Frank Harmon Sees Third Green, Regional Project Open in Six Weeks
November 13, 2009 at 8:46 pm | In architecture, education, environmentalism, green architecture, land planning, landscape architecture, modern architecture, news | Leave a CommentTags: Gatesville NC, green architecture, green design, Merchants Millpond, sustainable design, visitors centers
November 13, 2009 (RALEIGH, NC) – The new Merchants Millpond Visitors Center 
and Open Air Classroom Building in Gatesville, NC, has opened to the public, marking the third thoroughly “green” project serving the public that award-winning Raleigh design firm Frank Harmon Architect PA has completed within the past six weeks.
The 7,500 square-foot Visitor Center and 600 square-foot Open Air Classroom, owned by the North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation, is located in Merchants Millpond State Park. A Registered Natural Heritage Area that covers 1900 acres, the park includes the millpond and part of Lassiter Swamp. Parks & Recreation is charged with preserving the park’s diverse biological, scenic, archaeological, geological and recreational values and providing park experiences that promote pride in and understanding of North Carolina’s natural heritage.
The Visitor Center is situated uphill from the pond and parallel to the bank so that every 
space along the southeast side of the building has a view of the natural surroundings. A porch is also located along that elevation so visitors can easily step from the building into the outdoors. Clerestory windows on the northwest face of the building allow the exhibit space, auditorium, classroom, reception area and offices to enjoy natural lighting from two sides of the spaces.
The auditorium and classroom were designed to be as flexible as possible to accommodate a variety of functions. From the classroom, a trail leads to the detached, Open Air Classroom Building at the edge of the pond. This is also the point of arrival and departure for canoeing in the Millpond.
According to Erin Sterling, AIA, of Frank Harmon Architect PA, Parks and Recreation wanted the Visitor Center to be as sustainable as possible since it is Parks and Recreation’s first LEED rated building. As a result, the project features a sensitively designed parking lot that maintains trees for shade, geothermal heating and cooling, recycled materials, locally harvested materials, rainwater cisterns for landscape irrigation, low voc paints and adhesives, daylighting and natural ventilation. The project is currently pursuing LEED Gold Certification.
Construction materials and devices include recycled steel structural members, concrete block with high fly ash content, exterior cypress wood siding harvested from felled trees as a result of hurricane Isabel, standing seam metal roof which allows for high solar reflectivity, daylight sensors that contribute to energy savings by only allowing certain lights to come on when needed, low flow plumbing fixtures in restrooms.
“The design of the building was inspired by photographs of the old wooden mill building 
that once had a magnificent presence on the pond. The new Visitor Center’s most important space is the entry lobby located under a dramatically sloping roof supported by exposed wood beams and columns. A two story window at the end of the lobby captures a view of the millpond beyond. The floor material in this space is 100 year old reclaimed heart pine. Our client’s goal was to give visitors a welcoming feeling by using a similar language to the materials and construction of the old mill.” said Sterling, who served as Project Manager for the project.
The opening of the Merchants Millpond Visitor Center and Open Air Classroom Building comes on the heels of the openings of both the NC Botanical Garden new Visitor Education Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Walnut Creek Urban Wetlands Education Center in Southeast Raleigh – both public-serving and thoroughly sustainable projects. The Botanical Garden is slated for LEED Platinum certification, the “greenest” certification a building can receive.
For more information on Merchants Millpond, go to www.stateparks.com/merchants_millpond.html.
For more information on Frank Harmon Architect PA, visit www.frankharmon.com.
