landscape architects

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.

 

NC Landscape Architect To Address Pittsburgh Symposium

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DBell
Dick Bell in Pullen Park, a city park he designed for Raleigh in the 1960s. © f8 Photo Studios

October 26, 2009 (ATLANTIC BEACH, NC) – Master landscape architect Richard C. “Dick” Bell of Atlantic Beach, NC, will address a special symposium on the work and influence of pioneering landscape architect John O. Simonds, to be held in the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA, on November 6.

 

Bell, a multi-award-winning practitioner whose own work includes landmark projects throughout North Carolina, apprenticed under John Simonds in the 1950s before Bell establishing his first firm in Raleigh, NC.

 

“Simonds & Simonds Landscape Architects was one of the premier design firms in the nation at that time,” Bell said. “And as the senior man in the office, I was fortunate to get to design some of the projects for John. They were mostly residential designs for architects who practiced the new – at that time — Modern style.”

 

The syposium, entitled “The Hunter and the Philosopher: John O. Simonds,” will focus on Simonds’ work as an author, environmentalist and landscape architect. It will also emphasize Simonds’ influence on the City of Pittsburgh, the field of landscape architecture, and his pioneering environmental planning efforts. Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, Garden Design magazine, and the American Society of Landscape Architects are sponsors.

 

“I learned so much from John that I carried with me throughout my entire career,” said Bell, whose own career spans 50-plus years. “He was tough and he was a perfectionist. I’m honored to be a part of an event that honors John and his work.”

 

Bell discusses his time at Simonds & Simonds in his upcoming book The Bridge Builders, which traces the genesis of Bell’s life’s work. The book is due out in the spring of 2010.

 

For more information on Richard C. Bell, go to http://www.metronc.com/article/?id=1515.

 

For more information on the Pittsburgh symposium, go to http://www.tclf.org/events/pioneers/pittsburgh/index.html.

 

About Dick Bell

 

Richard C. Bell, a Fellow of both the American Society of Landscape Architects and the American Academy in Rome, was the youngest person ever to receive the Prix de Rome at age 21. Driven by a single, professional mission “to leave a little beauty behind wherever I go,” he earned a national reputation for excellence, and provided Raleigh, NC, with some of its most beloved landmarks, including the N.C. State University “Brickyard,” the serpentine wall at St. Mary’s College, Pullen Park, and the Meredith College lake and amphitheater. He also designed his 11-acre Water Garden complex, one of Raleigh’s first mixed-use developments and an early example of buildings coexisting in harmony with natural resources. Born and raised in Manteo, NC, Bell attended NCSU, where he studied landscape architecture and assisted with the master plan for the university. He and his wife, Mary Jo, lived and worked in Raleigh for 50 years before moving to Atlantic Beach, NC, where he continues his practice today. He was inducted in the Raleigh Hall of Fame in 2008.