December 6, 2011 (Raleigh, NC) — Architect Frank Harmon, FAIA, of Frank Harmon Architect PA, recently posted a new video on his website (www.frankharmon.com) in which he and landscape architect Gregg Bleam discuss the design process behind the soon-to-be-completed AIA NC Center for Architecture and Design in downtown Raleigh.

Segments of the video will be updated as AIA NC (the American Institute of Architects North Carolina chapter) moves in and the landscape matures.

Harmon explains at the beginning of the video that the project is the result of his firm winning a professional design competition. One of the reasons Harmon won, according to the judges, was that his concept for a modern, thoroughly sustainable, and regionally appropriate Center embraced building and landscape as a single interdependent, interlocking whole.

“We knew this was a landscape problem,” Harmon says, because of the oddly shaped, triangular site and the parking requirements. As a result, he enlisted Bleam “before we drew a single line” and felt including Bleam in the video on the building was imperative.

Directed and shot by Allen Weiss of Allen Weiss: Works on Film and Paper in Raleigh, the video features Harmon in his warehouse-turned-office in Raleigh’s Boylan Heights neighborhood and Bleam in his office in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia. It also includes a variety of footage of the building under construction; of Harmon and Bleam walking the site, looking over plans and laughing together; and behind-the-scenes moments in the construction trailer.

Frank Harmon, FAIA

This is the first video that Frank Harmon, a multi-awarding winning architect and Professor in Practice at NC State University’s College of Design, has done for his website. Why did he choose this particular project?

“Because of its design, the AIA NC Center for Architecture and Design is destined to be an icon in downtown Raleigh,” said Kim Weiss, Harmon’s public relations coordinator. “It’s also the first from-the-ground-up, ‘green’ AIA headquarters in the nation.

“But equally important,” she continued, “is that the general public rarely gets to hear an architect talk about the process that lead to the design of a building, especially one as iconic as this one. Through the video, Frank is creating a rapport with his audience, whether that means students, clients, future clients, or folks just interested in architecture. Together, he and Gregg are communicating more than a written description could.”

She also pointed out that “videos are entertaining. It’s simply a fact that people today are more likely to click on a video than to read a written description.”

The man behind the camera, Allen Weiss, noted how comfortable Harmon and Bleam were in front of the camera. “There was no script,” he said. “They just started talking and were of such a similar mindset that I could easily cut from one to the other as they discussed the design process. I was impressed.”

The video opens and closes with audible off-camera voices. Weiss said he purposefully left the “chatter” in during the edit to give the piece a casual, relaxed feel, “unlike the garden-variety, industrial, talking-head videos that are dry and offer no clues into the personalities behind them. I don’t believe you can separate the product from the dynamic and interesting personalities that lead to its creation. My intention was not only to showcase this important structure, but to allow viewers to get to know Frank and Gregg in a simply, personal, human way.”

To hear Frank Harmon and Gregg Bleam discuss the design process behind the AIA NC Center for Architecture and Design, visit www.frankharmon.com and click on AIA North Carolina Center for Architecture Design – Video.” To read more about the project, click on “current” projects.

For more information on Gregg Bleam Landscape Architect, go to www.gbla.net.

For more information on Allen Weiss, visit www.allen-weiss.com.

(Photo by Gilbertson Photography)

By Mike Welton

The American Institute of Architects North Carolina Chapter’s (AIA NC) new Center for Architecture and Design opens this month at the intersection of Wilmington and Peace streets in downtown Raleigh. The 12,000-square-foot building, clad in native Carolina cypress harvested from the Great Dismal Swamp, with roof and siding of rose-colored zinc, was designed by Frank Harmon Architect PA.

The $5.4 million project brings new meaning to the concept of teamwork. AIA NC and Harmon worked closely with Clancy & Theys Construction, John Moore with 4SE Structural Engineers, Carl Simmons of CMS Engineering, RMF Engineering, and landscape architect Gregg Bleam to make the headquarters building — one that serves all seven AIA sections across North Carolina — a reality less than a year from groundbreaking. AIA NC’s David Crawford was responsible for hunting down and securing a $3 million bond through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Of the $3.2 million in construction costs, $1.15 million was delivered in pledges through a fundraising campaign — much of it from architects themselves — with another $600,000 coming from in-kind donations from state and national suppliers…

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The AIA NC Center for Architecture and Design — a modern shell with a green heart –  designed by Frank Harmon Architect PA, rises in downtown Raleigh…

Photos by Allen Weiss

John Caliendo of Frank Harmon Architect PA

North Carolina architect Frank Harmon discusses his work with Architectural Record senior editor and GreenSource managing editor Jane Kolleeny at the American Institute of Architects conference in New Orleans.

