architects

The Raleigh Architecture Co. Receives Standard Foods Commission

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The Raleigh Architecture Co. partners
L-R: Robby Johnston, AIA, and Craig Kerins, AIA, partners in The Raleigh Architecture Company

The firm will help bring Chef Scott Crawford’s market and restaurant to downtown Raleigh.

The Raleigh Architecture Company has been commission to serve as design architect for Nash Hospitality Group’s “Standard Foods,” an upscale neighborhood market and restaurant planned for the Person Street Plaza retail center in downtown Raleigh.

 
The Nash Hospitality Group is a partnership between John Holmes of J.T. Hobby & Son real estate and celebrated Chef Scott Crawford, formerly of The Umstead Hotel in Cary. Crawford earned the hotel’s “Herons” restaurant both Forbes’ five-star and AAA five-diamond awards.

Lead by partners Robby Johnston, AIA, and Craig Kerins, AIA, The Raleigh Architecture Company (RACo) is frequently commissioned for urban up-fits in existing buildings in downtown Raleigh. A few of the partners’ completed projects include Arrow Haircuts and NuvoNivo on Hargett Street, Runologie and State of Beer on Hillsborough Street,  and Crank Arm Brewing Company on West Davie Street,.

Standard Foods will feature its own butcher shop and display cases for fresh meats and fresh fish from the North Carolina coast. According to Chef Crawford, it will be a “modern version of a neighborhood market.”

The restaurant side will feature a 20-seat communal table, room for 60 more, and a long bar.

Ted Van Dyke of New City Design will serve as architect of record for the project. RACo will serve as design architect for the front-of-the-house space (areas open to public view) and the exterior.

Standard Foods completion is scheduled for the summer of 2015.

For more information on The Raleigh Architecture Company, visit www.raleigh-architecture.com.

LOGOAbout The Raleigh Architecture Company:

The Raleigh Architecture Company is an award-winning design/build firm specializing in Modern sustainable architecture, and craftsman-quality construction. As licensed architects and general contractors, we consider designing and building to be one integrated process. This streamlined approach empowers us to meet our clients’ economic expectations and to seamlessly execute high quality details, both small and large. Our office and shop are located under one roof in downtown Raleigh’s Warehouse District at 502 S. West Street. For more information visit www.raleigh-architecture.com, call 919-831-2995, or email: info@raleigh-architecture.com.

NCSU Landscape Architecture Lecture Series To Feature Frank Harmon, FAIA

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Award-winning architect will discuss how the two professions can,

Frank Harmon, FAIA

and should, work together.

February 22, 2012 (Raleigh, NC) – Frank Harmon, FAIA, principal of Frank Harmon Architect PA in Raleigh and Professor in Practice at the North Carolina State University College of Design, will give the February 27 lecture for the 2011-12 Landscape Architecture Lecture Series. His theme will be “How architects and landscape architects can work together.”

Free and open to the public, Harmon’s lecture will begin at 6 p.m. in the Burns Auditorium in Kamphoefner Hall.

A nationally recognized leader in modern, sustainable, regionally appropriate architecture, Harmon says he will discuss the urban and rural landscape, how architecture fits into it, and how architects and landscape architects can combine efforts “to leave the landscape better than we found it,” he said.

“For the past two decades I’ve chosen to have a landscape architect working beside me when I begin a design,” Harmon said. “At Merchants Millpond in eastern North Carolina, for example, I canoed and camped with landscape architect David Swanson before we drew the first line for the new Environmental Education Center there. I teamed with landscape architect Gregg Bleam to design the recently completed AIA NC Center for Architecture and Design in downtown Raleigh.”

Harmon frequently asserts that the most important decision an architect makes is how to position a building on its site. “That particular throw of the dice determines everything that follows: orientation, aspect and prospect, day lighting, cross ventilation, hydrology, micro-climate, and most importantly, a sense of place. My belief that all good architecture begins with the land makes me value and appreciate landscape architects’ skills and understanding.”

The 2011-12 Landscape Architecture Lecture Series is produced by the Department of Landscape Architecture in partnership with the Student Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects and the Landscape Architecture Advisory Council.

For more information on Frank Harmon, visit www.frankharmon.com.

