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.
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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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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
Charleston Architect Serves On AIA/Tennessee Awards Jury
August 24, 2009 at 5:49 pm | In architecture, green architecture, historic preservation, land planning | Leave a CommentTags: AIA/Tennessee, Charleston architects, green architects, LEED
Whitney Powers, AIA
August 24, 2009 (MEMPHIS, TN) — South Carolina architect Whitney Powers, AIA, principal and president of the award-winning firm Studio A, Inc., in Charleston, was among the jurors who recently selected nine award winners out of 97 entries during the American Institute of Architects/Tennessee’s 2009 Design Awards program.
A LEED-certified practitioner, Powers brought her expertise in sustainable architecture to bear on the jury proceedings, as well as her experience in adaptive reuse of existing buildings and restoration/preservation of historic structures.
AIA/Tennessee includes over 1000 members from small to large architectural firms and working within university, government and industry settings. The annual design awards program recognizes Tennessee architects’ design contributions and promotes awareness of the value of architecture in the state.
Projects submitted represented new construction, renovation/restoration, and architectural interior design.
All of the judges for the 2009 program are based in Charleston, SC. Joining Powers on the jury were Ray Huff, Thompson Penney, FAIA, and Brian T. Hurst. The judging took place in Charleston.
For more information on the AIA/Tennessee award winners, go to www.aia/tn.org.
For more information on Whitney Powers, visit www.studioa-architecture.com.
About Studio A, Inc.
Founded by Whitney Powers, AIA, Studio A, Inc., is an award-winning, full-service architecture firm located in historic downtown Charleston, South Carolina, specializing in sustainable, “green” architecture and historic preservation/adaptive re-use. From cutting-edge, contemporary architecture to the preservation and restoration of historic homes and sites, Studio A is committed to an interactive relationship between the natural and built environments. The firm includes Heritage Strategy Group, a planning initiative headed by Edwin Gardner that develops recreational areas and scenic byways so that local businesses prosper while the natural, historical and cultural heritage of the effected area are preserved and enhanced.
Ocean Conservation Center Featured On Treehugger.com’s “Ten Best Environmental Programs” List
August 21, 2009 at 12:59 am | In architecture, education, environmentalism, green architecture | 1 CommentTags: eco-friendly building, Frank Harmon Architect, green architects, NC architects
Duke University's first LEED Gold building, designed by Frank Harmon
(BEAUFORT, NC) – The Ocean Conservation Center in Beaufort, NC, designed by Raleigh, NC-based Frank Harmon Architect PA, is one of the reasons Treehugger.com has placed Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences on its list of “10 of the Best College Environmental Program in the U.S.”
Treehugger.com is an international media outlet dedicated to driving sustainability issues into mainstream discourse. Contributor Blythe Copeland offers the following about Duke’s program:
“Students at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences choose from undergraduate, graduate, or doctoral degrees in concentrations that include environmental studies and policy, earth and ocean sciences, and environmental law. The University also maintains a hands-on Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, NC, where courses on biology, science and nature writing, and marine policy take place in the Gold LEED-certified conservation center. Doctoral candidates have three research areas to pick from: marine science and conservation, which includes marine ecology and coastal geology; earth and ocean sciences, comprising climate change and solid earth processes; and environmental studies and policy, which focuses on ecosystem science and aquatic and atmospheric sciences.”
Located on Piver’s Island at the head of the Beaufort Inlet, the Ocean Conservation Center provides state-of-the-art teaching facilities for Duke’s Marine Lab, while identifying and demonstrating innovative, environmentally sound design and construction technology. Completed in 2006 as Duke’s only Gold LEED-certified building, the Center features photovoltaic cells, geothermal heating and cooling, and recycled and local materials wherever possible. The building was featured as a case study in Environmental Design + Construction magazine in June of this year.
Treehugger’s complete list of Best College Environmental Programs in the U.S. can be seen at www.treehugger. com. For more information on Duke’s program, go to www.nicholas.duke.edu/marinelab/facilities/repass.
For more information on Frank Harmon Architecture PA, visit www.frankharmon.com.
Located on Piver's Island at the head of the Beaufort Inlet, the Ocean Conservation Center provides state-of-the-art teaching facilities for Duke's Marine Lab.
Durham Modernist House Tour: Jewel In The Woods
August 8, 2009 at 10:09 pm | In architecture, green architecture, historic preservation, modern architecture | Leave a CommentTags: mid-century houses NC, modern architecture, modernism, Triangle Modernist Houses
August 7, 2009 (DURHAM, NC) – Triangle Modernist Houses.com (TMH), the educational archive for modernist residential design in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area of NC, will host tours of the Christine and Michael Coates residence in Rougemont, NC, on Saturday, October 3, from 1-3:30 p.m.
Tucked away on a 10-acre site just north of Durham, the house was designed by Michael Coates, AIA, who serves as director of design for Little Diversified Architectural Consulting in Charlotte, NC. He graduated in 1994 from UNC-Charlotte. From 1994 to 1999, he worked for the firm Blake & Vagone in Charlotte.
