May 16, 2011 (Raleigh, NC) – For the third consecutive year, Frank Harmon

Frank Harmon, FAIA

Architect PA has made Architect magazine’s “Architect 50” list of architectural firms from across the nation, placing 21st.

Architect magazine ranks firms for its annual Architect 50 list based on a composite assessment of the firms’ commitment to sustainability, design quality, and profitability.

“The usual rating of firms by gross billing, number of employees, etc., would not include our firm,” said Frank Harmon, FAIA, principal of Frank Harmon Architect PA. “But when we are rated on design recognition for our clients, sustainability, and financial performance, our firm shows up well.”

“By looking at the whole picture, we’re able to honor not the biggest, but the best,” writes executive editor Amanda Kolson Hurley in the May 2011 edition of the national journal. “The 2011 Architect 50…shows that [architecture] and [architecture/engineering] firms, large and small, can do well in this economy.”

Frank Harmon Architect PA, an intentionally small firm, specializes in modern, sustainable, and regionally appropriate design. Among the firm’s 2010-2011 design awards, its thoroughly “green” Sunday school addition at the Circular Congregational Church in downtown Charleston, SC, received three awards: a national award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture; an AIA NC Honor Award; and an AIA Triangle Honor Award.

Harmon’s firm also received three awards for the Walnut Creek Wetland Center over the past year: an AIA NC Merit Award; an Environmental Design award from the City of Raleigh; and a Sir Walter Award for Community Appearance, also from the City of Raleigh.

The only other North Carolina firm to make the 2011 list is Pearce Brinkley Cease + Lee of Raleigh and Asheville, at 23rd.

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

To see the entire Architect 50 list, go to www.architectmagazine.com.

by Lloyd Alter, Toronto, 03.29.11

Prairie Ridge Outdoor Classroom, Raleigh

DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE

Press releases often take a short trip from my inbox to trash, but the one from Raleigh, NC architect Frank Harmon caught my eye with its title “Architect Frank Harmon Debunks Modern Myths about Sustainable Design.” Known to TreeHugger for his Prairie Ridge Eco-Station, what he calls “myths” are hardly that, but worth repeating anyway…

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March 28, 2011 (Raleigh NC) – Just 10 years ago, sustainable design was trumpeted primarily for its earth-saving, conservation attributes. The use of locally available construction materials, for example, reduced less pollution since trucks didn’t have to haul the materials. And the use of recycled materials meant fewer trees were felled and other natural resources were conserved.

Today, “green design” has moved into the mainstream as architects’ commercial, institutional and even governmental clients recognize the cost savings they receive when their buildings don’t consume as much energy.

Yet myths about sustainable design still pervade public discourse, giving individuals, homebuilders and corporations “excuses” for ignoring the drum beat for sustainable design.

Frank Harmon, FAIA, principal of the award-winning firm Frank Harmon Architect PA in Raleigh, NC, was beating that drum long before “green design” entered the general lexicon. Now a nationally recognized leader in modern, sustainable and regionally appropriate architecture, he continues to bring the principles of sustainability to bear on each and every project his firm undertakes.

When asked recently what he feels are the most common misconceptions about sustainable design, he offered the following along with the reasons why these myths need to be busted for once and for all.

Myth #1: Sustainable buildings require complicated technology and exotic hardware.

Reality: “The most important sustainable decision we can make for any building is its orientation on its site: how it faces the sun for natural daylight, opens to the cooling breezes for natural ventilation, and shelters its inhabitants from cold winter winds,” he said. “Site orientation may be ‘low-tech,’ but it is the key principle of sustainability that many people don’t consider when they think that sustainable design is complicated or exotic. Farmers have always practiced sustainable design for their homes and barns without even knowing they were doing. They had to. It was common sense then. It still is today.”

Myth #2: Sustainable buildings require expensive, unusual materials.

Reality: “Ordinary, locally produced materials, and how we use them without waste, produce sustainable buildings,” Harmon said. “For example, sturdy juniper shingles were a sustainable choice for the cottages built on the Outer Banks. Simple Southern yellow pine is a sustainable choice for a house in Charleston.

