Juli LeonardNew York State of Mind
Frank Harmon, FAIA, founder of the multi-award-winning firm Frank Harmon Architect of
Raleigh, recently served on the 2024 Design Jury for the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA NY).
This honor is nothing new for Harmon. Throughout his 50-year career, he has chaired and/or served as a jurist for a host of AIA-sanctioned design awards programs across the United States.
AIA New York’s annual Design Awards program “recognizes outstanding architectural design by AIA New York members, New York City-based architects in any location, and work in New York City by architects around the globe.”
The winners were announced January 8 at the AIA NY Center for Architecture in New York City’s West Village. Among the winners was Thomas Phifer & Partners, the New York firm that designed the NC Museum of Art’s celebrated West Building. (To see all the 2024 winners, click here.)
Distinguished Speaker: Clemson’s Spring Lecture Series Includes Frank Harmon
Frank Harmon, FAIA | Photo by Will Harmon
When Clemson University’s School of Architecture announced its 2024 Spring Lecture Series recently, Raleigh-based architect, author, and educator Frank Harmon, FAIA, appeared as one of the distinguished speakers. He will address participants in the Clemson Design Center, which is located in the Cigar Factory on East Bay in Charleston, SC, on April 3 at 12:30 p.m.
The Series’ theme is “The Third Place,” referring to spaces for socialization separate from the usual environments of home and work, such as churches, community centers, neighborhood bars, and coffee shops. It will examine how the disruption of social, political, and economic structure is reframing society’s relationships with traditional third places.
The series will also discuss the intersection of identity, cultural expression, and social interaction, along with the impact gentrification, displacement, and creative production have on communities.
Frank Harmon has been a professor of architecture at the NC State University College of Design for three decades. He has also taught at the Architectural Association in London and served as a visiting critic at Harvard, the University of Virginia, and Auburn University’s Rural Studio.
Clemson’s School of Architecture Spring Lecture Series will be streamed on Zoom. The lectures are free and open to the public. For details, including how to attend via Zoom, CLICK HERE.
Global Digital Journal “Rethinking The Future” Adds Frank Harmon Projects to its Design Studio Portfolios
The AIANC Center for Architecture & Design in downtown Raleigh, NC. (Photo by Tim Hursley)
Frank Harmon Architects – 15 Iconic Projects
by RTF staff
Frank Harmon Architects [sic] is a design studio of architects and designers known for their place-specific approach towards architecture to create universal impacts. Founded in 1983 by Frank Harmon, the studio is recognised as a maker of modern, sustainable, innovative, and regionally appropriate designs fulfilling contemporary needs. From private residences to major museums and wood design to sustainability, the studio has served as a great contributor to regional architecture. Frank Harmon believes in designing a building that draws people together and brings a sense of community among its people instead of designing to stand out.
Here are the 15 projects by Frank Harmon Architects that present a blend of modernism and regionalism in their architecture…
CLICK HERE to see all 15 projects.
Online Now: “A South Forty” in Venice — Exhibition Board & Essay
Screengrab from the digital exhibition
All of the architects featured in the Venice Biennale’s tribute to contemporary architecture in the American South received an Exhibition Board for displaying photographs of select projects. The Boards also feature essays, written by the architects, that they feel capture the essence of their design sensibilities.
Digital versions of the Exhibition Boards are available online. To see Frank Harmon’s Board and read his essay — which includes a quote from a lecture by his mentor, Harwell Hamilton Harris — click HERE
Essay teaser: “A simple pleasure I enjoy each day is drinking tea from a hand-made bowl…”
Frank Harmon, his buildings and principles, are on display now in the exhibition “A SOUTH FORTY: Contemporary Architecture and Design in the American South” in Venice, Italy
“Across the architectural profession, Frank Harmon, FAIA, is the face of North Carolina architecture…[He] has brought to a national audience a glimpse of the unique character and architectural culture of his home state.”
Architect Jeffrey Lee, FAIA, wrote that assessment in his letter to nominate Frank for the 2013 NCAIA Gold Medal. This year, Frank and the work he produced in his former firm Frank Harmon Architect (he is now retired) are included in a special exhibition coinciding with the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale entitled “A SOUTH FORTY: Contemporary Architecture and Design in the American South.” The exhibition is installed in the Great Hall at Palazzo Mora in Venice, Italy.
The Venice Biennale, Italian Società di Cultura la Biennale di Venezia, is an international art exhibition featuring architecture, visual arts, cinema, dance, music, and theater. It is held in the Castello district of Venice every two years during the summer. On the preview days, 25,000 artists, collectors, curators, museum directors, and journalists attend, followed by 600,000 visitors in the months after.
The Fay Jones School of Architecture & Design at the University of Arkansas, along with the literary journal Oxford American and modus studio in Fayetteville, AR, organized A SOUTH FORTY “to provide an overview of the current vitality of contemporary architecture and design in the American South…” by looking at the work and principles of architects who practice in the region.”
