February 5, 2025 (RALEIGH, NC) – This week, the University of Arkansas honored Raleigh, NC, architect and author Frank Harmon, FAIA, when he received the Fay Jones School Legacy Medal in Architecture. The award honors and extends the legacy of the School of Architecture and Design’s namesake, American architect and Arkansas native E. Fay Jones […]
FRANK HARMON, FAIA, will open the Conference facet of the “The BRIDGE,” the 85th Annual Conference & Design Expo to be held in the Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas, October 3-5, sponsored by the Texas Society of Architects. Frank’s keynote address will begin at 8:30 a.m. on Friday the 4th, with an expected 1500 in attendance. At 12:30 that afternoon, Frank will sign copies of his book “Native Places: Drawing as a Way to See” on sale in the Conference Bookstore, and bookplates for those who already own the book.
Frank Harmon as gardener and host of garden get-togethers with friends. (Photo by Liz Condo)
by Addie Ladner | photography by Liz Condo
Behind a muted pink stone wall adorned with jasmine, rich conversations and hot coffee flow. Tall, breezy live oaks shade a sandy courtyard area populated with miscellaneous folding chairs and a round table. Bluebirds sing, crinum lilies bloom and velvety white gardenias perfume the air. Here’s where you’ll find Frank Harmon and his friends most Saturday mornings, partaking in a rare ritual that encourages mindful discussion and connection.
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.)
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.
On a recent Sunday morning, Frank Harmon sat down at his computer to check his email. He was initially delighted to see a message from a cherished friend and renowned former client, Dr. Lucy Daniels, psychoanalytic psychologist, philanthropist, founder of the Lucy Daniels Center for Early Childhood and the Lucy Daniels Foundation, Guggenheim Fellowship […]
The AIANC Center for Architecture & Design in downtown Raleigh, NC. (Photo by Tim Hursley)
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.
Frank sketching outside during one of his many visits to Auburn University’s Rural Studio in Alabama.
“In 1963, at the age of 22, I traveled to Italy on my Triumph motorcycle for the summer and took my sketchbook with me,” Frank Harmon writes in the introduction to his book Native Places: Drawing as a Way to See. “I’ve had a sketchbook in my pocket ever since.”
Frank has filled a lot of sketchbooks over the past 58 years. Today, the general public has a chance to look inside one of them, thanks to Doug Wofford of Horse & Buggy Press in Durham. Now through November 6, Wofford is hosting a special exhibition entitled “Sketchbook / Artist’s Book Show” on display in PS 118 Gallery and Event Space, located at 118 West Parish Street, Durham.
“I 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.” ~ F. Harmon in Native Places
The exhibition includes sketchbooks from seven artists — Phil Blank, Catherine Edgerton, Ripley Whiteside, Bethany Bash, Stephanie Witchger, and Stephen Gibson — and one architect: Frank Harmon.
Wofford explained his reason for the “Sketchbooks” show: “I’ve long enjoyed seeing the energy and vitality of sketchbooks kept by artists. When [artist Catherine Edgerton] showed me her amazing books, which are true works of art in themselves and very sculptural, I realized it would be fun to curate a group sketchbook show.”
Wofford is also offering high-quality digital prints from any favorite page or spread in any of the books (up to 12-inches x 18-inches) “so people can take favorite moments home to grace their walls,” he said.
Another bonus: Copies of Native Places: Drawing as a Way to See are available for purchase in the gallery.
Free to the public, “Sketchbook / Artist’s Book Show” is open to walk-in visitors each Friday and Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. and other days by appointment only (contact dave@horseandbuggypress.com). An artists’ reception is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, September 25, from 4-6 p.m.
Click here for more information on the exhibition, the gallery, and Horse & Buggy Press.
For more information on Frank Harmon and Native Places, visit nativeplacesthebook.com.
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…”
Juli Leonard
Frank Harmon Architect