architectural design | frank harmon architect pa

“From site, client, and experience, Frank Harmon spins a highly specific, easy-living modernism.” - Vernon Mays, Residential Architect magazine

Frank Harmon Architect PA Ranks 26th In Architect Magazine’s “Top 50″ In The Nation

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

MAY 19, 2009 (RALEIGH, NC) – Frank Harmon Architect PA, a Raleigh, NC-based architectural firm headed by Frank Harmon FAIA, is one of the top 50 firms in the nation, according to Architect Magazine’s 2009 “Architect 50” ranking.

The professional journal’s annual ranking of the top U.S. firms is intended to promote “a more well-rounded definition of success,” according to senior editor Amanda Kolson Hurley. “The criteria for inclusion comprise a trifecta of critical goals for every practice: profitability, sustainability, and design quality.”

Harmon’s small firm, headquartered in a revamped warehouse in downtown Raleigh, is no stranger to design awards and professional rankings. In 2005, Residential Architect selected Frank Harmon Architect PA as the “Top Firm of the Year.” In 2008, an award-winning “green” vacation home in the Bahamas Harmon designed was included in a Wall Street Journal list of “the most influential and inspiring houses built during the past decade.” That same project was featured in a special exhibit on green architecture in the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.

Harmon’s firm has received more North Carolina design awards than any other firm in the state and recently won three national accolades: two Custom Home Magazine’s 2009 Design Awards for residences in Raleigh, NC, and Charleston, SC, and an American Institute of Architect’s 2009 Housing Award for the Charleston home.

As one of Architect Magazine’s top 50, Frank Harmon Architect PA is in the company of such large and luminary firms as Rafael Vinoly Architects; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; Perkins+Will; William McDonough + Partners; and Gwathmey Siegel & Associates.

“Most ranking of firms is by dollar volume,” observed Frank Harmon, who is also an adjunct professor of architecture at the North Carolina State University College of Design. “The Architect ranking, by contrast, includes design and sustainability, two things we love best.”

Harmon’s firm ranks 26^th. The only other North Carolina firm to make the list is Little Diversified Architectural Consultants in Charlotte at 43^rd.

Frank Harmon is recognized nationally as a leader in innovative, modern, and regionally inspired “green” architecture, and every project that emanates from his firm embraces the principles of sustainability. The Raleigh architect’s work has been featured in numerous magazines, journals, and books on the subject and he is a regular speaker at design conferences and conventions across the country.

Architect Magazine is one of HanleyWood LLC’s publications that focus exclusively on North America’s residential and commercial construction industry. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the online version of the journal is also available at www.architectmagazine.com.

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

Tags: Architect Magazine Top 50, architectural design, design, sustainability, sustainable design
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Frank Harmon To Address AIA’s South Atlantic Region Conference

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

August 28, 2006 (RALEIGH, NC) — Frank Harmon, FAIA, principal of Frank Harmon Architect PA in Raleigh, will present a seminar entitled “Architecture With A Conscience: Designing Contemporary Regional Architecture” during the American Institute of Architect’s South Atlantic Region Conference to be held October 5-7 in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Harmon’s seminar will illustrate the importance of place and region to innovative, appropriate and sustainable design in contemporary architecture.

“Buildings with a ‘conscience’ have existed in Southern farmhouses and barns for as long as farmers have erected them,” Harmon said recently. “These are simple structures built of wholesome, vernacular materials, perched on stone piers so rainwater flows under them. They nestle lightly into the hillsides without disturbing the land. They are rooted in their region and inherently embody the principles of sustainability. And they speak of the Southern culture as eloquently as bluegrass music or clay pots.”

According to Harmon, his seminar will look at certain elements and themes that run through regional architecture, including: landscape; materials and construction (“the ‘sticks and stones’ of a place, he said); weather and climate; roof forms that shelter or collect; and clients. Using examples of his own work, along with that of Glenn Murcutt, Brian MacKay-Lyons, and Rick Joy, he intends to illustrate the importance of regionalism today to the process of creating innovative, sustainable, and appropriate contemporary design that is regionally based.

Frank Harmon is also an associate professor or architecture at the N.C. State University College of Design and is a frequent speaker at architectural events and conferences, including American Institute of Architects’ National Convention, which was held in Los Angeles, CA, in June. He was recently asked to speak during the Canadian Wood Council’s Wood Design & Building Expo,which will be held in Anaheim, CA, in November, and the 2007 National AIA Convention, which will be held in San Antonio, Texas, in May. For more information, visit www.frankharmon.com.

Tags: architectural design, contemporary regional architecture, green architecture, South Atlantic Region AIA Conference, sustainable design
Posted in Press Releases |