About Frank Harmon Architect PA:
Frank Harmon Architect PA, a multi-award-winning firm headquartered in downtown Raleigh, has extensive experience with projects that blend architecture with enhancement of and education about natural resources, including the recently completed Walnut Creek Urban Wetlands Park Educational Center in Raleigh, Duke University’s Ocean Science Teaching Center in Beaufort, NC, the Walter B. Jones Center for the Sounds, Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in Columbia, NC, and the NC Museum of Natural Sciences’ Prairie Ridge Eco-Station in Raleigh. The firm is currently anticipating the opening of the NC Botanical Garden’s new Visitors Center in Chapel Hill and Merchants Millpond Outdoor Educational building in Gatesville, N.C. For more information, go to www.frankharmon.com
Triangle Modernist Houses.com Announces Architecture Film Series
November 12, 2009 at 2:59 am | In Film, architecture, mid-century architecture, modern architecture, news | Leave a CommentTags: cinema, Film, film series, film series NC, Galaxy Cinema
– Stunning modernist architecture is the star –
November 11, 2009 (RALEIGH, NC) – George Smart, founder and executive director of Triangle Modernist Houses.com (TMH), has announced the first TMH Architecture Movie Series, four monthly Thursday night events at the Galaxy Cinema in Cary, N.C.
The first film is Thursday, December 10 — “Visual Acoustics,” a documentary on Julius Shulman, arguably the most important architectural photographer of the 20th century. Narrated by Dustin Hoffman and directed by Eric Bricker, “Visual Acoustics” chronicles Shulman’s life and work as he shaped the careers of influential architects including Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra,and John Lautner.
On Thursday, January 14, TMH will screen Ayn Rand’s 1949 classic “The Fountainhead,” based on philosopher Rand’s seminal novel by the same name. “Protagonist Howard Roark
Ayn Rand
is a fiercely individualistic young, modernist architect who chooses to struggle in obscurity rather than compromise his artistic and personal vision,” Smart said. “Roark is the embodiment of the human spirit and his struggle represents the triumph of individualism over collectivism.”
“The Lake House,” a 2006 romantic drama starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, is TMH’s choice for Valentine’s Day week, February 18. Alex Wyler (Reeves) is an architect living in 2004. Kate Forster (Bullock) is a doctor living in 2006. They share correspondence by leaving letters in a lake house mailbox that somehow transcends time. “A great love story, but the real star of the movie is the house,” Smart says, “and prior to the screening, moviegoers will learn how it was constructed and destroyed just after completion.”
On March 18, the final movie is “Infinite Space,” a new documentary that traces California
From "Infinite Space"
architect John Lautner’s lifelong quest to create “architecture that has no beginning and no end.” Lautner is known for the Sheats-Goldstein Chemosphere and other bold houses that have appeared in movies and on TV. “‘Infinite Space’ is the story of brilliance and a complicated life,” said Smart, “and some of the most sensual architecture of the 20th century.”
“TMH’s ongoing mission is “to draw attention to and to celebrate modernist residential design,” Smart noted. “These four films, besides being entertaining, feature terrific houses from across the country.”
Smart is an unabashed fan of the Galaxy Cinema. “They have the area’s best popcorn, popped fresh right there, not in a factory somewhere,” he said. “Food prices are reasonable, and besides popcorn, sodas, and candy, the theater offers beer, wine, mineral water, coffee and teas, and specialty organic chocolates.”
Galaxy Cinema is located at 770 Cary Towne Boulevard, across the street from Cary Towne Center. All movies in the series start at 7 p.m.
Sponsors include: Nowells Contemporary Furniture, Foundation, LightTech, Tonic Design & Construction, Kontek Systems, Alphin Design Build, Frank Bowman Design Inc., and blueplate pr. Advance tickets are $7.95 each, $23.95 for all four movies, or $9 at the door. There will be door prizes donated by sponsors and gift certificates from the Galaxy Cinema.
For more information on the THM Architecture Movies Series, to buy advance tickets, and to see trailers for each of the featured films, visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/register.htm.
About Triangle Modernist Houses:
Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) is a 501C3 nonprofit established in 2007 to restoring and growing modernist architecture in the Triangle. The award-winning website, now the largest educational and historical archive for modernist residential design in America, continues to catalog, preserve, and advocate for North Carolina modernism. TMH also hosts popular modernist house tours several times a year, giving the public access to the Triangle’s most exciting residential architecture, past and present. These tours raise awareness and help preserve these “works of art” for future generations. Visit the website at www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.