“In fact,” he added, “over 75 percent of what makes a building sustainable is contained in its orientation and in its ‘bones – in the materials it is made of. There’s nothing high-tech or unusual about that.”

Myth #3: Sustainable buildings are expensive.

Reality: “Sustainable, eco-friendly buildings cost the same as ‘ordinary’ buildings if we respect materials and orientation,” Harmon insisted. “And the savings in consumption – which means savings in energy costs — are well worth the effort. The use of natural ventilation and light provides considerable savings alone. Now imagine never having to pay for electricity or hot water and dramatically lowering your water bill if you included photovoltaic cells on your roof, a solar hot water heater, and low-flow showers and toilets.”

Myth #4: Sustainable buildings are weird.

Reality: “Far from weird, a sustainable house is light-filled, open to the outdoors, full of fresh air, and made of natural materials,” Harmon said. “Again, some of the buildings our ancestors built, that we cherish today, are sustainable: a low country house, 19th century mill buildings, and old farmhouses. Even Monticello and Mount Vernon are familiar, friendly, and sustaining because they are made of regionally appropriate materials and sited to maximize natural ventilation and day-lighting.”

Myth #5: I can build a sustainable house, office, or school, but it won’t make any difference.

Reality: “Nothing could be farther from the truth,” Harmon said. “Forty percent of the energy used in America today is consumed in buildings. That’s more than the entire transportation system — cars, airplanes, trucks, etc. – put together. Buildings also consume 30 percent of our fresh water and 25 percent of all our wood products. So if you want to make a difference, buildings are the best place to start. And you’ll have a more enjoyable place in which to live, work, and learn because of it.”

For more information on why sustainable design matters, visit www.frankharmon.com.

About Frank Harmon, FAIA:

Frank Harmon, FAIA, principal of Frank Harmon Architect PA in Raleigh, NC, is also a Professor in Practice at NC State University and a frequent speaker at AIA and other design conventions and conferences throughout the US and Canada. In 2010, his firm was ranked 13^th out of the top 50 firms in the nation by Architect magazine and Harmon was included in Residential Architect’s recent “RA 50: The short list of architects we love.” His firm’s work has been featured in numerous books, magazines, journals and ezines on architecture, including ArchDaily.com, Dwell, Architectural Record, Architect, and Residential Architect. For more information, go to www.frankharmon.com.

Project manager Tika Hicks joins the award-winning firm.

manager/designer Tika Hicks of Raleigh has joined the firm’s award-winning team.

Hicks brings 12 years of experience in architectural project management, design and production services to the firm, which includes educational/institutional, commercial and residential projects, as well as historic preservation. Among other notable projects, she was instrumental in the restoration of the modernist Henry Kamphoefner residence and in its subsequent renovation/addition in conjunction with the late North Carolina State University’s College of Design Professor Robert Burns, FAIA.

Born in Chicago, Hicks grew up in Ithaca, New York, and moved to Raleigh in 1989. She attended Pennsylvania State University, where she concentrated in architecture, design and sculpture. She then studied abroad in Florence, Italy, before entering the N.C. State University College of Design, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental Design in Architecture.

Hicks’ previous work experience includes stints with Raleigh firms Kurt Eichenberger, AIA, Richard Hall Associates, Clearscapes, and Cannon Architects, and with the Chapel Hill firm Lucy Carol Davis Architects.

Harmon’s firm’s reputation for innovative, sustainable and regionally appropriate design led Hicks to his office.

“I want to be part of a great team that creates excellent and exciting projects that contribute to the sustainability of the built environment,” she said recently. “A huge part of why I’m here is because I want to work on projects that change and improve the built environment. Frank was ‘green’ before ‘green’ was ‘green.’ I couldn’t be happier to be a part of his team.”

Hicks has already been assigned to work on several of Harmon’s projects that are in design development or construction, including the Shellfish Research Hatchery at UNC-Wilmington, the site plan and new facilities for the Audubon Sanctuary on Pine Island, NC, the United Therapeutics Field House in Durham, and Riverworks in Jacksonville where a former wastewater treatment plant is being converted into an Environmental and Education Center.