The criteria for a regional architect’s work to be included in the exhibition reads like a brief narrative of Frank’s projects and the principles that guided him: “…place-based design, attentive to the necessities of climate, materials, labor, and purpose, but also attentive to overlooked or undervalued typologies, constituencies, and locales.”
Awakening
Frank credits his friend and mentor, the late Harwell Hamilton Harris, with his professional osmosis from a modernist architect to a modern regionalist architect who embraces the environmentally sustainable principle of designing houses and buildings based on the context, customs, climate, geology, geography, and topography in a particular region. Regionally appropriate structures use regionally practical materials and feature elements specific to climatic needs.
Harris moved to Raleigh from California in 1962 to teach at NC State University’s School of Design (now College of Design). According to Frank, Harwell taught his students that the most important assets of a region are “its free minds, its imagination, its stake in the future, its energy, and, last of all, its climate, its topography, and the particular kind of sticks and stones it has to build with.”
Frank, in turn, has shared this wisdom with his own architecture students at NC State (some are included in the Venice exhibition), with interns and staff in his former firm, and with fellow practitioners through multiple seminars at state, regional, and national AIA conventions.
From his book Native Places: Drawing as a Way to See — Frank’s sketch of an old barn in Deltaville, VA.
Along with Harwell Harris’s influence, Frank credits his study of vernacular architecture, especially old barns and farmhouses throughout the rural South, with his dedication to sustainable, regionally appropriate design. “I’ve learned more about architecture from studying old barns than I ever did in a classroom,” he tells his audiences.
A prime example of his regionally appropriate methodology is the multi-award-winning Iron Studio that Frank designed for the Penland School of Arts & Crafts in the North Carolina mountains in 2000. That project was featured in Architectural Record in 2014 and is showcased in A SOUTH FORTY.
The Venice Biennale runs through November 21. For more information, click here.
To see a full gallery of Frank’s work, visit www.frankharmon.com.
Webinar Proposal + CE Credits: “Native Places – Drawing as a Way to See” with Frank Harmon, FAIA
“I find my sense of hope and possibility renewed in these simple, evocative drawings and the wisdom that accompanies them.” – Marlon Blackwell, FAIA, AIA 2020 Gold Medalist
Celebrated architect and author Frank Harmon, FAIA wants to change the way we see. That’s why he started his online journal Native Places.org six years ago and, more recently, created his book, Native Places: Drawing as a Way to See.
Frank now offers a webinar free of charge to AIA Chapters. The webinar is about drawing, writing, and the making of architecture. Its goal is to inspire architects by offering a sense of hope and possibility in the closely observed world outside our window.
“Frank Harmon FAIA delighted our audience with inspired thinking while sharing easy tips to challenge the way we see the world.” — Scott Clowney, director of public programs, AIA Washington, D.C.
What, When & How
Through Zoom, BlueJeans, or another video conferencing platform, Frank presents a 40-minute illustrated talk from his home and gardens in Raleigh, North Carolina, followed by a lively question and answer session.
Dates will be scheduled to suit the Chapter’s schedule.
To book Frank’s “Native Places” talk for your Chapter,
contact his publicist, Kim Weiss, at blueplatepr@gmail.com,
or contact Frank directly: frank@frankharmon.com.
ORO Editions Releases ‘Triangle Modern Architecture’
Triangle Modern Architecture by architect/author Victoria Ballard Bell of Raleigh was officially released September 1 and should be available in area bookstores soon.
Published by ORO Editions*, the 250-page book traces the modernist architecture culture in North Carolina’s Triangle region since the late 1940s. It documents the work built here by such early mid-century luminaries as Eduardo Catalano and George Matsumoto; by renowned modernists in the ’60s and ’70s, such as Harwell Hamilton Harris and Jon Condoret; and those upholding the modernist ethos today, including Frank Harmon, Kenneth Hobgood, Phil Szostak, and many others.
A Preface by Frank Harmon (author and illustrator of Native Places) and an Epilogue by George Smart bookend Bell’s volume.
“Triangle Modern Architecture provides compelling evidence that a new generation of architects is building on the Triangle’s rich design legacy,” said David Hill, head of the School of Architecture at NC State University’s College of Design.
“Triangle Modern Architecture provides us a timely insight into the rich history and bold future of modern architecture in North Carolina,” wrote celebrated Arkansas architect Marlon Blackwell in his review, “reminding us that the modernist project in today’s North Carolina is alive and well and most vital in its interpretations and adaptations to local places and typologies.”
For more information on the new 9″ x 11″ hardbound book and to order a copy, visit ORO Editions or the book’s website: trianglemodernarchitecture.com.