Triangle Modernist Houses To Host “ModStock ‘09″
October 19, 2009 at 5:12 pm | In architecture, historic preservation, leisure activity, mid-century architecture, modern architecture, news | Leave a CommentTags: modern architecture, modern houses, preserving modern houses, modern furniture, Young Architects Forum
October 19, 2009 (RALEIGH, NC) – Triangle Modernist Houses, a non-profit organization dedicated to restoring and growing modernist architecture in the Triangle, is throwing a party. On Thursday, November 5, from 6-8 p.m. the non-profit and the AIA/Triangle’s Young Architects Forum (YAF) will present “ModStock ‘09” at Nowell’s Contemporary Furniture Gallery in Cary, and the public is invited.
ModStock is the brainchild of TMH founder and director George Smart, who sees the party as a way to introduce more people to modernist architecture while introducing the area’s brightest young architects to the community.
“The Triangle has rediscovered cool architecture through our website,” says Smart, “and now it’s time to bring that community together. Many people who love Modernist design feel they are alone, but we’re tapping into hundreds if not thousands of kindred spirits. If you have a coffee table book on Modernist architecture, we’re your tribe. Come join us!”
George Smart
Nowell’s Contemporary Furniture Gallery is one of the state’s largest modern furniture showrooms. The event will include free beer, wine, sodas and snacks, and door prizes from TMH and Nowell’s, including tickets to TMH’s next Modernist House Tour to be held in West Raleigh on November 7.
Smart will also debut a portion of a new presentation during ModStock spotlighting award-winning architects and Modernist residences from 1951 to today.
“During 2010, city agencies, historical societies, realtors, design schools, or any group interested in learning about North Carolina’s rich Modernist heritage can engage me to speak. This presentation will be part of those speaking engagements.”
Only 250 tickets are available to ModStock, so Smart suggests anyone interested should go to www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/register soon to make reservations.
Nowell’s is located at 900 East Chatham Street in Cary.
For more information on Triangle Modernist Houses, visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.
About Triangle Modernist Houses 
Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) is a 501C3 nonprofit established in 2007 to restoring and growing modernist architecture in the Triangle. Its primary public service is the website www.trianglemodernisthouses.com. The award-winning website, now the largest educational and historical archive for modernist residential design in America, continues to catalog, preserve, and advocate for North Carolina modernism. TMH also hosts popular modernist house tours several times a year, giving the public access to the Triangle’s most exciting residential architecture, past and present. These tours raise awareness and help preserve these “works of art” for future generations. Visit the website at www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.
About Young Architects Forum:
The Young Architects Forum (YAF), a program of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the College of Fellows (COF), is organized to address issues of particular importance to recently licensed architects.
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Frank Harmon Receives Fourth Design Award for Prairie Ridge Ecostation
October 18, 2009 at 8:34 pm | In architecture, education, environmentalism, green architecture, news | Leave a Comment
Prairie Ridge open-air classroom. (photos by Timothy Hursley)
October 18, 2009 (RALEIGH, NC) – When the NC Museum of Natural Science’s Prairie Ridge Ecostation for Wildlife & Learning won a 2009 Honor Award from the South Atlantic Region (SAR) of the American Institute of Architect, it marked the fourth time architect Frank Harmon, FAIA, has received accolades for his design of this thoroughly “green” Open-air Classroom.
Featured in Architectural Record magazine in November 2006, the Prairie Ridge Open-air Classroom is a 1400-square-foot observation deck and screened-in educational space perched like a tree house on a hillside overlooking a 38-acre urban prairie in Raleigh, NC.