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

Raleigh architect will discuss modern, sustainable design in San Antonio

Frank Harmon, FAIA

March 1, 2011 (Raleigh, NC) — Frank Harmon, FAIA, principal of Frank Harmon Architects PA in Raleigh, will be the featured speaker for the AIA Lecture Series in San Antonio, Texas, on March 30, beginning 6 p.m. in the historic Pearl Studio conference center on Grayson Street.

Harmon is a multi-award-winning leader in modern, innovative, sustainable architecture, and frequently lectures on the importance of regionally appropriate architecture – which address the particulars of climate, topography, forms, colors and culture of a region — as a means of creating both environmentally friendly architecture and a sense of place.

“A simple pleasure I enjoy each day is drinking tea from a hand-made bowl,” he explains. “I know that a potter made the bowl, and touching its shape I indirectly touch his or her hands. It’s also possible to imagine the creek bottom where the clay was dug, and the geology that millions of years ago laid down the earthy sediment that I now hold in my fingers. In this way, however small, I feel a connection to the world.

“I believe that one of the primary goals of architecture is to make it possible for people to understand the world around them. If we sense that a building is rooted in the earth and warmed by the sun, that fresh air flows through its windows and its materials are friendly to the touch, then we may feel that the building belongs to its place, and so do we. I’m not certain that architecture, whether a house or town, can always have the friendly familiarity of a hand-thrown clay bowl. But I am certain there is virtue in trying.”

The AIA San Antonio Lecture Series began in 1999 as a collaborative effort between the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the University of Texas at San Antonio. It is now presented independent of the University and focuses on architects’ professional development and continuing education credits.

Harmon’s lecture and all others in the series are free and open to the public. For more information on the entire series, visit www.aiasa.org.

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

Raleigh architect will discuss modern, sustainable, regionally appropriate design in

Frank Harmon, FAIA

Madison, WI.

February 18, 2011 (Raleigh, NC) — Frank Harmon, FAIA, principal of Frank Harmon Architects PA in Raleigh, will be the featured speaker for the Wright Lecture Series in Madison, Wisconsin, on March 10, beginning 7 p.m. in the Monona Terrace Community & Convention Center.

Harmon will also serve as a juror for the AIA Wisconsin Design Awards program.

Frank Harmon is a multi-award-winning leader in modern, innovative, sustainable, and regionally appropriate architecture, and he frequently lectures on the subject “Place Making: America’s New Regionalism.” The AIA Wisconsin lecture will follow a similar presentation he is making at the Dalhousie University School of Architecture in Nova Scotia on February 28.

Both lectures will discuss how regional architecture can produce high-performance, or sustainable, buildings by addressing context, materials, textures, colors and form particular to the region in which they are built, using both traditional and non-traditional methods.

“I believe that one of the primary goals of architecture is to make it possible for people to understand the world around them,” Harmon says. “If we sense that a building is rooted in the earth and warmed by the sun, that fresh air flows through its windows and its materials are friendly to the touch, then we may feel that the building belongs to its place, and so do we.”

The Wright Lecture Series is sponsored by AIA Southwest Wisconsin, the Monona Terrace Community & Convention Center, and the Frank Lloyd Wright Wisconsin Heritage Program.

Harmon’s lecture free and open to the public. For more information on the entire series, visit www.aiaw.org.

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

December 30, 2010 (RALEIGH, NC) –  For the first time in its history, Residential Architect magazine has published its “RA 50: A Short List of Architects We Love.” And Frank Harmon Architect PA of Raleigh, NC, is among them.

According to editor Claire Conroy, “This collection comprises [firms] whose names keep rising to the top.” Along with Harmon’s firm, the list includes such illustrious names as Glenn Murcutt, Brooks-Scarpa Architects, Lake/Flato, and Michelle Kaufman.

Senior editors Nigel Maynard, Cheryl Weber, Meghan Drueding, and Bruce Snider say the RA 50 represents “a broad collection of people who simply – day in and day out – do very good, interesting work.”

Frank Harmon Architect PA is no stranger to Residential Architect’s pages. In 2003, the Taylor Vacation House the firm designed for a couple in the Bahamas was named RA’s House of the Year. In 2005, the firm received the magazine’s Top Firm of the Year accolade.