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*ORO Editions is also the publisher of Native Places: Drawing as a Way to See.
“A Conversation with Esteemed Architect and Special Guest Frank Harmon, FAIA”
Jacobs in Arlington, Virginia
Jacobs, a global professional services firm, will present “A conversation with Esteemed Architect and Special Guest Frank Harmon, FAIA,” on Thursday, August 6, from 1-2 pm, for its Global Federal Architecture Team.
During this virtual event, Frank will share his book Native Places: Drawing as a Way to See with Jacobs team members across the United States and as far away as Kaiserslautern, Germany; Krakow, Poland; and Seoul, South Korea.
Frank’s talk is part of the firm’s Thursday afternoon Architecture Series that Stephen Wakeman, AIA, Division Vice President and National Design Principal, organizes and conducts from his office in Jacobs’ Arlington, VA, location.
“Frank Harmon has had a long, distinguished career as an award-winning architect, author, illustrator, teacher, public speaker and mentor,” Wakeman writes in his invitation to the international team. “His resume speaks volumes about his remarkable body of work. But when you join us on August 6, you will get an intimate look into who he is.”
Wakeman notes that the Raleigh-based architect and author “is a keen observer of nature and the built environment. His beautiful book is a treasure trove of watercolor sketches and meditations on the places he visits. Frank’s enthusiasm for how humans react with nature through architecture is boundless, and his joy for conveying what he sees and learns is contagious.”
He also calls Frank “a masterful storyteller in a world in need of a good story” and suggests that he “will inspire you to dust off your art supplies and get outside to start sketching, recording, and reconnecting with the world around you.”
Since COVID-19 halted in-person events, Frank Harmon has been in demand for the webinar version of his popular lecture on learning to truly see the world — architecture, landscape, everyday objects, and nature — through sketching. He shares excerpts from his book Native Places: Drawing as a Way to See (ORO Editions, publisher) and answers questions from those in attendance afterward.
For more information on Frank Harmon’s virtual lectures and how to schedule one for your firm or organization, contact his publicist, Kim Weiss: blueplatepr@gmail.com.
Special Exhibition of Original Sketches by Frank Harmon Opens at Rebus Works January 23
The Opening Reception will include a Gallery Talk and Book-Signing
Steam Clock by Frank Harmon
“I make my sketches very quickly because I’m not trying to make a pretty drawing. My aim is to record, and perhaps to understand, what I’m experiencing and seeing,” explains architect/author Frank Harmon, FAIA, in his book, Native Places: Drawing as a Way to See.
On January 23 from 7:30 – 9:30 pm, Rebus Works Art Gallery in Raleigh will celebrate the book and its author with an Opening Reception and Gallery Talk for a special exhibition of the same title. On display will be 21 of Harmon’s original/one-of-a-kind, framed, 5”x7” watercolor sketches published in the book.
Frank Harmon never intended to show his sketches as stand-alone artwork, he says. But at home in Raleigh and at every stop along his on-going book tour, he’s persistently asked when they’ll be available for purchase. He was finally talked into it.
The exhibition and sale at Rebus Works will run through February 20th.
Now in its third printing, Native Places, the book, is a collection of 64 sketches paired with very brief essays. The sketches, some of them 30 years old, convey the delight Harmon finds in ordinary places and everyday objects as well as architecture and nature. Inspired by the sketches, the essays convey in only 200 words his memories, insights, and fresh interpretations of what we tend to take for granted.
Harmon has kept a sketchbook in his pocket since he was a student at the Architecture Association in London, he says. “I’d discovered that if I took a photograph of a place, I would probably forget it. But if I sketched it, I remembered that place forever.” He still makes a sketch every day.
Mill Creek Boathouse by Frank Harmon
Through his book and now the Rebus Works exhibition, Harmon hopes to prove “that hand-drawing is not an obsolete skill” and, perhaps more importantly, “…to transform the way we see.” For more information and excerpts, visit nativeplacesthebook.com.
Harmon will give a Gallery Talk on the evening of the Opening. Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh will provide copies of the book and he’ll be happy to sign them, as well.
Rebus Works is located in the Boylan Heights neighborhood at 301-2 Kinsey Street, Raleigh 27603 (919-754-8452). For details and directions: rebusworks.us.
About Frank Harmon
Frank Harmon, FAIA, has designed sustainable modern buildings across the Southeast for 30 years. He discovered architecture as a child playing in the streams and woods of his native Greensboro, North Carolina. His work engages pressing contemporary issues such as “placelessness,” sustainability, and restoration of cities and nature.
A Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, Harmon is a graduate of the Architectural Association in London and a popular professor of architecture at the North Carolina State University College of Design. He has taught at the Architectural Association and has been a visiting critic at Harvard University, Yale University, and the University of Virginia. He continues to serve as a visiting critic at Auburn University’s renowned Rural Studio.