Harmon designed the simple, rustic facility so that everything about it could be used as a tool for teaching sustainability to students and other visitors at Prairie Ridge, from the use of recycled and indigenous materials to the method by which the open-air interior is comfortable nine out of 12 months of the year. Screened in on three sides, the classroom catches southwesterly breezes all year while its deep, south-facing roof overhang maximizes sun exposure in winter and shade in summer.
Observation deck.
In 2005 the Prairie Ridge Open-air Classroom received a Merit Award from the AIA/North Carolina. In 2006 it received an Honor Award from the Triangle Chapter of AIA/NC and from Inform Magazine, which is published by AIA/Virginia.
The SAR/AIA awards were presented during a conference held October 4-7 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where Frank Harmon also served as a speaker. He presented “Sustainable By Example,” a case study of the AIA/NC Center for Architecture & Design, which will be built in downtown Raleigh. Harmon won the professional design competition for the project in early 2008.
Of the 238 projects entered in the SAR/AIA design awards program, 23 received awards. The South Atlantic Region includes North and South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee.
As seen from the prairie.
For more information on Frank Harmon and the Prairie Ridge project, visit www.frankharmon.com.
About Frank Harmon Architect PA:
Frank Harmon Architect PA, a multi-award-winning firm headquartered in downtown Raleigh, has extensive experience with projects that blend architecture with enhancement of and education about natural resources, including the recently completed Walnut Creek Urban Wetlands Park Educational Center in Raleigh, Duke University’s Ocean Science Teaching Center in Beaufort, NC, the Walter B. Jones Center for the Sounds, Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in Columbia, NC, and the NC Museum of Natural Sciences’ Prairie Ridge Eco-Station in Raleigh. The firm is currently anticipating the opening of the NC Botanical Garden’s new Visitors Center in Chapel Hill and Merchants Millpond Outdoor Educational building in Gatesville, N.C. For more information, go to www.frankharmon.com.
–
New Architecture Column: Raleigh Metro Magazine Announces Mike Welton Will Cover Design Trends, News
October 13, 2009 at 11:01 pm | In architecture, media, news | Leave a CommentTags: NC architecture
Mike Welton
October 13, 2009 (RALEIGH, NC) – Mike Welton, a contributor on architecture to Dwell Magazine, the New York Times and Interior Design, will begin a new column in Raleigh Metro Magazine in the November 2009 issued titled Form and Function.
Welton, who lives in Wake Forest, NC, will cover news, people and events in the lively architectural community in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill and eastern North Carolina region.
The column will accompany the monthly in-depth design features by Metro’s Design Editor Diane Lea, according to magazine editor and publisher Bernie Reeves.
“Diane’s detailed pieces on homes and buildings are highly respected by readers and the architectural community,” he said. “Mike’s column, covering ongoing news items in the field, is a perfect complement to Metro’s dedication to consistent and detailed coverage of the built environment.”
Welton, who contributed an Other Opinion article to the Raleigh News & Observer on October 11 concerning public architecture says, “North Carolina and Raleigh in particular are rapidly becoming magnets for good architects intent on demonstrating excellent 21st-century design. Metro magazine is the perfect venue for showcasing their work in the built environment.”
Established in 1999, Raleigh Metro Magazine is a monthly publication covering North Carolina from the Research Triangle area to the coast, with a readership of 160,000. It is available at book stores, selected newsstands and online at www.metronc.com.
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NC Botanical Garden’s New LEED Platinum Education Center Opens
October 13, 2009 at 7:19 pm | In architecture, education, environmentalism, green architecture, landscape architecture, news | Leave a CommentTags: Frank Harmon Architect PA, NC Botanical Garden
On the breezeway during the dedication ceremony October 12.
October 13, 2009 (CHAPEL HILL, NC) – Frank Harmon Architect PA of Raleigh, NC, has completed the North Carolina Botanical Garden’s new and thoroughly “green” 29,656-square-foot Education Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Governor Beverly Perdue attended the dedication ceremony and praised the project for being slated as the first LEED Platinum certified building in the state.
