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Frank Harmon Wins High Award for Simple Project

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The JC Raulston Arboretum Lath House at NC State University wins AIA NC Honor Award

September 15, 2011 (Raleigh, NC) – Frank Harmon Architect PA has received a 2011 Honor Award from the North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA NC) for the firm’s design of North Carolina State University’s JC Raulston Arboretum Lath House in Raleigh.

The Lath House received one of only two Honor Awards presented this year, and it was a pro bono project for Harmon’s firm as a gift to the Arboretum.

The Lath House is an open-air laboratory for horticultural research. Its screen of wood two-by-twos fulfills the specific light-to-shade ratio young plants need before they transition into the larger gardens.

According to the firm’s principal, Frank Harmon, FAIA, the structure was designed as an abstract of a tree that spreads its branches to protect the plants.

The Lath House replaced an older structure that sheltered approximately 700 young and tender plants that perform best in shade. The new structure may provide space for 1000 new plantings.

The 10 and a half-acre JC Raulston Arboretum is a nationally acclaimed garden with one of the largest and most diverse collections of plants, shrubs and trees adapted for use in Southeastern landscapes from over 50 different countries. Plants are collected and evaluated in an effort to find superior plants for use in southern gardens. The Lath House is a key element in the arboretum’s work.

“Over the last three decades, the JC Raulston Lath House has nurtured some of the most successful plants for use in Southern gardens, including hostas, ferns, hydrangea and rhododendron,” Harmon said. “We were honored to be a part of the Arboretum’s mission by designing the new Lath House.”

Will Lambeth, a former member of Harmon’s design team who left to attend Harvard University, served on the design team for the Lath House, which received a Merit Award this summer from the Triangle section of AIA NC and has been published at ArchDaily.com.

Harmon’s firm is known for designing projects that celebrate plant life, such as the cluster of buildings for the NC Botanical Gardens Visitors Education Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Walnut Creek Wetlands Education Center in Raleigh, and the NC Museum of Natural Science’s open-air classroom at the Prairie Ridge Eco-station, also in Raleigh. For more information visit www.frankharmon.com.

About Frank Harmon Architect PA:

Frank Harmon Architect PA is an award-winning architectural firm located in Raleigh, NC, and recognized nationally as a leader in modern, innovative, sustainable and regionally appropriate design. For the third consecutive year, the firm is ranked as one of the Top 50 Firms in the nation by Architect magazine, and Frank Harmon, FAIA, founder and principal, was included in Residential Architect’s recent “RA 50: The short list of architects we love.” The firm’s work has been featured in numerous books, magazines, journals and online magazines on architecture, including ArchDaily.com, Dwell, Architectural Record, Architect, and Residential Architect. For more information, go to www.frankharmon.com.

River Bend NC To Host Special Tour of Waterfront Homes and Gardens

Categories: architecture, charity, entertainment, events, garden design, Interior Design, non-profit, people with disabiliites
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Including a memorial tour of Chick Wooten murals.

August 24, 2011 (New Bern, NC) — A special tour of five waterfront homes and gardens, along with a memorial tour of murals by the late North Carolina artist Chick Wooten, will be held in River Bend, NC, on Saturday, September 17, from noon to 4 p.m. during the “Homes on the Waters of River Bend Tour.”

The homes on the tour offer a variety of architectural styles at different locations along the waterways of River Bend, including the Trent River, Plantation Canal and Island Lake. Interior designs range from contemporary to traditional. One of the homes features artifacts from all over the world. And all five have waterfront views.

Homes on the tour can be visited any time and in any order during tour hours, and refreshments will be served. The featured homes are:

The Camille and Jim Hoffman residence at 104 Plantation Drive
The Catherine and Richard Ewan residence at 318 Plantation Drive
The Lynne and Phil Seymour residence at 250 Shoreline Drive
The Debbie and Al Alcoff residence at 114 Mariners Court
The Marci and Gerry Crawford residence at 103 Raft Road

Chick Wooten’s primitive murals are located throughout RHA Howell’s River Bend Center for the developmentally disabled at 140 Pirates Road, New Bern. The center will be open during tour hours. Wooten was known for his paintings of life in the Carolina countryside. The central themes of his work are family life, togetherness especially in tough times, and the importance of faith and community traditions.

Advance tickets to the tour are $10 and are available at The River Bend Market, the River Bend Country Club, Trent River Realty, and the RHA Howell River Bend Center. Tickets on the day of the tour are $12.

