning firm Frank Harmon Architect PA in Raleigh, will present a talk entitled “On Building with Craft” at HandMade: The Western North Carolina Craft, Architecture & Design Expo in Asheville on Friday, June 25, from 3-4 p.m.

The Expo, a two-day event that brings the public together with artists, architects, builders and designers to share and learn about collaborations between craft artists, homeowners and industry professionals, will take place June 25 and 26 at the NC Arboretum, 100 Frederick Law Olmsted Way, Asheville, NC.

Recognized nationally as a leader among architects who advocate regionally appropriate, sustainable modern design, Frank Harmon has incorporated work by local crafts people and artisans in many of his projects, including a series of 10 metal screens fabricated by Raleigh metalsmith Christian Karkow for an award-winning house Harmon designed in Mt. Pleasant, SC.

“We talk about a concept and the artists take it from there,” Harmon told Residential Architect magazine for a 2007 article on the benefits of working with artists, rather than contractors, when a design detail needs a creative and often handmade solution. “Working with craftspeople is the most efficient way to get things done… Their hands-on ingenuity is often invaluable.”

Harmon said he was delighted when the organizers of the Asheville HandMade Expo asked him to give a talk.

“A simple pleasure I enjoy each day is drinking tea from a hand-made bowl,” he said. “I know that a potter made the bowl, and touching its shape I indirectly touch his or her hands. It’s also possible to imagine the creek bottom where the clay was dug, and the geology that millions of years ago laid down the earthy sediment that I now hold in my fingers. In this way, however small, I feel a connection to the world.

“I believe that one of the primary goals of architecture is to make it possible for people to understand the world around them,” he continued. “If we sense that a building is rooted in the earth and warmed by the sun, that fresh air flows through its windows and its materials are friendly to the touch, then we may feel that the building belongs to its place, and so do we.

“I am not certain that architecture, whether a house or town, can always have the friendly familiarity of a hand-thrown clay bowl,” he added. “But I am certain there is virtue in trying.”

Harmon said his talk will address the values shared by craft and building, and how, together, they may contribute to “an architecture of wellbeing.”

Tickets to the HandMade Expo are $15 per day or $25 for both days and are available online, along with information on the event, at http://designexpo.handmadeinamerica.org/tickets.html.

For more information on Frank Harmon and to see other examples of his work, visit www.frankharmon.com.

The Visitors Center, designed by Frank Harmon Architect PA of Raleigh, was completed this spring to serve as a gathering point and educational facility for Merchants Millpond State Park, a Registered Natural Heritage Area that covers 1900 acres and includes the millpond and part of Lassiter Swamp.

Mays describes the new 7500-square-foot center as a “modest, wood-framed structure [that] incorporates a low-tech approach to sustainable design and recalls a historic mill that once occupied the site.”

Recalling the old mill fulfilled a commitment that principal architect Frank Harmon, FAIA, of Frank Harmon Architect PA in Raleigh, made to his client, the North Carolina Division of Parks & Recreation.

“I promised the client our building would have the feel of the old mill,” Harmon told Mays. “It wouldn’t look like the old building, but it would have the qualities of a rustic, wooden structure with rafters and deep overhangs.”

The article discusses the building’s position on the sensitive site for solar orientation, natural ventilation, and panoramic views of the surroundings. It also stresses the architect’s use of eco-friendly materials – from cypress reclaimed from hurricane-felled trees felled in the Great Dismal Swamp to floors of recycled heart pine – and sustainable building systems, including ground-coupled heat pumps, daylight sensors and a rainwater collection cistern.

“Harmon envisioned the visitor center as ‘a big, well-lighted tent’ with lots of flexibility,” Mays writes. “The building is not only economical—constructed simply with 2×6s, 2×10s, and prefab wood trusses—but also green, with a target of LEED Gold.”

Available online at http://www.architectmagazine.com/green-design/merchants-millpond-visitor-center.aspx, Architect magazine’s coverage of the Merchants Millpond Visitors Center includes a slide show of photographs of the building by Charleston, SC-based photographer Richard Leo Johnson/Atlantic Archives, along with a complete list of materials and sources and all members of the design and construction teams.

Published by Hanley Wood, Inc, Architect covers architecture news, market intelligence, business and technology solutions, continuing education, building products, and other resources for practicing architects. For more information, go to www.architectmagazine.com.

