awards and news

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

Service at Circular Congregation Church, Sunday, April 22, 2007

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

By Frank Harmon

When Henry David Thoreau set out to build his cabin at Walden Pond one snowy morning in March 1845, he created a new chapter in American thought – about the value of self-reliance, honest self-reflection, and the courage to live modestly: to live simply in means, but grandly in thought.

Less well-known is the fact that Thoreau built his cabin out of pine trees he cut on the site and covered it with boards he salvaged from a nearby shanty. By building a cabin for $28, he crafted a message about simplicity. By using the materials he found around him, he was being sustainable….

We are here today to celebrate an addition to Lance Hall, which was originally built just 6 years after Thoreau retreated to the shore of Walden Pond.

(more…)

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Modern Low Country House Wins NC/AIA Honor Award

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

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.

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Frank Harmon Receives SAR/AIA Award For Modern, Innovative Residential Design

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

September 25, 2006 (RALEIGH, NC) — Frank Harmon, FAIA, principal of Frank Harmon Architect PA in Raleigh, has received an award from the South Atlantic Region (SAR) of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) for his design of a modern, environmentally sensitive residence on Shem Creek in Charleston, South Carolina that required “21st-century solutions to 400-year-old problems.”

The Low Country residence belongs to a physician who wanted a spacious house to share with his son that would feature an abundance of windows open to the view of nature and wildlife on Shem Creek, which includes 100-year-old, Spanish-moss-draped live oaks.

That request came with two enormous challenges, according to Harmon: (1) The best view of the creek would be on the western elevation, where the sun would bake the house on hot summer afternoons, and (2) the house would be located in a hurricane zone, so the windows, as well as the structure itself, would have to withstand up to 150-mph winds and accompanying debris.

For strength, the house was built of steel and laminated-wood (Southern yellow pine) framing that rests on matt-concrete footings. The roof is one large, simple plane that shelters the house from the area’s torrential rains and collects rainwater in cisterns for landscape irrigation. 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, Harmon designed a large glass wall to front the southwest side of the house. Yet this same wall had to be protected from excessive summer heat gain, while allowing cooling breezes into the house, and had to be protected from extreme weather.

The solution was a series of 10 screens, hinged above the porch, constructed of hand-fabricated metal frames, which house perforated-metal panels, which can 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.

The house is approached from a long, sandy drive under a canopy of moss-draped live oaks. A low ramp leads up and into the house. At that point, Harmon says he likes to think that the view of the salt marsh – replete with blue herons, ibis, and water lilies – “unfolds like elements in a delicate Japanese painting. 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.”

Harmon will receive his award during the SAR/AIA’s annual conference, which will be held this year on October 4 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. For more information on Frank Harmon, visit www.frankharmon.com.

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Frank Harmon Receives Two 2005 Triangle AIA Design Awards

Saturday, August 15th, 2009

May 9, 2005 (RALEIGH, NC) – The Penland School of Crafts in Penland, N.C. and a series of 10 metal screens for a Charleston, S.C. low-country house, both designed by Raleigh architect Frank Harmon, FAIA, received top honors in the 2005 AIA Triangle Design Awards.

The Triangle Section of the American Institute of Architects’ North Carolina Chapter presents the awards annually. AIA Triangle’s membership includes over 600 architects from a 10-county area. Of the 76 projects submitted to this year’s awards program, the Penland School received one of only four Honor Awards. The metal screens received the only Detail Award.

This is the fourth design award for The Penland School, which has received an NCAIA Honor Award, a South Atlantic Region/AIA Merit Award, and was chosen as one of only 10 international projects to receive a Business Week/Architectural Record Award. According to Harmon, the 5500-square-foot structure was designed “to embody the spirit of craft-making by clearly revealing how it was made.” Classes of 12 students use the building to design, fabricate and finishing iron objects ranging from three ounces to three tons.

The AIA Triangle Award is the second honor for Harmon’s metal screens, which he devised to both shade and protect a glass-fronted house he designed along Charleston’s Shem Creek. They also recently received a 2005 “Architectural Objects” Award from Inform, an architectural journal based in Virginia that covers four mid-Atlantic states. Fabricated by Christian Karkow of Raleigh, the screens weigh 800 pounds each yet can be easily manipulated by a single person.

Judges for the 2005 Awards were New Orleans architects Steve Dumez, AIA, and Trey Trahan, AIA, with Reed Kroloff, dean of Tulane University’s School of Architecture.

The awards were presented on April 13 at the Doris Duke Center in Durham. An exhibit of all the entries will be on display at various public venues around the Triangle throughout the year.

For more information on Frank Harmon and these two projects, visit www.frankharmon.com.

Sponsors for this year’s awards program and presentation event were Custom Brick, Adams Products, and Triangle Reprographics, Inc.

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Capitalizing On Conflict: Glass Wall, Harsh Weather Inspire Award-Winning Design

Saturday, August 15th, 2009

March 31, 2005 (RALEIGH, NC) – When Raleigh architect Frank Harmon, FAIA, designed a house along Shem Creek in Charleston’s low country, he faced a serious problem: How could he capitalize on the view of the creek and allow cooling breezes to enter the house, yet protect the creek-side elevation from excessive summer heat and extreme weather conditions, including hurricane-force winds and debris? The solution: A series of 800-pound, hand-fabricated steel screens, designed so that a single person can balance and manipulate them, which recently received a design award from Inform, an architectural journal in Virginia that covers four mid-Atlantic states.

The 10 screens, fabricated by Christian Karkow of Raleigh, are hinged above a porch that fronts the contemporary house’s large, southwest-facing glass wall, and are constructed of metal frames that encase perforated-metal panels commonly used in industrial flooring. Made of hot-dip galvanized steel, they resist the region’s wind-borne, corrosive salt. In their horizontal, or open, position, the screens shade the house in spring and fall. In the vertical position, they protect the glass wall from threatening weather and provide a shaded porch under the fierce summer sun while allowing cooling breezes to enter the house.

Shaped by climate and site, the award-winning screens also recall elements of the house’s physical context, such as the metallic construction of steel boatsheds down the creek and the shading blinds of traditional Charleston Single-House porches. The screens’ color and texture blends with silvery live oaks on the site.

Harmon, who calls the screens “a 21st-century solution to a 400-year-old problem,” received the award in the “architectural objects” category. His screens, along with other winning designs, will appear in the magazine’s May 2005 edition. Inform’s circulation area includes Virginia, West Virginia, Washington D.C. and North Carolina.

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

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