The River Bend Garden Club, The Epiphany School, the Girls Scouts Troops 279 & 1184, and the New Bern Woman’s Club are sponsoring the home and garden tour. All proceeds will be donated to the RHA Howell River Bend Center and the Rhems First Responders.

River Bend is a small community located near New Bern, NC. For more information on the September home and garden tour, contact: Samantha.annunziata@rhanet.org or call her at 252.638.6519.

For more information on RHA Howell, visit www.rhahowell.org.

About RHA Howell, Inc.:

RHA Howell is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization that has been helping people with disabilities and special needs, and their families, make choices to live more independently for nearly 40 years. Integrity, high standards for quality, and hard work are at the core of every RHA Howell disability assistance program. Proven leaders in caring for people, RHA Howell, Inc. is a pioneering force in the field of human services, particularly supporting infants and children. For more information, go to www.rhahowell.org.

Triangle Modernist Houses Hosts Tour of 1959 Carter Williams House

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“Blue Haven” will be open to the public for one day.

Inside the Carter Williams House

July 6, 2011 (Raleigh, NC) — The 1959 Carter Williams House Tour, designed by prolific Raleigh architect F. Carter Williams, FAIA, for his family, with landscape design by Dick Bell, FASLA, will be open for public touring on Saturday, July 23, from 10 a.m. until noon.

The tour of this classic mid-century modernist house, nicknamed “Blue Haven” for the distinctive “Carolina Blue Stone” used in its construction, is presented by the Triangle Modernist Houses and sponsored by Eidolon Design.

The two-level house is typical of mid-century modernist houses in many ways. Lower level floors are terrazzo and glass walls flood the spaces with natural light while opening the interior to the exterior. Upstairs, multi-columned stone construction visual divides the entrance hall from the great room beyond, where floor-to-ceiling glazing offers panoramic views of the landscape and forest beyond the house. Built-in casework throughout the house is walnut.

Current owner Jill Maurer has filled the Williams house with high-end mid-century

Entrance, showing landscape design by Dick Bell.

modern furnishings, including a Florence Knoll lounge, chairs and tables by Bertoia and Eero Saarinen, and an Isamu Noguchi coffee table. Her art collection, including abstract paintings by such North Carolina luminaries as Claude Howell and George Bireline, also complements the house’s architecture and ambiance.

Metro Magazine’s Diane Lea called the house “one of Raleigh’s acknowledged early Modernist jewels” in her feature on “Blue Haven” in November of 2010.

Over his 40-year span, Carter Williams and his firm designed more than 600 projects throughout the state. From 1939 to 1941, he was an assistant professor at the NCSU School of Design. The highest honor AIA North Carolina presents each year to an individual for a distinguished career or extraordinary accomplishments is named the

Rear elevation

F. Carter Williams Gold Medal.

In the study Post-World War II and Modern Architecture in Raleigh, North Carolina, author Ruth Little writes, “It is safe to say that Williams’ elegant understated modernism had a bigger impact on Raleigh architecture than any other architect in Raleigh from 1945 to 1965.”

The Carter Williams house is located at 6612 Rest Haven Drive. Tickets are $5.95 in advance until July 16 and $8 at the door. To purchase advance tickets and get directions to the house, go to http://trianglemodernisthouses.com/tour.

For more information on Triangle Modernist Houses, 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.

Charleston Architect Serves on Custom Home Design Awards Jury

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Studio A’s Whitney Powers helps select the nation’s best custom-designed

Whitney Powers, AIA, LEED AP, principal of Studio A Architecture in Charleston, SC

houses.

February 10, 2011 (CHARLESTON, SC) – Whitney Powers, AIA, founder and principal of Studio A Architecture in Charleston, flew to Washington, DC, late last month to serve on the jury for the 2011 Custom Home Design Awards program, sponsored by Custom Home Magazine.

The judging took place on Wednesday, January 26, in the downtown Washington offices of Hanley Wood LLC. Hanley Wood publishes Residential Architect magazine as well as Custom Home and Custom Home Outdoors. The jury made its selections independent of the magazine’s editorial staff.

An experienced design awards juror, Powers is an award-winning architect and LEED AP professional whose own work includes a variety of historic restorations and modern, sustainable residences, including the Dewees Island vacation home that was featured on HGTV’s “Extreme Living” show. She was named one of Charleston’s “Most Influential Home & Design Professionals” by Charleston Home & Design magazine in 2010 and one of the 40 most outstanding U.S. architects under the age of 40 in 1995.

