awards and news

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

Raleigh Architect’s Office To Participate In Educational Event at Prairie Ridge Eco-station

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

May 11, 2009 (RALEIGH, NC) – Will Lambeth and Tim Martin, architectural interns at Frank Harmon Architect PA in Raleigh, will be on hand at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science’s Prairie Ridge Eco-Station in Raleigh on Thursday, May 14, to help the middle- and high-school members of the Citizen Science Investigators Club discover what makes a building “green.”

Prairie Ridge is a hands-on teaching and extension project located on a diverse 38-acre site on the edge of Raleigh. Its mission is to educating North Carolinians of all ages about the natural sciences and the importance of environmental stewardship.  and demonstrate how architecture can enhance the natural environment.

Lambeth and Martin will discuss the many sustainable features of Prairie Ridge’s award-winning Outdoor Classroom, which was designed by Frank Harmon’s firm not only to provide a learning space at the eco-station but also to demonstrate environmental sustainability through its design and construction.

The interns will help the club’s students understand how architecture can tread lightly on the natural environment and conserve energy in the process.

Among the many “green” features of the classroom, including construction materials, Lambeth and Martin will discuss Harmon’s decision about site orientation and how that impacted the classroom’s eco-friendly design. They will note that the wooden building’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.

Prairie Ridge sponsors the Citizen Science Investigators Club with middle and high school students. According to Brian F. Hahn, a natural resource specialist at Prairie Ridge, the students are very interested in green technology so that will be the total focus of the May 14 session. The architectural interns’ presence “will also expose the students to other career opportunities they may be interested in,” he added.

For more information on the Prairie Ridge Eco-Station, go to www.naturalsciences.org/prairie-ridge-ecostation.

The Outdoor Classroom has received two design awards and has been featured in two national architectural journals. For more information on the project and on Frank Harmon Architect PA, visit www.frankharmon.com.

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NC Architect Frank Harmon Featured In Dwell Magazine

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

November 27, 2007 (RALEIGH, NC) – Dwell, one of the nation’s leading monthly magazines covering modern architecture and design, has devoted its December-January “Conversation” section to Raleigh, NC-based architect Frank Harmon, FAIA.

Entitled “Let’s Be Frank,” the section is a Q&A-format discussion between writer Frances Anderton and Harmon. It addresses the architect’s decades-long work as a modern, “green” designer and how his approach to this sensibility is informed by regionalism: the vernacular specifics of site and climate.

“Harmon hews to the notion that a structure should be specific to its place in terms of materials and its relationships to geography and climate,” Anderton writes. The architect stresses, however, that “I am not interested in vernacular to be sentimental. I am interested in what it can teach us. All vernacular architecture is sustainable.”

Harmon answers questions about his influences (including the late Harwell Hamilton Harris, FAIA), professional evolution (from renowned architect Richard Meier’s New York office to his own firm, Frank Harmon Architect), and the “current green awareness,” as Anderton puts it.

Of the latter, Harmon offers: “I’ve been doing green stuff for 25 years, and over that time I’ve had to educate my clients, and that has been very difficult. Today they all come to me and want something sustainable.”

Projects featured with the “Conversation” include the Open-Air Classroom at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science’s Prairie Ridge Eco-station in Raleigh, the Strickland-Ferris house in Raleigh’s Laurel Hills subdivision, and the Taylor vacation house in the Bahamas.

The December-January edition of Dwell is available on newsstands now. For more information on the magazine, visit www.dwell.com.

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

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New Pavilion For Prairie Ridge Eco-station Protects Garden, Visitors, Environment

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

September 23, 2007 (RALEIGH, NC) – Wildlife and wildlife habitat demonstration gardens have a fundamental problem: the former wants to eat the latter.

That was the case at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science’s Prairie Ridge Ecostation for Wildlife & Learning, where deer and other critters were enjoying the native plants in the garden a bit too much. To solve the problem, Frank Harmon, FAIA, the architect for all other structures at Prairie Ridge, gave two young interns in his Raleigh office a challenge: Design a small (300 square-foot) pavilion with improved deer fencing that would (1) serve as a gateway to the garden without obstructing the view of the prairie beyond, (2) provide shelter for visitors during inclement weather, (3) demonstrate principles of sustainable design that future structures on the site will emulate, and (4) do it all in such a simple, straightforward manner that visitors can see how they might recreate something similar back home.

And since Frank Harmon is known for teaching design from the inside out, he gave the future architects one more challenge: Whatever they designed, they also would build.

One long summer later, the Prairie Ridge pavilion at 4301 Reedy Creek Road is almost ready to welcome visitors to the new, relocated habitat demonstration garden.

‘”The first thing we proposed was to shrink the garden to a more manageable size,” said intern David Cole, 26, who worked with fellow intern Will Lambeth, 21, on the project, “and to locate it where the pavilion could serve as a gathering point for visitors on self-guided tours.”

For the new location, Cole and Lambeth designed a pressure-treated wood structure with steel tie member that includes an 8-foot by 16-foot platform covered by a sloping 22-foot by 14-foot “green” or vegetated roof. A pair of large, sliding doors, which close the pavilion up at night, and new plastic deer fencing around the garden protect the plants by keeping the critters out.

The green roof also serves as an experiment for a larger version that will be used on the future Prairie Ridge Lodge, a 40-student residential dormitory with housing for teachers and visiting researchers, a large multi-purpose room, a wet lab, staff offices, and site exhibits. Like Harmon’s first structure at Prairie Ridge – the award-winning Open Air Classroom — the lodge will demonstrate the symbiotic relationship between built and natural environments by embracing “green,” or sustainable building technology, which produces buildings that are as healthy for the environment as they are for the people who use them.