Clearly modern in line and volume, the house’s floor plan is actually based on the 
foursquare pattern prevalent in early 20th century houses: main living spaces (kitchen, living, dining, study) are on the first floor, sans hallways, with bedrooms directly above. Unlike the traditional foursquare, Michael Coates removed the walls between the kitchen and dining room to create an openness that makes the 2500-square-foot house feel larger. A steel and wood stair rises to the second floor where the landing becomes a library/reading room.
The owners designed and built the house’s maple cabinetry themselves to complement the hardwood floor and living room ceiling.
The exterior of the Coates house features Corten steel panels, cedar siding and abundant glazing for natural lighting. A “light chimney” in the center of the three-bedroom, three-bath residence brings more light into the core of the house and even moonlight on clear evenings. The house was completed in 2007.
Advance tickets for the October 3 tour are $5.95 and are available on the website: www.trianglemodernisthouses.com. Tickets are not mailed but are picked up onsite at the event. TMH tours sell out quickly, so those interested in attending should secure tickets and time slots as soon as possible. Tours are conducted at 15-minute intervals.
Hampstead Lighting (www.earplighting.com) is a sponsor. For more information on the Coates house and the tour, go to www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/register.htm.
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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Blueplate PR Goes Modern with Triangle Modernist Houses.com
July 8, 2009 at 1:45 am | In architecture, green architecture, historic preservation, mid-century architecture, modern architecture, news, public relations | Leave a CommentTags: Raleigh public relations agency
July 7, 2009 (RALEIGH, NC) - The Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill “Triangle” region of North Carolina has the third-largest concentration of modernist houses in the nation, bested only by Los Angeles and Chicago. This fact surprises most people, even those who live in the Triangle. But not TriangleModernistHouses.com (TMH), an award-winning nonprofit which
preserves, advocates, and builds community around modernist residential
design in the Triangle area of North Carolina, from mid-century to the
present. To leverage the area’s uniqueness regionally and nationally, TMH has contracted with Blueplate PR in downtown Raleigh.
Blueplate PR is a boutique public relations agency owned and operated by
award-winning journalist Kim Weiss. Blueplate specializes in message
development, media relations, communications, online presence, and website
text development.
Weiss is also a modern architecture enthusiast. For nearly two decades, she
wrote about architecture and historic preservation for the former Spectator
Magazine and North Carolina Architect magazine, and founded the Triangle
Architecture Awards Program through Spectator.
“So I couldn’t have been happier when TMH founder George Smart asked me if I’d be interested in working with TMH,” Weiss said. “Modern architecture is a passion of mine, from Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s groundbreaking work in Scotland in the late 19th century, through the ‘heroic’ period of the 1920s and ’30s, to what we now call mid-century, and on to the cutting-edge “green” architecture of today. And I intend to bring every bit of that
passion to bear on my work with TMH.”
George Smart launched TMH in 2007 to catalog, preserve, and advocate
modernist residential design in the Triangle area. The TMH website maintains
a vast gallery of images and biographies of modernist architects who have
had an impact on residential design in the area, both in the past and
currently. TMH also keeps an up-to-date listing of modernist houses for sale
and sponsors frequent tours of modernist houses throughout the Triangle.
Says Smart, “Kim is the most knowledgeable design marketing professional in
North Carolina. With her drive and expertise, we’re going to put the
Triangle’s extraordinary design on the national radar, right up there with
basketball, barbecue,and Clay Aiken.”
For more information on blueplate pr, visit www.blueplatepr.com.
Triangle Modernist Houses is also available on Facebook and Twitter.
Landscape Architect Dick Bell Launches New, Informative Blog
June 25, 2009 at 10:42 pm | In environmentalism, environmentalist, green architecture, land planning, landscape architecture | 1 CommentTags: American Society of Landscape Architects, landscape architect, landscape architecture, Prix de Rome
The pond at Dick Bell's "Water Garden"
June 25, 2009 (ATLANTIC BEACH, NC) – Richard C. Bell, a master landscape architect who spent nearly all of his illustrious career in Raleigh before relocating last year to Atlantic Beach, has launched a new blog that offers a glimpse into the man and mind behind some of North Carolina’s most iconic landmarks.
Among Bell’s best known projects are NC State University’s “Brickyard” and Sculpture Garden plazas, the City of Raleigh’s Pullen Park, the Meredith College Amphitheater, St. Mary’s College soccer field and brick fencing, and The Water Garden, Raleigh’s first mixed-use development on Glenwood Avenue/Highway 70 West that combined offices and residents and served as a laboratory for his experiments on planting materials and landscape design.
Entitled “Pebbles In The Pond: News & Musings by Landscape Architect Dick Bell,” the new blog gives Bell a repository for his knowledge of the profession, of environmental design and sustainability, and of the history of the profession in North Carolina. The blog is located at: dickbell.wordpress.com.
“Pebbles In The Pond” also includes news Bell has generated over recent years, such as his induction into the Raleigh Hall of Fame. Links also take visitors to articles on Bell and his work that have been published in the media.