About Frank Harmon, FAIA:

Frank Harmon, FAIA, is a Professor in Practice at NC State University and was the 1995 recipient of the Kamphoefner Prize for Distinguished Design over a Ten-Year Period. He founded his firm, Frank Harmon Architect PA, in 1985. In 2011, his firm was ranked 21st out of the top 50 firms in the nation by Architect magazine, and was included in Residential Architect magazine’s “RA 50: The Short List of Architects We Love.” Harmon’s work has been featured in numerous books, magazines and journals on architecture, including Dwell, Architectural Record, Architect, ArchDaily.com, and Residential Architect. For more information, go to www.frankharmon.com.

 

Triangle Modernist Houses Announces The 2012 “Appetite4Architecture” Series

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A4A dinners bring architects and the public together in a social atmosphere.

January 9, 2012 (Raleigh, NC) – Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) has announced its third “Appetite4Architecture” series of dinners that give the public the chance to enjoy relaxed, informal discussions in an upscale dining environment, where diners have direct access to some of the area’s best residential architects and professionals.

TMH is an award-winning, non-profit organization dedicated to documenting, preserving and promoting Modernist residential design.

“Dreaming of a new Modernist house? Long admired the work of a local architect or designer? Thinking about architecture as a career? Appetite4Architecture offers a chance to break bread with prominent members of the Triangle’s design community in an intimate, affordable small group setting,” said TMH founder and board chair George Smart. “There are no presentations or PowerPoint slides — just great conversations with award-winning cuisine.”

The schedule and special guests for the 2012 A4A dinners:

Again this year, the “A4A” dinners will be held at 18 Seaboard in Raleigh and begin at 6:30 p.m. The dinners include three courses from a preselected menu (vegetarian options are available) plus coffee, water, tea, tax, and gratuity. Price per person is $53. Tickets are available at www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/a4a.

TMH requires a minimum of 10 participants per event (maximum 17). Otherwise the event will be cancelled with full refunds. If someone purchases a ticket but then can’t attend, substitutions are allowed. Payments are nonrefundable except for event cancellation. All proceeds benefit TMH’s ongoing documentation, preservation, and house tours programs. For more information call George Smart, 919-740-8407.

For more information on TMH, visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.

About Triangle Modernist Houses:

Triangle Modernist Houses was established in 2007 to document, preserve, and promote Modernist residential design. The award-winning website is now the largest educational and historical archive for Modernist residential design in America. TMH also hosts Modernist house tours several times a year. These tours raise awareness and help preserve these “livable works of art” for future generations. Visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com. TMH also has an active community on Facebook.

NC’s Pioneering Black Architects Get National Attention

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Recent Past Preservation Network features notable North Carolina heroes. 

May 4, 2011 (Durham, NC) – The Recent Past Preservation Network (RPPN), a national organization preserving historic buildings and sites from the last 50 years, featured Triangle Modernist Houses.com’s recent series on early NC black architects.  The feature covers a five-page spread in the Spring 2011 edition online magazine RPPN Bulletin.

Entitled “Triangle Modernist Houses Honors Pioneering NC Black Architects,” the article discusses how the award-winning non-profit organization and its founder, George Smart, were inspired to launch the series during Black History Month this past February.

“African American men who followed their hearts into architecture before 1970s did so despite great resistance from both society and their own industry,” Smart told RPPN.

“Today there are many black architects in North Carolina, but before 1970 it was another story, and not a nice one. The field of architecture made choosing the profession nearly impossible for minorities. In North Carolina, there were almost none for decades.”

The RPPN article includes a list of 17 architects featured on the Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) website thus far, and some photos of those architects’ work.

In contrast to the relative cloak of obscurity under which those pioneering architects practiced, the RPPN article notes some of the very prominent black architects practicing in North Carolina today, including Loeb Fellowship winner Phil Freelon, FAIA, founder and principal of The Freelon Group in Durham, and Harvey Gantt, FAIA, principal partner of Gantt Huberman Architects in Charlotte, former Mayor of the City of Charlotte, and the man for whom The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture in Charlotte is named.

“It means so much to have a national resource such as RPPN recognize these important men in North Carolina’s design history, past and present,” Smart said recently. “A spotlight for them in RPPN’s Spring Bulletin is indeed an honor.”

To view the article, go to www.recentpast.org and click on the photo of the Bulletin.

To view the TMH archive “Pioneering Black Architects in North Carolina,” visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/ncblack.htm.