Covered in plant materials native to the Prairie Ridge site, the pavilion’s roof will feed a rainwater collection cistern. Yet despite the roof’s weight – over 20,000 pounds, according to the interns – the edge greeting visitors is tapered thin to protect the view of the prairie.

“Protection was a recurring theme throughout the project,” Cole noted. “The pavilion and fence protect the garden, the pavilion protects visitors from rain or hot summer sun, the green roof and cisterns help protect and conserve the natural water supply, and the thinness of the roof edge protects the view.”

Cole and Lambeth, joined Frank Harmon Architect this spring. Originally from Charlotte, NC, Cole moved to Raleigh in 1999 to pursue a master’s degree in architecture at North Carolina State University’s College of Design. Lambeth, a Greensboro native, is a rising senior at NCSU.

“This is the best place I could ask to be,” Lambeth said about his position in the firm. “I love Frank’s work. There’s such substance in it, rather than just flash. I also like the size of his office, and I enjoy the types of scales he works in. All of his projects are very client-based.”

The Museum of Natural Science has announced “We’re Growing Again” on its website, and is inviting the public to “visit us and watch the progress of this exciting project.”

For more information on Prairie Ridge, visit www.naturalsciences.org/prairieridge.

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

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Little Classroom On The Prairie Gets Big National Attention

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

November 2006 (RALEIGH, NC) – The North Carolina Museum of Natural Science’s open-air classroom at Prairie Ridge Eco-Station in Raleigh, designed by Frank Harmon, FAIA, is currently featured in two prestigious design journals: Architectural Record of New York and Wood Design & Building, a publication of the Canadian Wood Council.

The outdoor classroom is the first phase of a multi-phased outreach project for the museum designed to foster an appreciation for the state’s natural resources and natural diversity.

“As Harmon realized,” writes Architectural Record’s Sarah Amelar, “his building needed to be a teaching tool: a structure that would not only respond to this landscape, but also embody lessons about sustainability.” She applauds the structure as “unpretentious” and notes that it “provides a remarkably comfortable space, like ship’s deck projecting into the landscape.”

Wood Design & Building praised the project’s “ecological design [which] extends from the natural landscape to inspire learning… As light changes  naturally during the progression of the seasons…so does the atmosphere of the room’s interior, making it a diary of the seasons.”

Harmon, principal of Frank Harmon Architect PA, is quick to credit his client for the popularity of the project.

“No architect – especially one committed to sustainable design – could ask for a better client than director Betsy Bennett and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences,” he said recently, “who not only never wavered from the commitment to sustainable design but demanded it. We were encouraged to push the limit of architecture as environmental steward.”

The project team included engineers Isaac Panzarella and Tim Martin, landscape designer David Swanson, and general contractor Buildsense, Inc.

The magazine coverage comes on the heels of five design awards for this little project. In 2005, the pavilion received awards from the North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA/NC) and Triangle Business Journal’s annual EDGE awards program. This year, the project received design awards from AIA/NC’s Triangle section, the Virginia AIA’s Inform Architectural Journal, and the Canadian Wood Council’s Wood Design Awards Program.

Harmon’s firm is currently working on phase two of the project, which will include the Prairie Ridge Lodge, a 40-student residential dormitory that will also feature housing for teachers and visiting researchers; a large multi-purpose room; a wet lab; staff offices; and site exhibits. Like the open air pavilion, the new facility will demonstrate “the symbiotic relationship between built and natural environments,” Harmon said, “by embracing ‘green,’ or sustainable building technology, which produces buildings that are as healthy for the environment as they are for the people who use them.”

For more information on Prairie Ridge, visit Harmon’s website, www.frankharmon.com, or the museum’s: www.naturalsciences.org/prairieridge.

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Frank Harmon To Design NC Oyster Hatchery Facilities

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

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.

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Frank Harmon Donates Design Services For Kiosk at Prairie Ridge

Saturday, August 15th, 2009

May 1, 2006 (RALEIGH, NC) – Frank Harmon, FAIA, principal of Frank Harmon Architect PA in Raleigh, has volunteered to donate design services for an informational kiosk to be built at the Prairie Ridge Eco-Station for Wildlife & Learning, an extension and teaching center of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh.

Harmon’s firm was retained in 2003 to design Prairie Ridge, a phased project located on an ecologically diverse 38-acre site in Raleigh. The eco-station’s purpose is to foster an appreciation for North Carolina’s natural resources and natural diversity, and to demonstrate how architecture can enhance the natural environment. The center serves as a hands-on teaching center for visitors of all ages, including school teachers and students. The first phase has included the site’s master plan, restoration of the native piedmont prairie, and an open-air classroom.

The classroom was designed and built using “green” building technology and principles. For example, a large south-facing overhang maximizes sun exposure in the winter and shade in the summer while catching the southwesterly breeze year round. On a typical July day, with an outside temperature of 100 degrees (F) and relative humidity at 80 percent, the inside temperature in the classroom is 80 degrees (F).

Completed in 2004, the classroom has already received two design awards in 2005: one from the North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and another in Triangle Business Journal’s annual EDGE awards for “project that best exemplifies environmental sensitivity.”

Harmon’s informational kiosk will echo the design and construction sensitivities of the open-air classroom.

The second phase of the Prairie Ridge Eco-Station will further develop the master plan and finish the construction documents for a 40-student residential dorm, a large meeting hall/classroom, a wet lab, housing for a visiting researcher, and site exhibits.

For more information on the Prairie Ridge project and on Frank Harmon, visit www.frankharmon.com.

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Frank Harmon Receives 32nd and 33rd Design Awards

Saturday, August 15th, 2009

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.

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