modern | green | sustainable architecture
“From site, client, and experience, Frank Harmon spins a highly specific, easy-living modernism.” - Vernon Mays, Residential Architect magazine
If you’ve seen the new building along Peace Street in downtown Raleigh, across from William Peace University, you may be wondering why it looks so, well, so different.
It’s the new headquarters of AIA North Carolina , the statewide trade group for architects, and one reason for the design was to assure that such a relatively small building made a statement and didn’t get lost in the shadows of much larger buildings… READ MORE
February 1, 2008 (RALEIGH, NC) – In an unprecedented initiative, the North Carolina component of the American Institute of Architects (AIA/NC) announced in November 2007 that it would hold a design competition to select the architect for its new headquarters building on a high-profile site in downtown Raleigh. In all 50 states, an AIA component has never built its own headquarters from the ground up, so conducting a competition to select the designer “was the obvious and only solution,” said David Crawford, executive vice president of AIA/NC.
What made the competition more profound, however, was the understanding that this 12,000-square-foot building, representing a $4.5 million investment by AIA/NC, ”will be our testament to sustainable architecture, the built environment, and the role of architects in this endeavor,” said Walt Teague, immediate past president of AIA/NC. Crawford added that the organization “made it a goal to use [the] new facilities to teach the public about what it means to design with the environment and future in mind.”
Architects who entered the competition understood that the headquarters was to be designed to meet both LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards and AIA’s COTE (Committee On The Environment) objectives, which address appropriateness to the region, land use and site ecology, sustainable materials and methods of construction, water usage, and energy efficiency.
On January 23, the jury of esteemed architects from across the nation completed its deliberation of the 48 projects entered and announced that Frank Harmon Architect PA of Raleigh had won First Place with a proposal that they praised for being “of its place,” for making good use of a difficult site, for integrating sustainable design principles rather than using them as applique, and for “embracing the community.”
Second place went to Pearce, Brinkley, Case + Lee, PA of Raleigh, and third place went to Kenneth E. Hobgood, Architects, also of Raleigh.
According to Frank Harmon, FAIA, principal, his firm’s design for the future AIA/NC Center for Architecture and Design “aspires to become a role model for healthy urbanism, both for chapter members and future development in downtown Raleigh.” He pointed out that the previous AIA/NC headquarters did this in its time by adaptively re-using an historic structure: an old water tower also in the downtown area. “The new headquarters faces a 21st Century challenge, however,” he said, “which is the global necessity to conserve and protect our natural resources.”
In Harmon’s plan, a slim, three-story building composed of regionally appropriate materials – stone, wood, concrete and glass – is situated along one edge of the site, leaving the majority of the property for landscape. Paying deference to the natural topography, the project will reuse every shovelful of earth: Where soil is removed from one position on the site, it is reused in another.
The architect describes his concept as “a Modern shell with a green heart.” Besides site orientation and the narrow footprint, both of which will maximize natural ventilation and lighting, other “green” features include:
– a building shell that collects rainwater, shades from southern sun and protects against winter wind
The scale of the building focuses on human comfort and socio-cultural concerns. It greets the Peace Street neighborhood at its natural grade – a friendly gesture – and establishes an “urban edge” along that rapidly developing section of the city. An open porch at that elevation underscores the sense of outreach and welcome towards the community “in the same manner, perhaps, that Moses Mordecai extended open arms to the town when he added a large front porch onto his house a few blocks away,” Harmon said, referring to the Greek Revival home of one of Raleigh’s most prominent 19th century families and a designated historic landmark.
At the opposite end of the building, structure and landscape rise, both physically and symbolically, to greet the Government Complex along the higher elevation and forge a strong tie with the government entities there.
The overriding objective of this concept is to “demonstrate and encourage aesthetic and ecological integrity – to create a flagship for North Carolina architecture that is architecturally, environmentally, politically, socially and aesthetically inspiring,” Harmon said. “We commend the AIA for the open, fair and inclusive nature of this project and the example it sets for design and sustaining architecture. We are obligated to be exemplary.”
William McMinn, FAIA, Dean Emeritus of Cornell University’s College of Architecture selected the judges for the competition. They were: Daniel Bennett, FAIA, Dean of the College of Architecture at Auburn University; Allison Ewing, AIA, LEED® AP, a partner in Hayes + Ewing Design in Charlottesville, VA; David Lee, FAIA, partner in Stull & Lee, Boston, MA; and jury chair Susan Maxman, FAIA, founder and design principal of SMP Architects in Philadelphia, PA.