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May 16, 2011 (Raleigh, NC) – For the third consecutive year, Frank Harmon

Frank Harmon, FAIA

Architect PA has made Architect magazine’s “Architect 50” list of architectural firms from across the nation, placing 21st.

Architect magazine ranks firms for its annual Architect 50 list based on a composite assessment of the firms’ commitment to sustainability, design quality, and profitability.

“The usual rating of firms by gross billing, number of employees, etc., would not include our firm,” said Frank Harmon, FAIA, principal of Frank Harmon Architect PA. “But when we are rated on design recognition for our clients, sustainability, and financial performance, our firm shows up well.”

“By looking at the whole picture, we’re able to honor not the biggest, but the best,” writes executive editor Amanda Kolson Hurley in the May 2011 edition of the national journal. “The 2011 Architect 50…shows that [architecture] and [architecture/engineering] firms, large and small, can do well in this economy.”

Frank Harmon Architect PA, an intentionally small firm, specializes in modern, sustainable, and regionally appropriate design. Among the firm’s 2010-2011 design awards, its thoroughly “green” Sunday school addition at the Circular Congregational Church in downtown Charleston, SC, received three awards: a national award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture; an AIA NC Honor Award; and an AIA Triangle Honor Award.

Harmon’s firm also received three awards for the Walnut Creek Wetland Center over the past year: an AIA NC Merit Award; an Environmental Design award from the City of Raleigh; and a Sir Walter Award for Community Appearance, also from the City of Raleigh.

The only other North Carolina firm to make the 2011 list is Pearce Brinkley Cease + Lee of Raleigh and Asheville, at 23rd.

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

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

Raleigh architect will discuss modern, sustainable design in San Antonio

Frank Harmon, FAIA

March 1, 2011 (Raleigh, NC) — Frank Harmon, FAIA, principal of Frank Harmon Architects PA in Raleigh, will be the featured speaker for the AIA Lecture Series in San Antonio, Texas, on March 30, beginning 6 p.m. in the historic Pearl Studio conference center on Grayson Street.

Harmon is a multi-award-winning leader in modern, innovative, sustainable architecture, and frequently lectures on the importance of regionally appropriate architecture – which address the particulars of climate, topography, forms, colors and culture of a region — as a means of creating both environmentally friendly architecture and a sense of place.

“A simple pleasure I enjoy each day is drinking tea from a hand-made bowl,” he explains. “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. 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’m not certain that architecture, whether a house or town, can always have the friendly familiarity of a hand-thrown clay bowl. But I am certain there is virtue in trying.”

The AIA San Antonio Lecture Series began in 1999 as a collaborative effort between the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the University of Texas at San Antonio. It is now presented independent of the University and focuses on architects’ professional development and continuing education credits.

Harmon’s lecture and all others in the series are free and open to the public. For more information on the entire series, visit www.aiasa.org.

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

Raleigh architect will discuss modern, sustainable, regionally appropriate design in

Frank Harmon, FAIA

Madison, WI.

February 18, 2011 (Raleigh, NC) — Frank Harmon, FAIA, principal of Frank Harmon Architects PA in Raleigh, will be the featured speaker for the Wright Lecture Series in Madison, Wisconsin, on March 10, beginning 7 p.m. in the Monona Terrace Community & Convention Center.

Harmon will also serve as a juror for the AIA Wisconsin Design Awards program.

Frank Harmon is a multi-award-winning leader in modern, innovative, sustainable, and regionally appropriate architecture, and he frequently lectures on the subject “Place Making: America’s New Regionalism.” The AIA Wisconsin lecture will follow a similar presentation he is making at the Dalhousie University School of Architecture in Nova Scotia on February 28.

Both lectures will discuss how regional architecture can produce high-performance, or sustainable, buildings by addressing context, materials, textures, colors and form particular to the region in which they are built, using both traditional and non-traditional methods.

