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Trig Modern Announces…

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Architects and designers create cool, modern cat houses for an auction to benefit SAFE Haven For Cats.

Trig Modern design center and showroom in Raleigh announces “The Cat’s Meow,” an auction of modern, professionally designed houses for cats to benefit SAFE Haven for Cats, a non-profit, no-kill shelter in Raleigh dedicated to finding homes for homeless cats and kittens.

The auction will be held Wednesday, May 10th, from 6-8 p.m., during a Cocktail Party in Trig Modern’s showroom in Dock 1053, 1053 East Whitaker Mill Road. Raleigh. The Auction and Party are free and open to the public. Professional auctioneer Ben Ferrell is donating his services.

Ann Marie Baum, Trig Modern’s lead interior designer and a SAFE Haven volunteer, has issued Invitations to architects and designers throughout the Triangle area to create “cool, modern cat houses that people who love cats will be delighted to have in their homes. So we’re encouraging participating designers to think of their contributions as furniture or accessories that will contribute to, rather than detract from, someone’s décor.”

Modern design and quality construction are also imperative, she stressed, “so that the houses will fetch substantial prices. This is a fundraiser after all!”

Baum and Trig Modern’s owner, Bob Drake, were inspired to organize and present “The Cat’s Meow” after seeing the results of a similar event that architects in Los Angeles. “How cool can a cat house be? Just take a look at these,” she said, referencing Los Angeles Architects For Animals fundraiser for a local nonprofit.

“We are so excited about ‘The Cat’s Meow’ auction to help formerly stray cats find their home-sweet-home’ literally,” said Pam Miller, founder and president of SAFE Haven for Cats. “This is a creative, fun, and practical way to help abandoned cats and kittens find the first real home they have ever known. We’re so grateful to Trig Modern for hosting this event.”

Completed cat houses will be delivered to Trig Modern May 4-6 and remain on display in the showroom until the night of the Cocktail Party and Auction. Those interested in bidding may stop in the showroom anytime during business hours (Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.) to take a close look at the little houses prior to the auction.

Anyone interested in participating in “The Cat’s Meow” – by designing a cathouse, providing in-kind donations, etc. – should contact Ann Marie Baum as soon as possible either by phone at Trig Modern, 919.516.8744 or by emailing her: annmariebaum7@gmail.com.

For more information on Trig Modern, visit www.trigmodern.com.

About Trig Modern:

Founded in December 2012, Trig Modern is owned and operated by furniture and lighting designer Bob Drake. Through its combination of modern and mid-century-inspired furniture, lighting, wall and floor coverings, and accessories, as well as Modern kitchen and bath remodeling services, Trig Modern’s mission is to present a realistic portrait of sensible living and offer an antidote to excess, formality, and convention. For more information visit www.trigmodern.com, call 919.516.8744 and find Trig Modern on Facebook. The showroom is located at 1053 East Whitaker Mill Road, Suite 109, Raleigh, NC 27604.

About SAFE Haven for Cats:

SAFE Haven’s mission is to ensure the well-being of every cat through adoption, affordable spay/neuter services, community outreach and adherence to no-kill principles. The shelter receives no government funds and relies solely on private donations for 84p percent of its budget. Visit safehavenforcats.org for more information.

 

TMH Architecture Movie Series Ends with Philip Johnson Film

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A look at the life and legacy of a great American architect.

March 6, 2012 (Cary, NC) – Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) will conclude the 2011-2012 Nowell’s Architecture Movie Series with “Philip Johnson: Diary of an Eccentric Architect” on Thursday, March 15, at 7:30 p.m. in the Galaxy Cinema in Cary.

One of the best-known and most influential American architects of the 20th century, Philip Johnson, FAIA (1906-2005) founded the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1930. It was there that he and friends Alfred H. Barr, Jr. and Henry-Russell Hitchcock assembled the landmark exhibition “The International Style: Architecture Since 1922″ in 1932. The show introduced the American public to the modern architecture that Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, and others were designing in Europe.

In 1978 Johnson was awarded the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal, the highest honor the AIA confers, as well as the first-ever Pritzker Architecture Prize to honor an architect of international stature.