A multi-award-winning “green” architect, Frank Harmon, FAIA, designed the center as a cluster of eco-friendly buildings, connected by breezeways and covered porches, that nestle into a wooded hillside.
The “Flow of Ideas Exhibit” and Information Hall comprises the center section, along with a gift shop, library, and an area for plant sales. The Reeves Auditorium is located the western section, and the eastern wing houses classrooms and offices.
The cluster composition – or “family of buildings,” as Harmon likes to call it – serves as a gateway to the Botanical Garden and allows visitors to flow through the exterior space to the gardens behind the center and on to the trails and adjacent creek.
A new parking lot with porous paving provides access from Old Mason Farm Road to the Center. New gardens, to be developed over the next two years, will create expanded outdoor spaces.
A view showing one of the Center's rainwater collection cisterns.
All systems and materials in the Education Center were designed to minimize environmental impact and support human health. Green technologies include photovoltaic panels, above- and below-ground rainwater cisterns, bio-retention ponds, geothermal heating and cooling, natural day-lighting, and low-flow plumbing. Construction materials were obtained from within a 500-mile radius, including lumber milled from the site. Recycled components include steel beams made out of scrap metal from automobiles.
Embracing all the principles of sustainable design, the NC Botanical Garden Visitor’s Education Center is slated to receive LEED-Platinum certification.
“This is a gentle building with a green heart, embracing its North Carolina hillside and forming a doorway for future generations,” Harmon said.
Director Peter White has called the Center a “generously proportioned, green, and welcoming facility [that] will have a transformative impact on the way the Garden is experienced.”
Harmon noted that all stakeholders in the project — staff, visitors, faculty, Foundation and neighbors – actively participated in the design concept.
“We facilitated 20 design workshops, drawing on the energy and knowledge of all constituents to create the building and landscape design,” he said.
Frank Harmon, FAIA (photo by f8 Photo Studios)
David Swanson served as the landscape architect for the project. Isaac Panzarella PE of Consider Design created the mechanical and green systems design. Carl Simmons PE served as civil engineering and Charles Murphy PE served as structural design. The project manager was Matt Griffith, AIA, of Frank Harmon Architecture PA.
The grand opening and dedication took place October 12 to coincide with University Day, which celebrates the laying of the cornerstone of the first building at UNC-Chapel Hill.
For more information on the North Carolina Botanical Garden and its new Education Center, go to www.ncbg.unc.edu.
For more information on Frank Harmon visit www.frankharmon.com.
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Triangle Modernist Houses’ Director George Smart Receives Sir Walter Raleigh Award
October 8, 2009 at 5:35 pm | In architecture, historic preservation | Leave a CommentOctober 8, 2009 (DURHAM, NC) – George Smart, Jr., founder and executive director of
George Smart
Triangle Modernist Houses.com, has received a 2009 City of Raleigh Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Community Appearance. The awards ceremony was held October 7 at the Fletcher Opera Theater in the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Raleigh.
The award credits Smart as “a champion of the local Modernist architectural movement, raising public awareness through web-based resources, grants, and public tours.”
In 2007, George Smart launched www.trianglemodernisthouses.com, a website dedicated to preserving modernist homes in the Research Triangle region of North Carolina by increasing public awareness of their existence – especially when that existence is threatened by neglect or encroaching development.
“The more people who know about these extraordinary houses, the less likely they are to get torn down,” Smart told Dwell magazine earlier this year.
In 2008, Smart received the Carraway Award of Merit from Preservation North Carolina “for raising awareness of modernist architecture in the Triangle, including compiling a catalog of such works on his website.”
This year, he received the 2009 Paul E. Buchanan Award from the Vernacular Architecture Forum, established in 1993 to recognize contributions to the study and preservation of vernacular architecture and the cultural landscape that do not take the form of books or published work.
Smart was nominated for the Sir Walter Raleigh Award in the “Individual” category. Awards in this category are given to individuals who have “consistently and over an extended period exhibited concern, leadership, and vision in preserving and improving the appearance and/or environment of the City.” An independent jury met in July to review the nominations.