For more information on Merchants Millpond State Park, visit http://www.ncparks.gov/Visit/parks/memi/main.php.

For more information on Frank Harmon Architect PA, visit www.frankharmon.com.

By Frank Harmon, FAIA

It is possible to discuss the current condition of architecture in North Carolina by referring to a geologic event that happened between 150 and 200 million years ago. A great geologic uplift, known as the Cape Fear Arch, pushed what is now North Carolina upwards several hundred feet. The arch also raised the sea floor, which had once been joined with South America, and the waves produced by this change created the Outer Banks, a chain of barrier islands that are farther offshore than in any other part of the Atlantic Seaboard. As a result, North Carolina has shallow rivers and only one major harbor at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, which is made treacherous by offshore shoals. Shifting river patterns caused by the Cape Fear Arch, which continues to rise, remove topsoil thus giving North Carolina poorer soils than in surrounding regions. The lack of rivers for transport, inaccessible harbors and poor soils meant that early settlements in North Carolina were modest. For much of its history, North Carolina was a land of small landowners, its population scattered across a vast landscape.

Though we have become the tenth largest state in the nation, our dispersed settlement pattern persists to this day. And that dispersal has created among North Carolinians a spirit of independence that is individualistic, self-sufficient, resourceful, and proud…

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ESSAY

The Gala and lecture are open to the public. AIA Jacksonville is a chapter of The American Institute of Architects (AIA) representing and serving AIA Florida members in Duval, Clay, St. Johns and Nassau counties.

Harmon, founder and principal of the Raleigh, NC-based firm Frank Harmon Architect PA and a Professor in Practice with North Carolina State University’s College of Design, served as the chairman of AIA Jacksonville’s 2010 design awards jury. Harmon’s firm has received more AIA North Carolina design awards than any other firm in the state and was recently ranked 13^th among the Top 50 Firms in the nation by Architect magazine. He is recognized nationally as a leader in modern “green” architecture.

A frequent speaker at state, regional and national design conferences, Harmon will discuss certain elements and themes that run through regional architecture – landscape, materials, construction methods, climate, roof forms and clients – and suggest how each can and should be used to create modern, sustainable architecture in the South.

“A balanced architecture rises up from the land it is built on, its hills, streams, weather and its people, their connections, ideas and stake in the future,” Harmon wrote in a recent article on North Carolina architecture for Inform magazine in Virginia.

He will use his own work to demonstrate regional modernism in the South, such as the new North Carolina Botanical Gardens Visitors Education Center at UNC-Chapel Hill, a cluster of buildings on a wooded hillside joined by deep porches and breezeways. The center is slated to be the State’s first LEED Platinum building.

For more information on AIA Jacksonville’s Design and Honor Awards Gala, including how to purchase tickets, go to www.aiajacksonville.org or email hgrimes@grimespg.com.

For more information on Frank Harmon, FAIA, visit www.frankharmon.com.

Frank Harmon Architect PA moves up in Architect Magazine’s annual list of best firms.

May 12, 2010 (RALEIGH, NC) – Frank Harmon Architect PA, a multi-award-winning firm based in Raleigh, NC and recognized nationally as a leader in innovative, modern, and regionally inspired “green” architecture, has placed 13^th on Architect magazine’s 2010 list of the top firms in the nation, moving up from the 26^th spot the firm held last year.

Frank Harmon Architect PA, founded by principal Frank Harmon, FAIA, in 1985, is the only firm in North Carolina to make the “Architect 50” this year. The Freelon Group in Durham placed 60^th and Little in Charlotte placed 71^st.

Unlike many other “top firms” lists, the “Architect 50” emphasizes ecological commitment and design quality as much as profitability as the editors determine the country’s very best firms. In fact, many firms ranking far lower than Harmon’s report revenues in the multiple millions.

Senior editor Amanda Kolson Hurley also notes, “Some commercially focused firms that were prominent last year have dropped off the list; conversely, this year’s biggest upward movers tend to be those with a bedrock of public-sector and infrastructural projects.”

Harmon’s firm has been working on and completing several “green” public-sector projects since the 2009 Architect 50, most of modest size and budget. They include Visitors Education Centers at Walnut Creek Urban Wetlands Park in Raleigh, the North Carolina Botanical Garden at UNC-Chapel Hill, Merchants Millpond State Park (recently featured in Architect magazine), and the N.C. Zoological Park (Children’s Nature Zoo). The firm is also working on oyster hatchery research facilities at UNC-Wilmington and in Northern Neck, Virginia, as well as a new Crafts Campus at UNC-Asheville.