Since then, founder and principal Frank Harmon, FAIA, has been featured in a number of the magazine’s articles on sustainable, regionally appropriate residential design and construction, and he has been a speaker at RA’s annual “Reinvention” design symposium.

The RA 50 list first appeared in the magazine’s November-December digital version then in print. Harmon’s firm appears on page 30 beside Australian architect Glenn Murcutt, Hon. FAIA. Expanded versions of each architect’s profile will soon be featured on the website www.residentialarchitect.com.

“One of the most exciting things about this is that my firm is featured on the same page as Glenn Murcutt, the most important contemporary architect working today, and a designer from whom I have learned so much,” said Harmon. “I’m also honored simply to be included in the pages of Residential Architect. RA is truly the finest publication on residential design and construction in the nation.”

Residential Architect is an award-winning national magazine focusing exclusively on the residential architecture profession.

“We put this short list together as an end-of-year tribute to this admirable profession,” the editors state.

For more information, visit www.residentialarchitect.com.

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

By Alison Furuto

After two years of planning and waiting for financing, the North Carolina chapter of the American Institute of Architects, designed by Frank Harmon Architect PA, finally held its official, public groundbreaking ceremony for its new headquarters building and design center on Thursday, December 9, at 11:30 a.m.

The building will be constructed on an oddly shaped, previously unused lot on Peace and Wilmington streets between Peace College and the NC Government Complex.  The new building will also be designed to meet LEED standards at the Platinum level. The AIA NC Center for Architecture & Design will be “a modern building with a green heart,” as Frank Harmon, FAIA, likes to call it, whose firm won a professional competition for the project in 2008. More images and project description after the break…

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Future LEED-Platinum building breaks ground in downtown Raleigh.

December 8, 2010 (RALEIGH, NC) – After two years of planning and waiting for financing, the North Carolina chapter of the American Institute of Architects will finally hold its official, public groundbreaking ceremony for its new headquarters building and design center on Thursday, December 9, at 11:30 a.m. The building will be constructed on an oddly shaped, previously unused lot on Peace and Wilmington streets between Peace College and the NC Government Complex.

Designed by Frank Harmon Architect PA after the firm won a professional competition for the project in 2008, the AIA NC Center for Architecture & Design will be “a modern building with a green heart,” as Frank Harmon, FAIA, likes to call it.

The building has been designed to meet LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards at the highest Platinum level, and AIA Committee On The Environment (COTE) goals, which include regional appropriateness and the use of regionally available materials, land use and site ecology, sustainable materials and methods of construction, reduced water usage, and increased energy efficiency.

“As we come out of the recession, we won’t be building in the same wasteful ways,” Harmon said. “With new emphasis on alternative energy and sustainable design, the AIA NC Center will show us a new way to build.”

Harmon also believes the Center will be a compelling example for responsible revitalization of the cores of towns and cities across the state, including Raleigh.

“It will demonstrate sustainable urban development and put Raleigh ‘on the map’ as a leader in this endeavor,” he noted, “from re-using every shovel of earth removed for the footprint, to the porously paved parking garden and state-of-the-art ‘green’ technology.”

Deferring to the natural topography, the new building will be situated along the edge of the property and porously paved so that the majority of the site will be park-like – a public park in an area of the city that doesn’t have one. This will provide an outdoor gathering space for AIA NC and community events and effectively expand AIA NC’s outreach program.

“One of AIA NC’s goals is to contribute to the vitality of that section of downtown by transforming an awkward, unused piece of property into a ‘people center’ that will, in turn, impact the businesses around it,” Harmon said.

Architecturally, the overriding objective of the building’s concept is “to demonstrate and encourage aesthetic and ecological integrity – to create a flagship for green architecture in North Carolina that is architecturally, environmentally, socially, and aesthetically inspiring,” Harmon said.

Construction should be completed in 10-12 months.

For more information on the building’s design, visit www.frankharmon.com/current/3/. For more information on AIA NC, visit www.aianc.org.

By J. Michael Welton  

When it breaks ground on its new headquarters building in downtown Raleigh on Dec. 9, the North Carolina chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA NC) also will be deploying three essential tools needed to scale this cliff-like economic downturn known as the Great Recession.

They are vision, courage and leadership.

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