A few of Johnson’s most famous projects include Minneapolis’s IDS Tower, the Crystal Cathedral megachurch in Southern California, the AT&T Building in Manhattan, and his own Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut, where he died in his sleep in 2005. (The Glass House is now open to the public.)

Directed by Barbara Wolf, the film “depicts Johnson at work, the importance of the architectural act, and the buildings’ interaction with their environment,” according to Design Intelligence (di.net/videos).

Lee Hansley Gallery is sponsoring this special screening of “Philip Johnson: Diary of an Eccentric Architect.” Sponsors for the entire TMH Architecture Movie Series include Nowell’s Contemporary Furniture, Dail Dixon FAIA, Studio B Architecture/BuildSense, Modern Home Auction, Cherry Modern, Kontek, and Alphin Design+Build.

Tickets to the film are $9. The Galaxy Cinema is located at 770 Cary Towne Boulevard, Cary, NC 27511 (919-463-9989).

Hosted by Triangle Modernist Houses, the annual Nowell’s Architecture Movie Series features hard-to-find films about Modernist architects and architecture. Films are shown one Thursday of each month from October through March. All proceeds from ticket sales support Triangle Modernist Houses’ mission of documenting, preserving and promoting Modernist residential design from the 1950s to today. For more information on the award-winning non-profit organization, visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.

About Triangle Modernist Houses:

Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) is a 501C3 nonprofit established in 2007 to preserve and promote Modernist architecture. 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 “livable works of art” for future generations. Visit the website at www.trianglemodernisthouses.com. TMH also has an active community on Facebook.

Triangle Modernist Houses, Goodnight Raleigh.com To Host Happy Hour for Design Business and Enthusiasts

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Fun Networking, Community-building Events Start April 27 in Raleigh. 


April 7, 2011 (Raleigh, NC) —  Following the popularity of its Appetite4Architecture dinners that connect the public with local Modernist architects, Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) will launch the first Thirst4Architecture (T4A) happy hour in partnership with GoodnightRaleigh.com.

The happy hour is April 27 at Natty Greene’s Pub & Brewing Company in Raleigh from 6-8 p.m.  The informal, cash-bar event is free and open to the public. No pre-registration is required.

TMH is an award-winning, nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and promoting modernist residential design. Co-host Goodnight, Raleigh! (www.goodnightraleigh.com) is a popular online magazine run by 11 photographers. The blog is updated several times a week with images of the city at night and stories on the subjects of the photographs. Publisher John Morris is best known recently by his campaign to save the Milton Small-designed bookstore at N.C. State University.

“Our film series and dinner events in the winter have connected hundreds of people within the architecture-loving public,” said TMH founder and director George Smart. “Our T4A events will bring together the larger design community around some of the area’s great restaurants and brewpubs.

“We welcome architects, artists, designers, interior designers, realtors, engineers, contractors, property investors, building managers, Modernist homeowners, materials and furnishings dealers, and anyone with a huge crush on great architecture,” Smart said.

Smart hopes the bi-monthly happy hours, held around the Triangle, will continue building relationships, generating passion about good design, creating strategic alliances, and connecting people around Modernist architecture.

Natty Greene’s is located at 505 West Jones Street in Raleigh. For directions, visit www.nattygreenes.com.

For more information on TMH, 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. 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 “livable works of art” for future generations. Visit the website at www.trianglemodernisthouses.com. TMH also has an active community on Facebook.

Frank Harmon To Address Wisconsin Audience for AIA Lecture Series

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Raleigh architect will discuss modern, sustainable, regionally appropriate design in

Frank Harmon, FAIA

Madison.

February 18, 2011 (Raleigh, NC) — Frank Harmon, FAIA, principal of Frank Harmon Architects PA in Raleigh, will be the featured speaker for the Wright Lecture Series in Madison, Wisconsin, on March 10, beginning 7 p.m. in the Monona Terrace Community & Convention Center.

Harmon will also serve as a juror for the AIA Wisconsin Design Awards program.

Frank Harmon is a multi-award-winning leader in modern, innovative, sustainable, and regionally appropriate architecture, and he frequently lectures on the subject “Place Making: America’s New Regionalism.” The AIA Wisconsin lecture will follow a similar presentation he is making at the Dalhousie University School of Architecture in Nova Scotia on February 28.