Each of these projects embraces the principles of sustainability, both low-tech and high-tech, within regionally appropriate, modern designs. And each underscores the enjoyable aspects of energy conservation, such as natural light and ventilation; simple, familiar materials; and the use of deep porches for circulation and access to the outdoors.

In an introduction for Harmon at a North Carolina State University College of Design lecture, architecture Professor Paul Tesar stated:

“[Frank Harmon’s] buildings range from houses in the Bahamas to AIA Headquarters in Raleigh, from Eco-Stations to Parish Houses, from Iron Studios to Pottery Centers, and from Dog Boxes to Oyster Hatcheries – commissions, in other words, that most of us only can envy him for, because they somehow seem a little more inspiring than, say, 40,000 square feet of speculative office space next to a K-Mart parking lot.”

Of the higher ranking in this year’s “Architect 50,” Harmon said, “The usual rating of firms by gross billing, number of employees, etc., does not include our firm. But when we are rated on design recognition for our clients, sustainability, and financial performance, our firm shows up well.”

To see the entire 2010 Architect 50 list, go to www.architectmagazine.com.

For more information on Frank Harmon Architect PA, visit www.frankharmon.com.

by Vernon Mays

Natural beauty is what draws people to Merchants Millpond State Park in Gatesville, N.C. Its 760-acre lake and adjacent swamp are home to towering bald cypress and tupelo gum trees, primitive species of fish, and a countless variety of birds. Helping visitors understand the park’s unique ecosystem is a challenge, fostered by a new 7,500-square-foot visitor center, which demonstrates that even small buildings can have an important, and positive, environmental impact.

Designed by Frank Harmon Architect, of Raleigh, N.C., the modest, wood-framed structure­ incorporates a low-tech approach to sustainable design and recalls a historic mill that once occupied the site.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE

March 15, 2010 — Just barely outside of Downtown Raleigh lies the Walnut Creek Wetlands area. For decades the area was neglected and served as a place to dump refuse, despite being home to more than 50 federally protected animal species. After several years of cleanup efforts, this past September saw the opening of the Walnut Creek Wetlands Center, designed by local architect Frank Harmon…

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE

The symposium is sponsored by the UNCG Biology Department with financial support from Syngenta. The theme for the 2010 symposium is “Practical Steps Toward Sustainability.”

As a designer and educator, Frank Harmon has been a leader in “green,” or sustainable, architecture for decades – long before the concept entered the general lexicon. He has spent years educating the public through speaking engagements at conferences and conventions across the country, including Dwell Magazine’s annual “Dwell on Design” convention and several national conventions of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

He has also spent years educating his clients on the imperative for sustainable, regionally appropriate design and recently completed three thoroughly “green” projects: the NC Botanical Garden’s Visitor Education Center at UNC-Chapel Hill (slated to become the state’s first LEED Platinum building), the Walnut Creek Urban Wetlands Park Education Center in Raleigh, and the Merchants Millpond State Park Visitors Center in Gatesville, NC.

Among the current “green” projects Harmon’s firm is working on are the Oyster Research Hatchery at UNC-Wilmington, the UNC-Asheville Craft Campus, and AIA North Carolina’s Center for Architecture & Design in downtown Raleigh.

The other three speakers at the symposium are: Dr. Robert Jackson, director of Duke University’s Center on Global Change who will discuss the problems of nitrogen pollution; Dr. Patricia Gober, co-director of the National Science Foundation’s Decision Center for a Desert City, who will discuss water resource sustainability; and Dr. Susan Smalley, director of the Michigan State University C.S. Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems, who will discuss community-based food systems.

UNCG’s Environmental Symposium 2010 is free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.uncg.edu/bio/index.

For more information on Frank Harmon, go to www.frankharmon.com.

Ever since Frank Harmon won the competition for the AIANC Center for Architecture & Design in January 2008, not much had been made public about how the project was progressing. Even some of our sources close to the project seemed skeptical that the project would be built soon. Given the current state of the field and economy in general, it would have been understandable if the AIA had decided to put the project on hold. It might not have sent a positive message to its members, but understandable nevertheless.

Fortunately for us, that’s not the case. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE.