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.

Harmon’s seminar, entitled  “Architects Discuss America’s New Regionalism,” will identify principles of innovative regional architecture. The purpose of the seminar is to help architects across the nation learn how to: (1) discover the many influences a building derives from its region, from overall design to construction details; (2) identify methods for combining traditional building components and techniques to create new, sustainable buildings; (3) analyze systems for designing comfortable buildings that minimize damage to the environment and maximize the enjoyment of light, air, color, texture, and patterns; (4) comprehend public perception of regionally appropriate design; and (5) evaluate techniques for achieving design excellence on limited budgets.

Internationally acclaimed architects and educators Rick Joy, Tom Kundig and Lawrence Scarpa will join Harmon for the seminar and, along with Harmon, use their own work to demonstrate “America’s New Regionalism.”

Frank Harmon was educated at N.C. State University and the Architectural Association in London. His registration includes the N.C. Board of Architecture), the National Council or Architectural Registration Boards, the State of New York, and Architects Registration Council of the United Kingdom . His profession experience includes working with the firm McMinn, Norfleet & Wicker of Greensboro, NC (1968-70) and Richard Meier & Associates, New York (1970-73). He was a principal in the firm Harmon & Simeloff RIBA in London from 1974-79, before founding his current firm in Raleigh, NC. He has served as a Visiting Critic at Columbia University, the University of Toronto, the University of Virginia, UNC-Charlotte, the University of Liverpool, and Cambridge University. Besides N.C. State, he has also taught at the Architectural Association and Auburn University.

Harmon’s work, which ranges from small sheds to 70,000-square-foot corporate headquarters, has won more AIA/NC awards than any other firm in the state and has been published in many national and regional periodicals and books. Recently, his firm was been named Top Firm Of The Year by Residential Architect magazine. In 2004 he received a Sustainable Business Award for his design for the N.C. Botanical Garden Visitors Center in Chapel Hill, and a Business Week/Architectural Record International Honor Award for his design of the Blacksmith Studio at the Penland School of Arts & Crafts, Penland, NC. In 1995, Harmon received N.C. State’s Kamphoefner Prize For Distinguished Design Over A Ten-Year Period. In 1988, Time magazine selected his Utility Storage Building for a garden center in Raleigh as one of the “Ten Best Designs” of the year.

Harmon is a veteran awards judge and speaker at regional and national design conferences, and an accomplished writer. His writing on architectural issues has been published in numerous periodicals including the September 2004 edition of the international Docomomo Journal. For more information, go to www.frankharmon.com.