About RPPN:

The Recent Past Preservation Network promotes preservation education, assistance, and activism through the medium of new technologies, to encourage a contextual understanding of our modern built environment. The Network assists preservationists by providing an open community platform for the development and revision of practical strategies to document, preserve, and re-use historic places of the recent past. In carrying out its mission, RPPN engages in  a wide variety of activities of a charitable and educational nature. For more information visit www.recentpast.org.

About Triangle Modernist Houses:

Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) is an award-winning, 501C3 nonprofit established in 2007 devoted to archiving, preserving and promoting modernist architecture in the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill “Triangle” region of North Carolina. It has since grown to feature modernist houses and their designers statewide and includes an archive of national and international modernist architects. TMH continues to catalog, preserve, and advocate for North Carolina modernism by hosting popular modernist house tours several times a year, giving the public access to the Triangle’s most exciting residential architecture, past and present. For more information visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com. TMH also maintains an active Facebook page.

Kamphoefner Fellowship Recipient Joins Frank Harmon Architect PA

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Courtney Evans is the newest member of the award-winning design

Courtney Evans

team.

December 15, 2010 (RALEIGH, NC) – Frank Harmon, FAIA, founder and principal of Frank Harmon Architect PA in Raleigh, is pleased to announced that Courtney Evans has joined his award-winning architecture firm as a project designer and architectural intern.

Evans was recently honored as the recipient of the Kamphoefner Honor Fellowship for the 2010-11 academic year. Established by Henry Kamphoefner, the first dean of the North Carolina State University School of Design (now College of Design), and his wife, the award recognizes and supports the College’s outstanding Master of Architecture student of each class. The jury was comprised of faculty members who are Fellows of the American Institute of Architects, including Georgia Bizios, Roger Clark and Patrick Rand.

In 2007, Evans was named Senior of The Year when she received her Bachelor of Science degree in industrial engineering.

“Courtney has a wonderful design imagination and sense of place, illustrated in her work,” Harmon said.

Evans grew up on her family’s farm in Fremont, NC. She credits her summers spent on the farm and her father with her appreciation for environmentalist and the “green,” or sustainable, regionally appropriate architecture for which the Harmon firm is known.

“My father taught me how to work, how to view the world, and gave me an intrinsic love for nature,” she said. “I am truly honored and excited to be working with Frank, Will [Lambeth] Mike [Spinello], and John [Caliendo]. I could not be happier about this extraordinary opportunity to work with such a talented group of people.”

 

For more information on Frank Harmon Architect PA, visit www.frankharmon.com.

About Frank Harmon Architect PA:

 

Frank Harmon Architect PA was founded in 1985 by Frank Harmon, FAIA, who is also Professor in Practice at NC State University and the 1995 recipient of the Kamphoefner Prize for Distinguished Design over a Ten-Year Period. This year the firm was ranked 13th out of the top 50 firms in the nation by Architect magazine, an annual rating that emphasizes ecological commitment and design quality as much as profitability. Recent projects that blend sustainable architecture with stewardship of the natural environment include Duke University’s Ocean Science Teaching Center in Beaufort, the NC Botanical Garden’s new Visitors Center at UNC-Chapel Hill, and the Walnut Creek Wetlands Center in Raleigh. The firm’s work has been featured in numerous books, magazines and journals on architecture, including Dwell, Architectural Record, Architect, and Residential Architect. For more information, go to www.frankharmon.com.

Frank Harmon, FAIA, To Present Seminar at 2011 AIA National Convention

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Harmon and three other prominent architects will discuss region-based urban design.

Frank Harmon, FAIA © f8 Photo Studios

 

 

November 16, 2010 (RALEIGH, NC) — The American Institute of Architects 2011 National Convention Education Advisory Committee and the AIA staff recently informed architect Frank Harmon, FAIA, that his proposal for a seminar entitled “Architects Discuss Region-Based Urban Design” has been selected as part of the AIA 2011 National Convention and Design Exposition to be held May 12-14, in New Orleans.

 

Harmon is founder and principal of Frank Harmon Architect PA in Raleigh, North Carolina.

 

“Regional architecture conserves and celebrates the landscape and culture of place. Regional urban architecture engages local culture, climate, building patterns and materials,” said Harmon. “Through exemplary urban projects — low-income infill houses and a high-rise ‘vertical neighborhood’ in New Orleans, plus an ecologically sustainable office building in Kansas City —  this seminar will explore regionalism’s influence on contemporary urban design and techniques that meet social, cultural, economic and environmental needs for urban sustainability.”

 

AIA President Clark Manus, FAIA, reported that the AIA received a record number of proposals for a limited number of program slots, and that the selection of Harmon’s proposal “is a testament to the quality of the program content and the merits of your contribution.”

 

Joining Harmon on the presentation panel will be Coleman Coker, AIA, founding principal of buildingstudio in New Orleans; David Dowell, AIA, principal of el dorado inc in Kansas City; and Steve Dumez, FAIA, principal of Eskew+Dumez+Ripple, also in New Orleans.

 

“The greatest potential for architecture today is in urban locations – in the number of clients, the varied urban conditions, and the particular ‘sticks and stones’ with which each urban region has to build,” Harmon said. “This is significant nationally and internationally as the need rises for every region to draw inspiration from its own context and rely on its own resources.”

 

He also noted that the architects’ case studies used in the 2011 seminar “demonstrate real applications of the principles of modern, innovative, regional urban design. They illustrate alternate working relationships for architects, clients, and contractors. And they examine successful new design methods.”

 

A regular speaker at state, regional and national architectural conferences and conventions, Frank Harmon has presented successful seminars during the 2005, 2006 and 2007 AIA National Conventions in association with Architectural Record magazine. He has also been a featured speaker at the Dwell on Design national convention and Residential Architect’s Reinvention Symposia.

 

The exact date and time of Harmon’s seminar will be determined later. For more information on the AIA 2011 National Convention & Design Exposition, visit http://convention.aia.org.

 

For more information on Frank Harmon visit www.frankharmon.com.

 

About Frank Harmon Architect PA:

 

Frank Harmon Architect PA was founded in 1985 by Frank Harmon, FAIA, who is also Professor in Practice at NC State University and the 1995 recipient of the Kamphoefner Prize for Distinguished Design over a Ten-Year Period. This year the firm was ranked 13th out of the top 50 firms in the nation by Architect magazine, an annual rating that emphasizes ecological commitment and design quality as much as profitability. Recent projects that blend sustainable architecture with stewardship of the natural environment include Duke University’s Ocean Science Teaching Center in Beaufort, the NC Botanical Garden’s new Visitors Center at UNC-Chapel Hill, and the Walnut Creek Wetlands Center in Raleigh. The firm’s work has been featured in numerous books, magazines and journals on architecture, including Dwell, Architectural Record, Architect, and Residential Architect. For more information, go to www.frankharmon.com.

Rare Architect Interviews Now Online

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Former University of Kansas Dean Charles Kahn, FAIA shares his extensive audio collection, including Buckminster Fuller, George Matsumoto and Henry Kamphoefner.

June 9, 2010 (DURHAM, NC) — The Charles Kahn Audio Interviews with noted architects

Charles Kahn, FAIA, who conducted rare interviews with noted architects.

from around the world, including Buckminster Fuller and Henry Kamphoefner, are now online through Triangle Modernist Houses.com (TMH), a North Carolina website which documents, preserves, and promotes Modernist residential design.

Charles Kahn, FAIA, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate and former Professor of Architecture at North Carolina State University’s College of Design, became the first Dean of the then-new School of Architecture and Urban Design at the University of Kansas in 1968. He personally recorded his collection of rare interviews during the 1970s.

“We are exceptionally grateful to Dean Kahn for making these audio interviews available to TMH and to the public,” said George Smart, founder and director of Triangle Modernist Houses. Available at http://trianglemodernisthouses.com/videos.htm, they include interviews with George Matsumoto, Buckminster Fuller, T.C. Howard, Duncan Stuart, NC State University’s first dean of the School of Design Henry Kamphoefner, James Fitzgibbon, Antonio Nervi, Sasha Nowicki, Myron Goldsmith, and many more.

Personal anecdotes and opinions pepper the interviews. In the Kamphoefner recording, for example, the dean tells of “sort of blundering into” French master architect Le Corbusier’s offices in Paris.  Le Corbusier “wouldn’t talk to me because I couldn’t speak French. It was a completely meaningless experience.” He also speaks of wanting “to try to revise the teaching of architecture into something that was a good deal more meaningful [than the American Beaux Arts].”

In the George Matsumoto recording, the architect who designed many Triangle mid-century modernist houses praises Dorton Arena’s designer Matthew Nowicki, a fellow faculty member from 1948-1950, and tells interviewer Kahn that Nowicki “had a fantastic sense of feel for structure…and he used this as a kind of big envelope to pull all the little details together.”

The TMH website also features a host of other video and audio recordings of interest to modernist architecture enthusiasts and researchers, including Frank Harmon’s Harwell Hamilton Harris lecture at NCSU, and Ellen Cassilly and Frank Konhaus discussing their home, Cassilhaus, featured in the New York Times.

For more information on Triangle Modernist Houses, visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.

For more information on Dean Charles Kahn, visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/kahn.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. TMH also has an active community on Facebook.

Future AIA NC Center for Architecture & Design Featured on “Architects + Artisans”

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Peace Street view, future AIA NC headquarters in downtown Raleigh.

January 26, 2010 (RALEIGH, NC) – Under the headline “David vs. Goliath in Downtown Raleigh,” the new design-oriented blog Architects+Artisans: Thoughtful Design for a Sustainable World looks at the future AIA NC Center for Architecture & Design in downtown Raleigh and its location near the state Government Complex.

The post includes a video of the building model as it transforms into a real structure in space via computer-generated imaging.

Writer and editor for the blog, J. Michael Welton, spoke with architect Frank Harmon, FAIA, principal of Frank Harmon Architect PA, the firm that won the project through a professional design competition in 2008. Harmon explained how he approached the “pork chop” shaped site (his description) and the context, which includes the monolithic Archdale building overshadowing Peace Street along which the Center will be built.

“Ours is a horizontal statement,” Harmon told Welton. “The real face of the building is to the south, looking toward the State Capitol.” He also notes: “It’s on less than an acre, and we placed it parallel to Peace Street. It’s a long, thin building with a porch on the south side. You’ll find that all over the South – at Mount Vernon, for example – so we knew that was a good pattern to follow.”

The new building, a thoroughly “green” structure that will embrace all the high-tech as well as low-tech principles of sustainable design, will serve as headquarters for the North Carolina chapter of the American Institute of Architects. According to the AIA NC website, it is also intended to serve as “an architectural example for the entire state.”

To read the entire post and to see the video of the future building, go to architectsandartisans.com and click on “David vs. Goliath in Downtown Raleigh.”

For more information on Frank Harmon and to view more images of the AIA NC Center for Architecture and Design, visit www.frankharmon.com and click on “current” projects.

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 Merchants Millpond Outdoor Educational building in Gatesville, N.C. His work has been featured in numerous books, journals and magazines on architecture, including Dwell, Architectural Record, and Residential Architect. For more information, go to www.frankharmon.com

About Architects+Artisans:

Architects + Artisans is a sophisticated, well-informed provider of content, images, and knowledge concerning excellent architecture, artisanship and sustainability for the 21st century.  It is not just about designers – but about the people and products that make a well-designed place ring true. It is written and edited by J. Michael Welton, whose work on architecture, design and travel has appeared in The New York Times, Interior Design, Dwell, Green Source and Travel + Leisure. Visit http://architectsandartisans.com.

Frank Harmon To Moderate Atlanta Discussion, Present Lecture

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Frank Harmon, FAIA

January 15, 2010 (RALEIGH, NC) – Award-winning architect Frank Harmon, FAIA, principal of Frank Harmon Architect PA in Raleigh, NC, will serve as moderator for a panel discussion entitled “Architecturally Speaking: Discussions on Staying Current in Architecture Curricula” during the Winter Symposium presented by American Institute of Architects’ Atlanta, GA, chapter.

The symposium, including a question-and-answer session following the panel discussion, will be held at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s College of Architecture on Tuesday, January 19th, from 6-8 p.m.

Bringing together three schools of architecture in Georgia, the panelists include George Johnston, director of the Georgia Tech Graduate Program in Architecture; Brian Wishne, dean  of the School of Building Arts at Savannah College of Art and Design; and Tony Rizzuto, associate professor of architect at Southern Polytechnic State University.

The following evening, January 20th, Harmon will present a lecture entitled “Grits, Glass and Steel: The Evolution of Modern Architecture in the South.”

Harmon, an award-winning architect recognized nationally as a leader in modern, innovative, sustainable design, has spent decades studying vernacular buildings – what he calls “buildings with a conscience” — and lecturing on the lessons he has learned from them across the nation.

“Buildings with a conscience have existed in Southern farmhouses and barns for as long as farmers have erected them,” Harmon says. “These are simple structures built of wholesome, vernacular materials, perched on stone piers so rainwater flows under them. They nestle lightly into the hillsides without disturbing the land. They are rooted in their region and embody the principles of livability. And they speak of the Southern culture as eloquently as bluegrass music or clay pots.”

His lecture will examine the elements and themes that inform contemporary Southern architecture — landscape; materials and construction (the “sticks and stones” of a place); weather and climate; roof forms that shelter or collect; and clients — and illustrate the importance of ‘place’ in the process of creating innovative, sustainable, and appropriate contemporary design.

Harmon, who also serves as Professor in Practice for North Carolina State University’s College of Design, notes frequently that these vernacular structures were always “green,” or sustainable, because they had to be.

“Farmers had an instinct for understanding their land,” he said during a radio interview on “The Story” with Dick Gordon. “They never built on the best part of their land; they saved that for their crops, because that was their sustenance. They typically built on a low-rise for good drainage. They knew exactly where the breezes came from to cool their houses and their barns… They knew how to plant trees to shade their houses in the summer… All of these things the farmers did quite naturally. But it was also for survival.”

The AIA Winter Symposium will be held in Georgia Tech’s Reinsch-Pierce Family Auditorium. For more information contact Brian Buckner at 404-688-4990, ext. 27.

For more information on Frank Harmon, visit www.frankharmon.com.

About Frank Harmon Architect PA:

Frank Harmon Architect PA is an award-winning architectural firm based in Raleigh, NC, that was ranked 26th among the top 50 firms in the nation in Architect Magazine’s “Architect 50” ranking for 2009.  Frank Harmon, FAIA, founder and principal, is a frequent design awards jurist and a sought-after speaker on the subject of sustainable and regionally appropriate architecture across the nation. His work has been featured in numerous professional and shelter magazines and in international books on architecture. In 2008, a vacation home he designed in the Bahamas was included in a Wall Street Journal list of “the most influential and inspiring houses built during the past decade.” His firm has received more North Carolina design awards than any other firm in the state and recently won three national accolades: two Custom Homes Magazine’s 2009 Design Awards for residences in Raleigh, NC, and Charleston, SC; and an American Institute of Architect’s 2009 Housing Award for the Charleston home.

Frank Harmon Selected As Commencement Speaker

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Frank Harmon, FAIA
Frank Harmon, FAIA

December 10, 2008 (RALEIGH, NC) –  Frank Harmon, FAIA, an award-winning “green” architect and Professor in Practice at N.C. State University’s College of Design, will deliver the commencement address for the College’s December graduates, dean Marvin Malecha  announced recently.

College of Design commencement exercises will take place December 17 at 1:30 p.m. in Stewart Theatre in N.C. State’s Talley Student Center.

“Frank has gained a national reputation for his work and is now a regular speaker at universities and conference programs around the country,” Melecha said. “He has built a reputation for environmentally sensitive work that is underpinned by a deep understanding of regionalism and a special care for craft. His accomplishments have reflected well on our community.”

Harmon is a 1961 graduate of N.C. State University. He joined the College of Design’s architecture department faculty in 1985. He has also served as a visiting critic at Columbia University, the University of Toronto, the University of Virginia, UNC-Charlotte, the University of Liverpool, and Cambridge University. In 1995 he received the Kamphoefner Prize For Distinguished Design Over A Ten-Year Period, an annual honoring the founding dean of the College of Design, Henry Kamphoefner.

A fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Frank Harmon founded his firm, Frank Harmon Architect PA, in 1985. Since then, he has become a nationally recognized leader in sustainable, regional design. His work has been featured in numerous publications and exhibits on the subject, including the book The Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture and a special exhibit on green architecture at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.

From 2005-2007 he served on the United States General Services Administration’s National Register of Peer Professionals, which strives to improve the quality of public buildings.

Last year, he received First Place in a professional competition to design a new, thoroughly sustainable headquarters facility for the AIA’s North Carolina component, to be built in downtown Raleigh, which dean Melecha says he believes “will be recognized internationally.”

For more information visit http://www.frankharmon.com.