Coordinated by the Raleigh Appearance Commission, the annual Sir Walter Raleigh Awards program was established in 1983 to commemorate exemplary achievement in enhancing Raleigh’s appearance. To date, more than 200 projects, sites, and individuals have been honored.
For more information on George Smart and Triangle Modernist Houses, visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.
For more information on the Sir Walter Raleigh Awards for Community Appearance, visit www.raleigh-nc.org and click on “Government” then “Boards & Commissions” then “Appearance Commission.”
About Triangle Modernist Houses:
Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) is a 501C3 nonprofit established in 2007 to restoring and growing modernist architecture in the Triangle. Its primary public service is the website www.trianglemodernisthouses.com. The award-winning website, now the largest educational and historical archive for modernist residential design in America, continues to catalog, preserve, and advocate for North Carolina modernism. TMH also hosts popular modernist house tours several times a year, giving the public access to the Triangle’s most exciting residential architecture, past and present. These tours raise awareness and help preserve these “works of art” for future generations. Visit the website at www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.
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Triangle Modernist Houses’ Raleigh Tour To Spotlight Architects’ Personal Residences
October 1, 2009 at 6:34 pm | In architecture, historic preservation, mid-century architecture, modern architecture | Leave a CommentTags: modernist homes tour, Raleigh modernism, Triangle Modernist Houses
The Crowder residence
October 1, 2009 (RALEIGH, NC) – Three Modernist houses that architects designed for their own families in West Raleigh will be the focus of Triangle Modernist Houses’ (TMH) Homes Tour to be held Saturday, November 7, from 1-4 p.m.
The tour will spotlight the private residences of architects Thomas Crowder, Raymond Sawyer and Brian Shawcroft.
Thomas Crowder is founder and principal of ARCHITEKTUR and currently serves as a Raleigh City Councilman. His 2400-square-foot residence at 1409 Ashburton Road was completed in 2000, replacing an earlier, more traditional ranch home that burned in 1998. A prime example of fitting modernist design into an established community, it was given an AIA Honor Award in 2004.
“It was almost therapy for me to deal with the loss by absorbing myself in the rebuilding and starting over,” says Crowder.
The house basically doubled in size with an addition on the back, and includes an art gallery at the front to display pieces that have replaced those that were lost. The house has a Japanese-inspired feel and includes large clerestory windows that provide ample light throughout the day.
The Sawyer house.
Raymond Sawyer, the first recipient of the American Society of Beaux Arts medal, designed his house at 1300 Lorimer Road in 1958. Exemplary of mid-century Modernist design, it features extensive glazing that blurs the line between indoors and out. Retired now and living in Brevard, NC, Sawyer lived in the house with his family until 2006. The current owner, Adrienne Joergensen, has done some renovation work, and the house’s Modernist “bones” remain very much intact.
One of Raleigh’s true “deans” of Modern architecture, Brian Shawcroft,
The Shawcroft residence
FAIA, designed almost all of the Modernist home inventory in the Triangle area from the 1970s through the late 1990s. He completed his current 2215-square-foot residence at 5215 Melbourne Road in 2002. In 1991, Shawcroft was awarded the prestigious Henry Kamphoefner Prize for achievement in Modernist architecture.
The November tour will begin at the Western Boulevard Presbyterian Church, 4900 Kaplan Drive, where a free shuttle service will take participants to the three houses.
Advance tickets are $9.95 and are on sale now via the TMH website: www.trianglemodernisthouses.com. TMH director George Smart recommends securing tickets early since TMH homes tours typically sell out quickly. Proceeds benefit future tours, TMH’s cataloging program and research grants, and provide infrastructure as the non-profit organization works to create public awareness for the preservation of modernist design.
Sponsors for the November tour include Element Lighting, Rock & Shop, Humphrey Homes, Bowman Designs, Alphin Design/Build, and Nowell’s Contemporary Furniture.