For more information on Frank Harmon Architect PA and the future AIA/NC Center for Architecture and Design, go to www.frankharmon.com.
October 1, 2007 (RALEIGH, NC) – A modern, environmentally sensitive house overlooking South Carolina’s picturesque Shem Creek, designed by Frank Harmon Architect PA in Raleigh, received an Honor Award from North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA/NC) during the 2007 Design and Chapter Awards presented September 15 at the Annual Design Conference in New Bern.
According to Harmon, the owner client wanted an open, airy house with an abundance of windows for viewing the creek. However, the best view of the creek was on the western elevation, where the sun would bake the house on hot summer afternoons. And the house is in a hurricane zone, so the windows, as well as the structure itself, had to withstand up to 150-mph winds and accompanying debris.
According to Harmon, the Low Country house, which was featured in both Architecture Record and Waterfront Homes & Design this summer, required “a 21st-century solution to 400-year-old problems.”
For strength, the house is built of steel and laminated-wood (Southern yellow pine) framing that rests on matt-concrete footings. The shed roof is one large, simple plane that shelters the house from the area’s torrential rains. Carports are dramatically cantilevered to shelter the owner’s cars and, in the off-season, boat.
The house’s long, thin shape allows each room to have windows and porches overlooking the water. The operable windows create natural cross-ventilation for the interior, which features locally available Southern yellow pine paneling.
To capitalize on the view of the creek, a large glass wall fronts the southwest side of the house. To protect the house from excessive summer heat yet allow cooling breezes into the house, and to protect the glass from extreme weather, Harmon designed a series of 10 screens, hinged above the porch, constructed of hand-fabricated metal frames, which house perforated-metal panels that protect the house during any season. In their horizontal (open) position, they shade the house in spring and fall. In their vertical (closed) position, they create a shaded porch, allow cooling breezes to enter the house, and keep damaging debris out. Made of hot-dip galvanized steel to resist wind-borne, corrosive salt, the 800-pound screens were also designed and installed to allow a single person to lift and balance them easily as they are moved from one position to another.
After approaching this house from the long, sandy drive under a canopy of moss-draped live oaks, and climbing the gentle ramp up to the house, the view of the salt marsh – replete with blue herons, ibis, and water lilies – unfolds “like elements in a delicate Japanese painting,” Harmon said. Yet the rock-solid structure and metal screens demonstrate” the graceful strength needed to survive in a beautiful, if sometimes brutal, coastal landscape and climate.”
Judges for the 2007 Design Awards were Peter Kuttner, FAIA, Cambridge Seven Associates; Jane Weinzafel, FAIA, Leers Weinzapfel Associates; Jeff Stein, AIA, Boston Architectural College; and Elizabeth Padjen, FAIA, ArchitectureBoston founding editor.
For more information on Frank Harmon, visit www.frankharmon.com. For more information on the 2007 AIA/NC Design Awards, visit www.aianc.org.
January 26, 2007 (RALEIGH, NC) – A modern house perched on a steep hillside in Raleigh, North Carolina’s Laurel Hills neighborhood is featured this month in Architectural Record, one of the profession’s most respected journal.
Raleigh architect Frank Harmon, FAIA, principal of Frank Harmon Architect PA, designed the 1800-square-foot house for Lynda Strickland when she relocated here from Washington, D.C. Her property is located within a 150-year-old beech and oak forest above Crabtree Creek.
“We knew we had to raise the house off the ground and let the water flow under it,” Harmon told Architectural Record’s Clifford Pearson, so he propped it on nine wood trusses sitting on concrete columns. “The strategy not only preserved the site’s hydrological patterns,” writes Pearson, “but allowed the architect to build without cutting down any major trees…”
In the article, entitled “Frank Harmon raised the Strickland-Ferris Residence off the ground, then let its roof take flight,” Pearson addresses the innovative “butterfly roof….floating above a band of windows wrapping around the top of the building,” which also helps collect rainwater for irrigating the forest floor.
Noting that Strickland told Harmon she wanted “to feel as if I were living in the trees,” Pearson writes: “A glass-and-steel wall running the length of the building and reaching as high as 27 feet creates an ethereal boundary between inside and out, between modern living and the great outdoors.”
Completed in 2004, the Strickland-Ferris residence has received design awards from the North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architect (AIA/NC), and the AIA/NC Triangle section. It was also featured in Dwell magazine’s December edition.
A portion of the feature in Architectural Record is available online at www.archrecord.construction.com/residential/quarterly/0801strickland-1.asp. Photographs and a description of the house are also available at www.frankharmon.com under “projects.”
