May 17, 2010 (JACKSONVILLE, FL) – The importance of “place” in the process of creating innovative, sustainable and regionally appropriate contemporary design will be the theme for the lecture by architect Frank Harmon, FAIA, during AIA Jacksonville’s Design & Honor Awards Gala on Friday, May 21, at 5:30 p.m., at the Downtown Library, 303 Laura Street.
The Gala and lecture are open to the public. AIA Jacksonville is a chapter of The American Institute of Architects (AIA) representing and serving AIA Florida members in Duval, Clay, St. Johns and Nassau counties.
Harmon, founder and principal of the Raleigh, NC-based firm Frank Harmon Architect PA and a Professor in Practice with North Carolina State University’s College of Design, served as the chairman of AIA Jacksonville’s 2010 design awards jury. Harmon’s firm has received more AIA North Carolina design awards than any other firm in the state and was recently ranked 13th among the Top 50 Firms in the nation by Architect magazine. He is recognized nationally as a leader in modern “green” architecture.
A frequent speaker at state, regional and national design conferences, Harmon will discuss certain elements and themes that run through regional architecture – landscape, materials, construction methods, climate, roof forms and clients – and suggest how each can and should be used to create modern, sustainable architecture in the South.
“A balanced architecture rises up from the land it is built on, its hills, streams, weather and its people, their connections, ideas and stake in the future,” Harmon wrote in a recent article on North Carolina architecture for Inform magazine in Virginia.
He will use his own work to demonstrate regional modernism in the South, such as the new North Carolina Botanical Gardens Visitors Education Center at UNC-Chapel Hill, a cluster of buildings on a wooded hillside joined by deep porches and breezeways. The center is slated to be the State’s first LEED Platinum building.
For more information on AIA Jacksonville’s Design and Honor Awards Gala, including how to purchase tickets, go to www.aiajacksonville.org or email hgrimes@grimespg.com.
For more information on Frank Harmon, FAIA, 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 the environment, including the recently completed Walnut Creek Urban Wetlands Park Educational Center in Raleigh, Duke University’s Ocean Science Teaching Center in Beaufort, the NC Botanical Garden’s new Visitors Center in Chapel Hill, and the future AIA North Carolina headquarters in downtown Raleigh. His work has been featured in the National Building Museum in Washington DC, and in numerous books, journals and magazines on modern green architecture, including Dwell, Architectural Record, Architect magazine, and Residential Architect. For more information, go to www.frankharmon.com.
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