Both lectures will discuss how regional architecture can produce high-performance, or sustainable, buildings by addressing context, materials, textures, colors and form particular to the region in which they are built, using both traditional and non-traditional methods.

“I believe that one of the primary goals of architecture is to make it possible for people to understand the world around them,” Harmon says. “If we sense that a building is rooted in the earth and warmed by the sun, that fresh air flows through its windows and its materials are friendly to the touch, then we may feel that the building belongs to its place, and so do we.”

The Wright Lecture Series is sponsored by AIA Southwest Wisconsin, the Monona Terrace Community & Convention Center, and the Frank Lloyd Wright Wisconsin Heritage Program.

Harmon’s lecture free and open to the public. For more information on the entire series, visit www.aiaw.org.

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 2010, his firm was ranked 13th 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, Residential Architect and Environmental Design + Construction. For more information, go to www.frankharmon.com.

Triangle Architecture Fans Head “Downeast”

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Spotlighting three Modernist houses in Rocky Mount and Greenville, NC.

The 1952 Dowd residence in Rocky Mount

 

February 15, 2011 (DURHAM, NC) – Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) will host its first “Downeast Modernist Tour” of three houses in Rocky Mount and Greenville, NC, on Saturday, March 12. The tour is open to the public with advance reservations through the TMH website.

 

“When most people in the Triangle area think ‘modernist houses,’ they don’t realize that there are some true gems in Rocky Mount and Greenville,” said George Smart, TMH founder and director. “They’ll change their minds after they see these gorgeous homes.”

 

The Downeast Modernist Tour will take participants to the 1952 Jesse Dowd residence designed by George Harrell. According to Smart, the Dowd house is “the finest surviving example of mid-century Modernism in Rocky Mount.”  Harrell grew up in Rocky Mount and went on to a very successful architecture career in Texas.

 

The 1962 Yenne/Hammer residence in Rocky Mount

The tour will also stop at the 1962 Matthew and Edna Yenney residence in Rocky Mount, designed by John L. Thompson. Current owners John and Megan Hammer have since renovated the house extensively, including adding a 1500-square-foot guesthouse.

 

In neighboring Greenville, the tour will visit a much newer Modernist house: the 2009 Bobby and Kristi Walters residence designed and built by Tonic Design + Tonic Construction. Within the sleek modern structure, the 4042-square-foot house includes environmentally sustainable features, such as photovoltaic technology for generating electricity, solar hot water, and a geothermal heating and air conditioning system.

 

Vinny Petrarca, president of Tonic Construction and a partner in Tonic Design, and architect Robby Johnson, AIA, who served as project manager for Tonic on the Walters house, will come along for the tour as special guests and to answer questions about the design and construction of the house. (Johnson is now with Clearscapes Architecture.)

The 2009 Walters residence in Greenville.

 

As an added bonus, the group will stop at Smith’s Red & White Grocery in Rocky Mount on the way home for authentic North Carolina barbecue, sausage and other pork products.

 

The tour will depart RDU’s FastPark on a luxury internet-equipped bus at 9 a.m. on March 12 and return by 3:45 p.m. Tickets are $49.  Architects can receive self-reported continuing education credit if arranged in advance with the American Institute of Architects.

 

For more information on the tour, visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/downeast.htm.

 

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

 

About Triangle Modernist Houses:


Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) is an award-winning, 501C3 nonprofit established in 2007 to archive, preserve, and promote modernist residential architecture from the 1950s to new construction. The TMH 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 “livable works of art” for future generations. Visit the website at www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.

The Marc Hoffman Duo To Perform in New Jazz Club in Raleigh

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BetDeez Jazz Lounge welcomes Charlotte-area recording artist

Marc Hoffman, composer, pianist, vocalist, recording artist

 

February 6, 2011 (RALEIGH, NC) – The Marc Hoffman Duo, led by pianist and vocalist Marc Hoffman with a special guest on bass, will make its debut appearance at BetDeez Jazz Lounge in Raleigh on Saturday, February 19, from 9 p.m. until midnight.

 

Hoffman and his duo, trio and quartet are well known in the Charlotte area for their appearances at jazz clubs, concerts, and other special events, most recently at the Ritz Carlton in uptown Charlotte. They have also performed nationally and internationally for music festivals and corporate events, and have entertained crowds at the North Charleston Coliseum in Charleston SC; the Speedway Motorsports Inc. and the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center, both in Charlotte; the Annual Old Town Blues & Jazz Festival in Rock Hill, SC; and the Grove Park Inn in Asheville.