“I believe that one of the primary goals of architecture is to make it possible for people to understand the world around them,” Harmon says. “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.”

The Wright Lecture Series is sponsored by AIA Southwest Wisconsin, the Monona Terrace Community & Convention Center, and the Frank Lloyd Wright Wisconsin Heritage Program.

Harmon’s lecture free and open to the public. For more information on the entire series, visit www.aiaw.org.

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

Proceeds from ticket sales to this dinner will go to the North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architects’ (AIA NC) for its building. The AIA NC Center for Architecture & Design headquarters, designed by Harmon’s firm, is under construction now in downtown Raleigh.

David Crawford, AIA NC’s Executive Vice President, and Steve Schuster, AIA, principal of Clearscapes, will join Harmon for the February 8^th A4A dinner. Steve Schuster helped lead the effort to secure financing for the new building. The official groundbreaking ceremony took place on December 9^th.

Sponsored and hosted by Triangle Modernist houses (TMH), Appetite 4 Architecture dinner events are opportunities for the general public to have informal discussions with Triangle area architects in an upscale dining environment. While TMH founder and director George Smart stresses that there will be no presentations during the Harmon/Crawford/Schuster dinner, “No doubt the new, modern, thoroughly ‘green’ headquarters building will come up!”

Tickets for the February 8^th dinner at 18 Seaboard are $49 per person and include three courses (appetizer, entree, dessert) from a pre-selected menu plus coffee/water/tea, tax, and gratuity. Vegetarian options are also available. Ticket reservations are available at www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/a4a.htm.

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

For more information on TMH’s series of Appetite 4 Architecture dinners, visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.

CG image of the future AIA NC Center for Architecture & Design

by Jessica Daily

While rooftop gardens are fast becoming the norm in major cities like San Francisco and New York, the new headquarters of the North Carolina chapter of the American Institute of Architects is bringing the first green roof to Raleigh. Designed by Frank Harmon Architect PA, the building is set to meet LEED platinum standards…

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Future LEED-Platinum building breaks ground in downtown Raleigh.

December 8, 2010 (RALEIGH, NC) – After two years of planning and waiting for financing, the North Carolina chapter of the American Institute of Architects will finally hold its official, public groundbreaking ceremony for its new headquarters building and design center on Thursday, December 9, at 11:30 a.m. The building will be constructed on an oddly shaped, previously unused lot on Peace and Wilmington streets between Peace College and the NC Government Complex.

Designed by Frank Harmon Architect PA after the firm won a professional competition for the project in 2008, the AIA NC Center for Architecture & Design will be “a modern building with a green heart,” as Frank Harmon, FAIA, likes to call it.

The building has been designed to meet LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards at the highest Platinum level, and AIA Committee On The Environment (COTE) goals, which include regional appropriateness and the use of regionally available materials, land use and site ecology, sustainable materials and methods of construction, reduced water usage, and increased energy efficiency.

“As we come out of the recession, we won’t be building in the same wasteful ways,” Harmon said. “With new emphasis on alternative energy and sustainable design, the AIA NC Center will show us a new way to build.”

Harmon also believes the Center will be a compelling example for responsible revitalization of the cores of towns and cities across the state, including Raleigh.

“It will demonstrate sustainable urban development and put Raleigh ‘on the map’ as a leader in this endeavor,” he noted, “from re-using every shovel of earth removed for the footprint, to the porously paved parking garden and state-of-the-art ‘green’ technology.”

Deferring to the natural topography, the new building will be situated along the edge of the property and porously paved so that the majority of the site will be park-like – a public park in an area of the city that doesn’t have one. This will provide an outdoor gathering space for AIA NC and community events and effectively expand AIA NC’s outreach program.

“One of AIA NC’s goals is to contribute to the vitality of that section of downtown by transforming an awkward, unused piece of property into a ‘people center’ that will, in turn, impact the businesses around it,” Harmon said.

Architecturally, the overriding objective of the building’s concept is “to demonstrate and encourage aesthetic and ecological integrity – to create a flagship for green architecture in North Carolina that is architecturally, environmentally, socially, and aesthetically inspiring,” Harmon said.

Construction should be completed in 10-12 months.

For more information on the building’s design, visit www.frankharmon.com/current/3/. For more information on AIA NC, visit www.aianc.org.