May 23, 2006 (RALEIGH, NC) — Frank Harmon, FAIA, principal of Frank Harmon Architect PA of Raleigh, NC, recently received three of the nine awards presented during the 2006 Triangle AIA Awards program, and was cited as a “Significant Consultant” for another award-winner.
Harmon received two Honor Awards: one for the Open-Air Classroom at Prairie Ridge Environmental Education Center in Raleigh, and another for the Strickland-Ferris Residence, also in Raleigh. The firm received a Merit Award for its design and construction of a completely “green” doghouse, which was donated to Triangle Beagle Rescue for a fund-raising auction.
The Open-Air Classroom, which received a design award from the N.C. Chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 2005, is the first phase of the N.C. Museum of Natural History’s hands-on teaching and extension facility. Located on a diverse 38-acre site on the edge of Raleigh, it is intended to foster an appreciation for the state’s natural resources and natural diversity by educating North Carolinians of all ages about the natural sciences and the importance of environmental stewardship. One goal of this project was to demonstrate how architecture could enhance the natural environment through sustainable design and construction. Another key goal, and perhaps the greatest challenge, was to make the classroom a comfortable outdoor place in which to learn.
The classroom is built on a hillside and constructed with parallel strand lumber, which is a beautiful, strong timber that reduces the impact on old-growth forests. Earth disturbance was kept to a minimum to avoid erosion. Concrete masonry units in the foundation are made of 100-percent recycled materials, and recycled untreated scrap lumber provided mulch for landscaping needs. The classroom’s heavy, south-facing overhang maximizes sun exposure in winter and creates shade in summer. Along with the screened walls, this orientation catches year-round southwesterly breezes. Together, these design elements conserve an enormous amount of energy normally used for lighting and HVAC systems, and, even during the hottest months, teachers and students are remarkably comfortable inside. Recycled untreated scrap lumber provided mulch for landscaping needs.
According to Metro magazine, which published the Triangle AIA award-winners in its May edition, one jury member described the classroom “as one of the greatest porches of all time.”
The Strickland-Ferris Residence, which also received a 2005 AIA/NC design award, was designed for a single artist works at home. The site is an unusually steep, north-facing escarpment 80 feet above a major creek within the city and shaded by a 150-year-old beech and oak forest, the terminal growth pattern of North Carolina’s Piedmont region. The client requested “something dramatic” where she would feel as if she were “living in the trees.” She also wanted the house to be utterly devoid of unnecessary ornamentation to the point that she could see all the marks of construction, from exposed bolts to the unfinished ceiling structure.
To create a shelter that treads lightly on this sensitive site, Harmon perched the house on nine broad-shouldered wood trusses. The trusses allowed the house to be situated on the site without cutting a single major tree. They also permit air and water to flow under the house, preserving the hydrology of the escarpment. A butterfly-shaped roof opens views northwards to the creek and funnels rainwater into a collection system on the south side.
The structure of the house is composed primarily of parallel strand lumber, to conserve forest resources, with concrete panel boards clearly bolted into place. All framing and trim is locally harvested, southern yellow pine. Openings were specifically designed to enhance natural ventilation by capturing prevailing southwesterly breezes and the cool air from the creek valley. Natural lighting keeps the need for artificial illumination to a minimum. Deep roof overhangs extend a visual link to the outside, shade the interior, and shelter the walls and openings below. Laminated wood columns and beams are plainly bracketed together and reminiscent of a tree house, The entrance is a progression from the top of the hill, across a bridge, and into a balcony foyer, where the drama of the scenery outside fills the interior through north-facing glass walls, whose steel support structure echoes the march of tree trunks outside. Careful arrangement of glazing, even on the more private, street-facing elevation, maintains a sense of transparency and delicacy. From outside, the house appears as a fragile, luminous tent cradled by the forest.
The “Dog Box,” which received a Merit Award in the Triangle AIA’s “Details” category and has been featured in Natural Homes & Gardens magazine and AIArchitecture, the AIA’s online journal, became an opportunity to demonstrate that the principles of sustainable design can be applied to any built structure – even a doghouse. Therefore, the architect went to great lengths to ensure that this doghouse would be energy-efficient and environmentally conservative, and that the materials and products used in its construction would contribute to ecological restoration.
Sustainable features in the Dog Box include: (1) a vegetated roof that collects rainwater for the occupant to drink, insulates and cools the roof, eliminates thermal hot spots, provides oxygen, and makes for an attractive roof; (2) a photovoltaic panel that collects the sun’s energy and turns it into electricity to power an exhaust fan inside the dog box; (3) reused or recycled building materials; and (4) a polygal window, which brings daylight into the Dog Box and is positioned to maximize cross ventilation and the availability of fresh air.