The Custom Home Design Awards program accepted entries in 10 different categories from custom home-builders, remodelers, architects, designers, and other industry professionals. The jurors also chose a Best Residential Project of the Year from among the Grand Award-winning built entries. The winning entries will be featured in the May 2011 edition of Custom Home and presented at an awards dinner held concurrent with the American Institute of Architects National Convention in New Orleans in May of 2011.

Joining Whitney Powers on the jury were John Murphey, AIA, of Meditch Murphey Architects, Chevy Chase, Maryland; Matt Risinger, of Risinger Homes, Austin, Texas; and Ken Vona, of Kenneth Vona Construction, Waltham, Massachusetts. The group met for a Hanley Wood-sponsored Judges Dinner at The Jefferson Hotel the night before the jury officially convened.

“It was a wonderful experience,” Powers said. “I really enjoyed the camaraderie of the jury and I believe the winners are really the best of the best in the custom-home category.”

For more information on the Custom Home Design Awards, go to www.customhomeoneline.com.

For more information on Whitney Powers, visit www.studioa-architecture.com.

About Whitney Powers, AIA:

Whitney Powers, AIA, LEED AP, founded Studio A, Inc. in downtown Charleston, SC, in 1989, as a full-service architectural firm that proposes that the responsibility of architecture is to cultivate a language of form that promotes a sustainable culture and landscape, and that touches the emotions of delight, surprise and wonder. From cutting-edge contemporary architecture to the preservation and restoration of historic homes, structures and sites, Studio A is committed to an interactive relationship between the natural and built environments, conservation of energy and natural resources, and an appreciation for a “sense of place” where living, working and playing are connected with the specific idiosyncrasies of culture, climate and natural landscape where they take place. For more information visit www.studioa-architecture.com.

NC Landscape Architect Dick Bell Publishes First Book

Categories: architecture, art, books, education, environmentalism, environmentalist, garden design, landscape architecture, news
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The Bridge Builders explores the evolution of a master designer.

January 3, 2011 (ATLANTIC BEACH, NC) – From growing up on North Carolina’s Outer Banks during the Great Depression and World War II, to watching as his immigrant father designed and built the first “Lost Colony” amphitheater, to a series of adventures that began when he won the coveted Prix de Rome in 1951, landscape architect Richard C. “Dick” Bell explores his evolution as a designer in his first book, The Bridge Builders.

Dick Bell is the Southern landscape architect who created such seminal landmarks as the North Carolina State University “Brickyard,” the City of Raleigh’s beloved Pullen Park, and the Meredith College Amphitheater in Raleigh, among 2000 other projects he has completed in his long career – projects that left a profound imprint on his profession and his state. Through The Bridge Builders, he explores the people, places, and educational experiences that made him the man and the designer he came to be.

Published by Vantage Press, The Bridge Builders begins with his paternal grandparents’ immigration from England to Canada in the early years of the 20^th century, before his father hastened their relocation to North Carolina. As a young boy in the sea and sand of Manteo, NC, and as a son and grandson of avid gardeners, Bell developed an intense love of nature and conservation that would define his illustrious career. As the youngest recipient of the Prix de Rome, his travel abroad would forever influence how he designed outdoor spaces for human enjoyment.

The book concludes just as Bell is starting what would become one of his master works and a living laboratory for landscape architecture, the former Water Garden in Raleigh – the “Taliesin” of North Carolina.

Midwest Book Review says: “The Bridge Builders is a memoir from Richard Bell as he reflects on being an American who came to love art and architecture in Europe and did well in helping establish important work that earned him a place as town hero in Raleigh. The Bridge Builders is intriguing and thoughtful for those looking for a read that bridges art and architecture.”

The book includes a collection of photos from Bell’s life and travels along with original sketches and watercolors he made during his years at the American Academy in Rome.
Bell is planning to publish another book or white paper in the future that will include case studies of his major projects.

Click HERE to learn more about The Bridge Builders.

The order a copy of the book ($16.95), call by phone 24-hours a day: 877-736-5403, option 5; or fax an order to 212-736-2273.