Dick Bell has completed over 2000 landscape architecture projects. He has designed everything from major city and highway corridors to city parks, university plazas and amphitheatres, mixed-use beachfront developments, and individual residences, and he was a recognized leader in environmentalism and sustainable design long before the words became part of the general lexicon.
A native of Manteo, NC, Dick Bell was educated at the North Carolina State University School of Design, graduating in 1950 as part of Dean Henry Kamphoefner’s first class of 15 architects and four landscape architects. At the age of 21, he was the youngest designer to receive the Prix de Rome, which allowed him to travel and study in Europe for two years. He founded his first firm in Raleigh, NC, in 1955, introducing the practice of landscape architecture as a registered profession to the state. He was also the first person elected to the registration board.
Dick Bell, FASLA, FAAR
Bell is a Fellow of both the American Society of Landscape Architects and the American Academy in Rome and has received 27 honor awards for his work. To view his new blog, go to dickbell.wordpress.com.
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Charleston’s Studio A Launches New User-Friendly Website
May 28, 2009 at 5:26 pm | In architecture, environmentalism, green architecture | Leave a CommentTags: architect, Charleston architects
May 27, 2009 (CHARLESTON, SC) – Architect Whitney Powers, AIA, principal of Studio A, Inc., in Charleston, South Carolina, recently underscored her commitment to innovative design by launching a new and improved website and news blog at www.studioa-architecture.com. Created by Buff Ross of Alloneword Design in Charleston, Studio A’s revamped site is intended to be more inviting, informative and user-friendly than its previous site and to increase search engine optimization.
Studio A is an award-winning, full-service architecture firm located in downtown Charleston, specializing in contemporary “green” architecture and the preservation or adaptive re-use of historic structures. On the website’s simple, clean home page visitors immediately have access to all of the firm’s areas of expertise via a series of unfolding photographic “hints” that, with a simple click, take the visitor to one of five architectural categories: Residential, Institutional/Commercial, Renovation, Sustainability, and Multi-Family & Affordable Housing. Each category brings up professional photography and descriptions of projects’ program requirements, design solutions, and site considerations.
Another click at the home page “hints” takes visitors to the Firm Profile, which features Studio A’s design philosophy, select sources of inspiration, and credentials (professional certification, honors and awards, etc.).
The Firm Profile also includes a new link to Heritage Strategy Group, a planning initiative headed by Edwin Gardner that recently became a subsidiary of Studio A. HSG’s planning initiatives focus on recreational areas, scenic byways and other public natural or historical resources that allow local businesses and other stakeholders to enjoy growth and prosperity while the natural, historical and cultural heritage of the effected areas are preserved and enhanced.
Other options that kick off from the site’s home page take visitors to Contact information and to the News section. The News section includes media coverage Studio A receives and access to Studio A’s new blog where news from the firm is posted. The News section also provides access to television and video segments featuring the firm’s work.
To see Studio A’s new website, visit www.studioa-architecture.com.
Design Team Member Becomes Registered Architect
May 26, 2009 at 5:03 pm | In architecture, downtown Raleigh, environmentalism, green architecture, news | Leave a CommentTags: American Institute of Architects, North Carolina architects, Raleigh architects, registered architect
Matt Griffith, AIA, of Frank Harmon Architect PA
May 26, 2009 (RALEIGH, NC) – Frank Harmon Architect PA in Raleigh, NC, is pleased to announce that Matthew Griffith has successfully completed his registration exams and is a registered architect and a member of the American Institute of Architects.
Griffith joined Frank Harmon, FAIA’s award-winning firm in November of 2006 after moving to Raleigh from Fayetteville, Arkansas. He is a 1996 graduate of Davidson College (BS Mathematics) and a March 2002 graduate of the NCSU College of Design where he concentrated in Urban Design and was awarded the Kamphoefner Fellowship for outstanding service, the Faculty Design Award, and the AIA School Medal. In 2004, he received the Boston Society of Architects’ Unbuilt Architecture Award for his design of a community center for Camden, New Jersey.
As an intern architect/designer and project manager, Griffith has served on the design team for many of the firm’s significant projects, including the North Carolina Botanical Garden Visitor Education Center in Chapel Hill, First Presbyterian Church renovation and addition in downtown Raleigh, and the future headquarters for the North Carolina Chapter/American Institute of Architects in downtown Raleigh, a project the firm won in a professional design competition.
Griffith’s areas of expertise include programming and site analysis, schematic design, construction detailing, physical modeling, and graphic design.
Before joining Frank Harmon Architect PA, Griffith worked in the office of Marlon Blackwell Architect and served as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Arkansas from 2002-2004. He is currently a Visiting Professor of Architecture at the NCSU College of Design, teaching design studios.
Frank Harmon Architect PA is a nationally recognized leader in modern “green” architecture. The firm was recently included in Architect Magazine’s annual ranking of the top 50 firms in the nation in terms of design innovative and commitment to sustainability. For more information, visit www.frankharmon.com.
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