Frank Harmon, FAIA, was also cited as a Significant Consultant to Tonic Design of Durham on that firm’s award-winning McCowan Kitchen-Dining Space.
The Triangle AIA Awards are presented by the Triangle section (comprised of 10 counties in central North Carolina) of the N.C. Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The 2006 jury consisted of Boston-based practitioners: Andrea Leers, FAIA (jury chair), of Leers Weinzapfel Associates; Warren Schwartz, FAIA, of Schwartz/Silver Architects; and Alex Anmahian, AIA, of Anmahian Winton Architects. The awards were presented at a special reception held on Wednesday, May 19, 2006 at Bay 7 of the recently renovated American Tobacco Complex in Durham.
For more information on Frank Harmon, visit www.frankharmon.com.
October 7, 2005 (RALEIGH, NC) – ArchitectureWeek.com, a leading online magazine on architecture and construction, features an indepth look this week at the blacksmith studio at the Penland School of Arts and Crafts in Penland, NC, designed by Raleigh-based architect Frank Harmon, FAIA.
The studio, which most recently received a 2005 Merit Award from the North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, captured ArchitectureWeek’s attention not only because it “embodied the spirit of crafts by clearly revealing its own construction,” as author Jennifer LeClaire writes, but also because the journal’s editor-in-chief, Kevin Matthews, is an avid blacksmith himself. As such, he adds a note at the top of the story:
Blacksmithing is such a fundamental craft that in French, the familiar proverb, “practice makes perfect,” takes the form, “c’est en forgeant qu’on devient forgeron,” or literally in English, “it’s by forging that one becomes a blacksmith.”
ArchitectureWeek is published with an independent editorial voice by Artifice, Inc. creators of GreatBuildings.com.
For more information on the Penland project, visit www.frankharmon.com and click on “projects.”
August 16, 2005 (RALEIGH, NC) – Frank Harmon, FAIA, principal and founder of Frank Harmon Architect PA, may have to add on to his old-garage-turned-designed-studio in Raleigh’s historic Boylan Heights neighborhood just to display his awards certificates. Last month, Harmon received two merit awards from the North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA/NC), bringing his total awards for this year alone to five and, for his career, 33.
Why so many? In a 2001 edition of Architecture Record magazine, senior editor Sarah Hart offered perhaps one explanation by describing Harmon’s work as “a vernacular modernism as slyly sophisticated as any found in New York or London.”
One of the recent AIA/NC merit awards was for Harmon’s design of the Strickland-Ferris Residence in Raleigh, a “house in the trees” sited above Crabtree Creek. Harmon’s design lifts the house off the ground on a series of sono-tube formed concrete piers and 8×8 wooden braces, allowing minimal site disturbance. The house opens out to the north and the view with a storefront glass and steel façade stretching from the floor to the ceiling. Contrasting the window wall is the solid thick wall to the south, which reaches seven feet above the finished floor upstairs wrapping the southwest and southeast corners. The solid wall never touches the roof, allowing the house to have a private face to the street while maintaining views through the clearstory towards the forest.
The second award was for the Open-Air Classroom at the Prairie Ridge Eco-Center for Wildlife & Learning in Raleigh, the first part of a phased project, which began in early 2003 with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. The screened classroom is built on a hillside, constructed with parallel strand lumber. Earth disturbance was kept to a minimum to avoid erosion. Concrete masonry units in the foundation are made of 100-percent recycled materials, and recycled untreated scrap lumber provided mulch for landscaping needs. The classroom’s heavy, south-facing overhang maximizes sun exposure in winter and creates shade in summer. Along with the screened walls, this orientation catches year-round southwesterly breezes. The building also features: a green roof; photovoltaic panels; wind-driven generators for power; solar panels for domestic hot water; zero-percent runoff with recycled storm water (a cistern collects rainwater from the classroom’s roof for flushing toilets and minimizing the impact on local fresh water sources); geothermal wells for heating and cooling; and natural cleansing systems for building waste water. All of the above are LEED certified. Storm water is also collected to form vernal wetland teaching areas.
Judges for this year’s AIA/NC Awards were from the Chicago area and included Ralph Johnson, FAIA (Perkins+Will), James Nagle, FAIA (Nagle, Hartray, Danker, Kagan, McKay), Andrew Metter, FAIA (A. Epstein & Sons International, Inc.), and Martha Thorne (The Art Institute of Chicago).
For more information on Frank Harmon and these projects, visit www.frankharmon.com.