For more information on Triangle Modernist Houses, visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.
About Triangle Modernist Houses
Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) is a 501C3 nonprofit established in 2007 to restoring and growing modernist architecture in the Triangle. Its primary public service is the website www.trianglemodernisthouses.com. The award-winning website, now the largest educational and historical archive for modernist residential design in America, continues to catalog, preserve, and advocate for North Carolina modernism. TMH also hosts popular modernist house tours several times a year, giving the public access to the Triangle’s most exciting residential architecture, past and present. These tours raise awareness and help preserve these “works of art” for future generations. Visit the website at www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.
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North Carolina’s First “Green” Oyster Hatchery Starts Construction in Wilmington
September 9, 2009 at 5:39 pm | In architecture, environmentalism, green architecture, news | Leave a Comment
Architect's model of the future Oyster Research Hatchery at UNC-Wilmington
September 9, 2009 (WILMINGTON, NC) – Construction on the “green” Oyster Hatchery Research facility at the University of North Carolina in Wilmington, NC, has begun this week, heralding improvement of the state’s oyster population and, in turn, cleaner coastal waters. And both will emanate from in an environmentally sustainable building.
The onset of construction is the result of an effort that began in 2006 when the North Carolina Aquarium Division asked Raleigh-based architect Frank Harmon, FAIA, a nationally recognized leader in sustainable, or “green,” design, to work with the state’s new Oyster Hatchery Program to determine the feasibility for three eco-friendly oyster hatchery facilities along the North Carolina coast.
According to the study, the oyster population in North Carolina has declined an estimated 90 percent in the early 1900s. Habitat loss, decline of water quality, diseases and over harvesting have all contributed to this dramatic decline. This not only affects a major segment of the state’s fishing industry, but it also impacts water quality since one adult oyster can filter sediment and pollutants out of 15-50 gallons of water per day. When the oyster population was at its peak, for example, entire estuaries like the Pamlico Sound could be filtered and cleaned in a matter of days.
The state’s three future oyster hatchery facilities would produce billions of eyed larvae to help reestablish the state’s oyster population. They would also educate the public on the oyster’s value to the quality of coastal waters.
The 12,000-square-foot Oyster Hatchery Research facility being built on the Center for Marine Sciences campus at UNC-Wilmington is the first phase of implementing the study, and is now part of the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries.
In accord with the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ policy requiring sustainable and green building practices wherever feasible for state-owned buildings, the Oyster Hatchery Research facility will preserve trees and topography and retain 100 percent of stormwater on site to be used to in cleaning the interior. Harmon also designed the robust building to allow fresh air ventilation during good weather to eliminate the need for HVAC during spring and fall. Primary construction materials are steel and brick, the latter required on the predominately brick UNC-W campus. Recycled materials are used wherever possible.
Construction should be completed by May of 2010.
For more information on the North Carolina Oyster Hatchery Program, go to www.ncoysters.com. For more information on Frank Harmon and this specific project, visit www.frankharmon.com.
About Frank Harmon
Frank Harmon Architect PA, a multi-award-winning firm headquartered in downtown Raleigh, has extensive experience with projects that blend architecture with enhancement of and education about natural resources, including the recently completed Walnut Creek Urban Wetlands Park Educational Center in Raleigh, Duke University’s Ocean Science Teaching Center in Beaufort, NC, the Walter B. Jones Center for the Sounds, Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in Columbia, NC, and the NC Museum of Natural Sciences’ Prairie Ridge Eco-Station in Raleigh. The firm is currently anticipating the opening of the NC Botanical Garden’s new Visitors Center in Chapel Hill and Merchants Millpond Outdoor Educational building in Gatesville, N.C. For more information, go to www.frankharmon.com
Local Advocate Hopes Good News for Housing Market Means Good News for Modernist Houses
August 25, 2009 at 8:31 pm | In architecture, business, historic preservation, mid-century architecture, modern architecture, news | Leave a CommentTags: modernist houses NC, NC real estate, Triangle housing, Triangle real estate
August 25, 2009 (DURHAM, NC) — After the Associated Press reported last week that “the U.S. housing market is rebounding faster than expected” (News & Observer), George Smart of Durham, NC, the founder and director of Triangle Modernist Archives Inc, (TMA) is hoping some of that momentum will help preserve some of the modern houses currently on the market in the Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill region of North Carolina.