 

The BetDeez Jazz Lounge performance will introduce Raleigh-area music fans to Hoffman’s eclectic repertoire of original jazz combined with his own arrangements of standards and popular tunes, from Cole Porter to Billy Joel.

 

A native of Salisbury, NC, Marc Hoffman is a Virillion Music recording artist and a member of BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc). His latest CD, Curioso, is an all-original collection of tunes representing as many styles of jazz as there are tracks on the CD.  Curioso followed the release of a single track from the CD entitled “Hefti” (a tribute to his former composition professor, the late Neal Hefti), that DJ Jellyroll Justice of WWOZ in New Orleans says “makes you smile with its delicate riffs and uplifting swing.”

 

BetDeez is a private, members-only club that caters to over-30, smooth jazz fans and adheres to a specific dress code. The club is located at 4860 Grove Barton Road, Suite 104, Raleigh, NC 27613. For more information, visit www.betdeez.com or call 919-571-2999.

 

For more information on Marc Hoffman, visit www.marchoffman.com.

 

About Marc Hoffman:


Marc Hoffman received his degree in composition from the North Carolina School of the Arts and studied film composition at USC. He also attended The Dartington International Summer School of Music in Devon, England. His composition teachers have included David Ott, Leo Arnaud, Neil Hefti, and Sherwood Shafffer. A member of BMI and the American Composer’s Forum, he is founder and artistic director of the Salisbury School of Music. For more information, visit www.marchoffman.com and www.myspace.com/marchoffman. He is also available on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), All About Jazz.com, and on Facebook under Marc Hoffman Music.

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Marc Hoffman Trio To Perform For Final “Friday Night Out”

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Jazz and pop favorites are on the playlist

Marc Hoffman

October 3, 2010 (SALISBURY, NC) – The Marc Hoffman Trio, led by composer/recording artist Marc Hoffman, will perform for the last Friday Night Out family festival in downtown Salisbury this year on Friday, October 8, from 6:30-8:30 p.m.

With Terry Peoples on bass and Chris Garges on drums, the trio will serve up many songs from Hoffman’s new all-original jazz CD, Curioso, as well as other jazz and pop favorites.

This show follows Hoffman’s performance on October 1 at the City Club of Rock Hill during the sixth annual Old Time Blues & Jazz Festival in Rock Hill, SC.

Curioso features several tracks that were inspired by other jazz musician’s work. “Hefti” channels the light, lyrical work of Hoffman’s former composition professor, the late Neal Hefti. “Pontified” is Hoffman’s take on the late ‘70s music of Jean-Luc Ponty. “Introspective” is reminiscent of David Benoit’s smooth jazz. And Vince Guaraldi’s influence is apparent on the title tune, “Curioso.”

Virillion Music released the CD this summer. Tracks can be heard on Marc Hoffman’s website, www.marchoffman.com, and at CDBaby, Amazon, and iTunes.

Friday Night Out is a free family event featuring music, food, free trolley rides, the Ghost Walk and other entertainment, as well as late-night shopping throughout downtown Salisbury. Fun for kids includes inflatables, face painting, and more.

Downtown Salisbury, Inc., sponsors Friday Night Out events each first Friday from April through October. “Many thanks to Betz McKeown and Downtown Salisbury for asking us back this year,” Hoffman said.

For more information on Marc Hoffman, visit www.marchoffman.com.

About Marc Hoffman:

Composer/pianist/vocalist Marc Hoffman received his degree in composition from the North Carolina School of the Arts and studied film composition at USC. He also attended The Dartington International Summer School of Music in Devon, England. His composition teachers have included John Corigliano, Leo Arnaud, Neil Hefti, and Sherwood Shafffer. A member of BMI and the American Composer’s Forum, he is also founder and artistic director of the Salisbury School of Music. He lives in Salisbury with is wife, Anne, and their daughter August. For more information Marc Hoffman and his work, visit www.marchoffman.com and www.myspace.com/marchoffman. He is also available on Facebook under Marc Hoffman Music.