NC State University | frank harmon architect pa

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

AECCafe.com: JC Raulston Arboretum Lath House at North Carolina State University by Frank Harmon Architect PA

Saturday, September 24th, 2011

September 24th, 2011 by Sumit Singhal

The eight-acre JC Raulston Arboretum is a nationally acclaimed garden with the most diverse collection of cold-hardy temperate zone plants in the southeastern United States. As part of North Carolina State University’s Department of Horticultural Science, the Arboretum is primarily a working research and teaching garden that focuses on the evaluation, selection and display of plant material gathered from around the world. Plants especially adapted to conditions in the Piedmont region of North Carolina are identified in an effort to find better plants for southern landscapes.

The Arboretum needed an open-air lath structure to replace the existing dilapidated shade house adjacent to a Japanese garden. Conceived of as an open-air laboratory for experimental horticultural techniques and methods, and designed as an abstract of a tree spreading its branches to protect the plants, the new pro bono structure will fulfill the specific light-to-shade ratio needed for the plants in the spring, using a screen of wooden two-by-twos…

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Tags: Frank Harmon, JC Raulston Arboretum, Lath House, NC State University
Posted in Media Recognition |

Frank Harmon Architect PA Wins High Award For Simple Project

Thursday, September 15th, 2011

JC Raulston Arboretum Lath House at NC State University wins AIA NC Honor Award.

September 15, 2011 (Raleigh, NC) – Frank Harmon Architect PA has received a 2011 Honor Award from the North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA NC) for the firm’s design of North Carolina State University’s JC Raulston Arboretum Lath House in Raleigh.

The Lath House received one of only two Honor Awards presented this year, and it was a pro bono project for Harmon’s firm as a gift to the Arboretum.

The Lath House is an open-air laboratory for horticultural research. Its screen of wood two-by-twos fulfills the specific light-to-shade ratio young plants need before they transition into the larger gardens.

According to the firm’s principal, Frank Harmon, FAIA, the structure was designed as an abstract of a tree that spreads its branches to protect the plants.

The Lath House replaced an older structure that sheltered approximately 700 young and tender plants that perform best in shade. The new structure may provide space for 1000 new plantings.

The 10 and a half-acre JC Raulston Arboretum is a nationally acclaimed garden with one of the largest and most diverse collections of plants, shrubs and trees adapted for use in Southeastern landscapes from over 50 different countries. Plants are collected and evaluated in an effort to find superior plants for use in southern gardens. The Lath House is a key element in the arboretum’s work.

“Over the last three decades, the JC Raulston Lath House has nurtured some of the most successful plants for use in Southern gardens, including hostas, ferns, hydrangea and rhododendron,” Harmon said. “We were honored to be a part of the Arboretum’s mission by designing the new Lath House.”

Will Lambeth, a former member of Harmon’s design team who left to attend Harvard University, served on the design team for the Lath House, which received a Merit Award this summer from the Triangle section of AIA NC and has been published at ArchDaily.com.

Harmon’s firm is known for designing projects that celebrate plant life, such as the cluster of buildings for the NC Botanical Gardens Visitors Education Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Walnut Creek Wetlands Education Center in Raleigh, and the NC Museum of Natural Science’s open-air classroom at the Prairie Ridge Eco-station, also in Raleigh. For more information visit www.frankharmon.com.

Tags: AIA North Carolina, JC Raulston Arboretum, NC State University
Posted in Press Releases |

Frank Harmon Architect PA Completes New Lath House for JC Raulston Arboretum

Wednesday, October 27th, 2010

The new structure will help young plants transition to the gardens.

October 27, 2010 (RALEIGH, NC) – Frank Harmon Architect PA, an award-winning firm located in Raleigh, NC, well-known for designing projects that showcase and celebrate plant life, has completed the design and construction of the new Lath House at the JC Raulston Arboretum at NC State University in Raleigh.

The ten and one half-acre JC Raulston Arboretum is a nationally acclaimed garden with one of the largest and most diverse collections of plants, shrubs and trees adapted for use in Southeastern landscapes from over 50 different countries. Plants are collected and evaluated in an effort to find superior plants for use in southern gardens. Every October since the early 1990s, the JC Raulston Arboretum gives away literally thousands of rare and choice plants it has cultivated during its Friends of the Arboretum Plant Distribution event.

The Lath House is a key element within the Arboretum’s work. An open-air laboratory for horticultural research, the original structure sheltered approximately 700 young and tender plants that perform best in shade as they transition towards planting in larger gardens. The new lath house may provide space for 1000 new plantings.

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Tags: Frank Harmon FAIA, JC Raulston Arboretum, NC State University
Posted in Press Releases |

Leaving The Land Better Than We Find It: Frank Harmon Takes His Message To Idea Exchange

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

February 2, 2010 (RALEIGH, NC) — For three decades, Frank Harmon, FAIA, principal of Frank Harmon Architect PA in Raleigh, has insisted that architecture can and should do more than produce buildings, especially since conservation of energy and natural resources has become imperative. It should also make a didactic contribution, he says, demonstrating the best use of the land by responding to, respecting, and conserving the site; integrating building and landscape; and promoting both passive and technological sustainable design principles.

Harmon, a multi-award winning architect and frequent speaker at seminars and symposia on design, will again make his case for sustainable building and development at the Center for Design Innovation in Winston-Salem, NC, when he participates in the CDI’s Idea Exchange on Tuesday, February 16, from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

CDI is a multi-campus research center for the statewide University of North Carolina. According to its website, the Idea Exchange is “a public forum for considering creative processes, digital techniques, business strategies, and other interests related to developing the knowledge economy of North Carolina’s Piedmont region.”

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Tags: Center for Design Innovation, green architecture, land conservation, modern architecture, NC State University, sustainable design
Posted in Press Releases |

Frank Harmon To Deliver Special Lecture at NC State University

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

January 28, 2010 (RALEIGH, NC) – Frank Harmon, FAIA, will deliver the annual Harwell Hamilton Harris Lecture on February 15 at 7 p.m. in the Burns Auditorium of Kamphoefner Hall at North Carolina State University’s College of Design in Raleigh.

Sponsored by the College of Design and the Triangle section of the American Institute of Architects/North Carolina, the annual lecture is endowed by the estate of the renowned architect Harwell Hamilton Harris, FAIA (1903-1990) who served on the faculty of NC State’s College of Design from 1962 to 1975.

Frank Harmon is a fellow of the American Institute of Architecture and a Professor in Practice at the College of Design. He is the founder and principal of Frank Harmon Architect PA, a multi-award-winning, LEED AP, green architecture firm established in 1985. He was also a close friend of Harris for many years, and he credits Harris with steering his design sensibilities towards modern, innovative and regionally appropriate design.

In 2005, when Harmon’s firm was named Top Firm of the Year by Residential Architect magazine, he told writer Vernon Mays, “[Harwell Harris] taught me that every client and every situation is different and new. And it is the architect’s job to understand the needs of every situation and every client. He loved to say that the house is a portrait of the client.”

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Tags: Frank Lloyd Wright, Harwell Hamilton Harris, lectures, NC State University, Richard Neutra
Posted in Press Releases |