Smart is the founder and director of Triangle Modernist Archives, Inc., a non-profit entity that archives and advocates modernist residential design. It’s website, www.trianglemodernisthouses.com, includes a free “For Sale” section that spotlights modernist houses on the market solely for the purpose of helping them find new owners. TMA does not receive a percentage of the sale.
At present, the list includes 45 residences, from a 1949 house in Chapel Hill designed by Jim Webb to Dwell Magazine’s “Next House” in Hillsborough, designed by Joel Turkel and completed in 2007.
“Any Triangle modernist homeowner or real estate agent can participate,” Smart explained. “All they have to do is send an email with the house address, city, owner’s name, year built, square feet, and architect, if known; photos of the front, back, kitchen, and living room; and a link to where readers can get more information. Typically this is a real estate company website or MLS. Submissions, if approved, are generally reviewed, edited, and posted within 48 hours.”
(MLS, or the Multiple Listing Service, is a real estate service that combines listings for all available properties in an area, except For-Sale-By-Owner properties, in one directory or database.)
TriangleModernistHouses.com has helped many homeowners and realtors sell new and mid-century modern residences in the Triangle area and, in some cases, as far away as Charlotte to the west and Rocky Mount to the east, thanks to a growing data base of modernist enthusiasts who sign up for Smart’s email updates or visit the site frequently.
“Our historical content and detail is unrivaled,” Smart said, “which is why devoted modernist-oriented visitors return again and again.”
According to Raleigh realtor Ann-Cabell Baum Anderson, the website listing and tour sponsored of the dramatically modern, 3900-square-foot home overlooking Lake Boone Trail in Raleigh helped her sell that property. The house was designed by Jessica Johnson Moore.
TMH.com helped drive interest in the Johnson House overlooking Lake Boone Trial in Raleigh.
“From a realtor’s standpoint, TMH absolutely drives more eyes toward, and more conversation around, the modernist houses we list,” she said. “It is extremely helpful, and George and his board are just dynamic people. I applaud them for their advocacy and thank them for their efforts.”
Smart noted that he frequently receives calls from modern home enthusiasts as far away as California and Maine who have found his website online and seek out his help in matching them with an existing home or connecting them with a local architect who can design one for them. The website also maintains information on modern architects working in the Triangle today as well as an archive of past modernists who contributed to the area’s built environment.
A Raleigh native and the son of an architect, George Smart loves to point out a little known fact: that the Triangle area “is the third largest concentration of modernist houses in America. We have more than anywhere except LA and Chicago,” he said.
He’s hoping the part of that concentration that’s currently for sale will find enthusiastic new owners as buyers return to the housing market.
For more information on Triangle Modernist Houses and to view the list of homes for sale, go to www.trianglemodernisthouses.com and click on “For Sale.”
About Triangle Modernist Houses:
Triangle Modernist Archive, Inc. (TMA) is a North Carolina nonprofit organization. Established in 2007 by George Smart, the organization became a formal nonprofit in 2009. TMA is committed to restoring and growing modernist architecture in the Triangle. Our primary public service is managing Triangle Modernist Houses.com (TMH), an award-winning nonprofit educational archive for cataloguing, preserving, and advocating modernist residential design. TMH also hosts popular modernist house tours several times a year, giving the public access to the Triangle’s most exciting residential architecture, past and present. These tours raise awareness and help preserve these works of art for future generations. Visit the website at www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.
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