modern | green | sustainable architecture
“From site, client, and experience, Frank Harmon spins a highly specific, easy-living modernism.” - Vernon Mays, Residential Architect magazine
The Marguerite Kent Repass Ocean Conservation Center (OCC) is located in Beaufort, North Carolina, at the Duke University Marine Laboratory. The building was designed by the office of Frank Harmon Architect PA and is a stellar example of merging the built structure with the site. Read more…
July 2, 2009 (RALEIGH, NC) – Duke University’s only LEED Gold-certified building – the Ocean Conservation Center in Beafort, NC – is featured in a case study in this month’s Environmental Design + Conservation, a professional journal and premier source for integrated high-performance building dedicated to efficient and sustainable design and construction.
Designed by award-winning architect Frank Harmon, FAIA, of Raleigh, North Carolina, the 5600-square-foot, state-of-the-art teaching facility is the Marguerite Kent Repass Ocean Conservation Center at the Duke University Marine Laboratory. It includes a teaching laboratory, a 48-seat lecture hall with advanced teleconferencing and videoconferencing capabilities to connect to classrooms and research labs around the globe, interpretive educational displays, and spaces for social interactions overlooking Beaufort Channel.
The case study, entitled “ Beacon for Sustainability,” discusses how the building’s form directly responds to its location and allows it to maximize natural ventilation and lighting. The study also delineates the building’s other green features, including photovoltaic rooftop panels for converting sunlight into electricity, a solar hot water system and high-efficiency ground-coupled heat pumps, and the use of recycled and local materials wherever possible.
Since 1997, Environmental + Design Construction has supported progressive architects, designers, specifying engineers and building developers who enhance the sustainability of new and existing buildings. For more information, visit www.edcmag.com. To read the entire online version of the OCC study, click on “Article Rotation.”
In March of this year, the OCC received a Wood Design Award: Green Building Category from WoodWorks-Southeast, a division of the Wood Products Council of North America for non-residential construction.
Frank Harmon, FAIA, is the founder and principal of Frank Harmon Architect PA in Raleigh, NC, and a recognized national leader in modern, innovative and regionally appropriate sustainable architecture. For more information, visit www.frankharmon.com.
March 2, 2009 (BEAUFORT, NC) – Duke University’s Ocean Conservation Center (OCC) at the Marine Lab in Beaufort, N.C., designed by Frank Harmon Architect PA of Raleigh, NC, recently received a Wood Design Award: Green Building Category from WoodWorks-Southeast, a division of the Wood Products Council of North America for non-residential construction.
“Wood contributes to building high performance by reducing energy use, resource use, pollution and overall environmental impact,” according to WoodWorks’ website. “Entries in the green building category should demonstrate how some or all of these principles have been applied in the building’s design and construction.
The 5,600-square-foot OCC is Duke’s only LEED Gold certified building and one of only about 1700 LEED rated projects in the United States. Presented by the U.S. Green Building Council, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is the national benchmark for high performance “green” buildings.
Harmon used local building materials — yellow Southern pine and Atlantic white cedar — and recycled wood throughout the Ocean Conservation Center. The wood-shingled exterior complements the coastal context.
Other “green” features include photovoltaic cells, geothermal heating and cooling, solar panels for hot water, photovoltaic rooftop panels for converting sunlight into electricity, an abundance of operable windows for natural lighting and ventilation, deep roof overhangs to keep the sun off the windows, permeable sidewalks, a zinc roof designed to last 100 years and to reflect heat, and native landscaping.
Frank Harmon has designed many LEED-certified buildings, including the Botanical Gardens Visitors Center nearing completion now at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. It was designed to receive LEED Platinum certification, the highest level in the certification program. For more information, visit www.frankharmon.com.
The annual WoodWorks-South competition is open to designers, firms and building projects in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. The award ceremony was held February 24 at the Wood Solutions Fair in Raleigh.
WoodWorks is an initiative of the Wood Products Council, a cooperative venture of all the major wood associations in North America, as well as research organizations and government agencies. For more information visit www.woodworks.org.
November 25, 2008 (RALEIGH, NC) – Duke University’s Ocean Conservation Center at the Marine Lab in Beaufort, N.C., designed by Frank Harmon Architect PA of Raleigh, has been awarded the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Gold certification, Duke’s Office of News & Communications reported today.
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is the national benchmark for high performance “green” buildings.
The 5,600-square-foot Center in Beaufort is Duke’s only LEED Gold certified building, Harmon was able to design it to that standard of environmental responsibility and conservation thanks to a grant from the Wallace Genetic Foundation.
Completed in 2006, the Ocean Conservation Center uses geothermal pumps for heating and cooling, solar panels for hot water, and photovoltaic rooftop panels for converting sunlight into electricity. Harmon used local building materials (yellow southern pine and Atlantic white cedar) and recycled wood throughout the structure.
Other eco-friendly features include an abundance of operable windows for natural lighting and ventilation, deep roof overhangs to keep the sun off the windows, permeable sidewalks, a zinc roof designed to last 100 years and to reflect heat, and native landscaping.
The center houses a teaching laboratory, a 48-seat lecture hall with advanced teleconferencing and videoconferencing capabilities to connect to classrooms and research labs around the globe, and a glass-enclosed commons area.
Frank Harmon has designed many LEED-certified buildings, including the Botanical Gardens Visitors Center under construction now at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. He designed that building to receive LEED Platinum certification, the highest level in the certification program.
For more information on Frank Harmon and his work, visit www.frankharmon.com.
For more information on Duke’s Ocean Conservation Center, visit www.nicholas.duke.edu.
October 10, 2006 (RALEIGH, NC) – Frank Harmon, FAIA, principal of Frank Harmon Architect PA in Raleigh, has been selected to design up to three oyster hatchery facilities and/or oyster research and education facilities along the coast for the North Carolina Aquarium Division.
Harmon will also work with the Division to design educational exhibits on the oyster hatchery program at each of the three state aquariums: Fort Fisher, Pine Knoll Sores, and Roanoke Island.
According to the N.C. Aquarium Division, the current plan is to establish two hatcheries that will produce 1 to 3 billion eyed larvae each and one research facility that will produce from 10-20 million eyed larvae. The facilities will include demonstration sites accessible for public tours and programs, and may be used to produce other aquatic species.
Joining Harmon as a consultant for the project is Dr. Stephen Cofer-Shabica, a coastal scientist based in Charleston, S.C., who has worked in coastal environmental research and consulting as a research oceanographer and resource manager with the federal government for 24 years.
Frank Harmon has extensive experience with projects that blend architecture with enhancement of and education about natural resources, including Duke University’s Ocean Science Teaching Center in Beaufort, NC, which will open in November. His firm also designed the Walter B. Jones Center for the Sounds and Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in Columbia, NC, and the NC Museum of Natural Sciences’ Prairie Ridge Eco-Station. The firm is currently working on Merchants Millpond Outdoor Educational building in Gatesville, N.C., and the Walnut Creek Urban Wetlands Educational Park in Raleigh.
For more information on Frank Harmon, visit www.frankharmon.com.