Dick Bell in Pullen Park © f8 Photo Studios

About the author:

A multi-award-winning landscape architect, Richard C. Bell was educated at the North Carolina State University School of Design (now College of Design), graduating in 1950 as part of Dean Henry Kamphoefner’s first class. He apprenticed under Simonds & Simonds of Pittsburgh, PA, and Frederick B. Stresau of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He received the Prix de Rome at age 21, 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 the first person elected to the registration board.) He has been a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects since 1954 and was elected to Fellowship in 1980. He is also a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome. He was the first recipient of the ASLA NC’s Award for Distinguished Professional Achievement and inducted into the Raleigh Hall of Fame in 2008. He now lives in Atlantic Beach, NC, where he continues to work on select projects.

Frank Harmon Makes National “Short List of Architects We Love”

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Residential Architect releases its first-ever “RA 50”

Frank Harmon, FAIA © f8 Photo Studios

December 30, 2010 (RALEIGH, NC) – For the first time in its history, Residential Architect magazine has published its “RA 50: A Short List of Architects We Love.” And Frank Harmon Architect PA of Raleigh, NC, is among them.

According to editor Claire Conroy, “This collection comprises [firms] whose names keep rising to the top.” Along with Harmon’s firm, the list includes such illustrious names as Glenn Murcutt, Brooks-Scarpa Architects, Lake/Flato, and Michelle Kaufman.

Senior editors Nigel Maynard, Cheryl Weber, Meghan Drueding, and Bruce Snider say the RA 50 represents “a broad collection of people who simply – day in and day out – do very good, interesting work.”

Frank Harmon Architect PA is no stranger to Residential Architect’s pages. In 2003, the Taylor Vacation House the firm designed for a couple in the Bahamas was named RA’s House of the Year. In 2005, the firm received the magazine’s Top Firm of the Year accolade.

Since then, founder and principal Frank Harmon, FAIA, has been featured in a number of the magazine’s articles on sustainable, regionally appropriate residential design and construction, and he has been a speaker at RA’s annual “Reinvention” design symposium.

The RA 50 list first appeared in the magazine’s November-December digital version at http://mydigimag.rrd.com/publication/?i=55205 then in print. Harmon’s firm appears on page 30 beside Australian architect Glenn Murcutt, Hon. FAIA. Expanded versions of each architect’s profile will soon be featured on the website www.residentialarchitect.com.

“One of the most exciting things about this is that my firm is featured on the same page as Glenn Murcutt, the most important contemporary architect working today, and a designer from whom I have learned so much,” said Harmon. “I’m also honored simply to be included in the pages of Residential Architect. RA is truly the finest publication on residential design and construction in the nation.”

Residential Architect is an award-winning national magazine focusing exclusively on the residential architecture profession.

“We put this short list together as an end-of-year tribute to this admirable profession,” the editors state.

For more information, visit www.residentialarchitect.com.

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

About Frank Harmon Architect PA:

Frank Harmon Architect PA, a multi-award-winning firm headquartered in downtown Raleigh, is recognized nationally as a leader in innovative, modern, and regionally inspired “green” architecture. The year the firm was ranked 13^th 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 include Duke University’s Ocean Science Teaching Center in Beaufort, the NC Botanical Garden’s new Visitors Center at UNC-Chapel Hill, and Merchants Millpond Outdoor Educational building in Gatesville, N.C. The firm’s work has been featured in numerous books, magazines and journals on architecture, including Dwell, Architectural Record, Arch Daily, and Residential Architect. For more information, go to www.frankharmon.com.

Construction Begins On AIA NC’s New, “Green” Headquarters

Categories: architecture, business, downtown Raleigh, environmentalism, garden design, green architecture, land planning, landscape architecture, modern architecture
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Future LEED- Platinum building breaks ground in downtown Raleigh.

December 8, 2010 (RALEIGH, NC) – After two years of planning and waiting for financing, the North Carolina chapter of the American Institute of Architects will finally hold its official, public groundbreaking ceremony for its new headquarters building and design center on Thursday, December 9, at 11:30 a.m. The building will be constructed on an oddly shaped, previously unused lot on Peace and Wilmington streets between Peace College and the NC Government Complex.

Designed by Frank Harmon Architect PA after the firm won a professional competition for the project in 2008, the AIA NC Center for Architecture & Design will be “a modern building with a green heart,” as Frank Harmon, FAIA, likes to call it.

The building has been designed to meet LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards at the highest Platinum level, and AIA Committee On The Environment (COTE) goals, which include regional appropriateness and the use of regionally available materials, land use and site ecology, sustainable materials and methods of construction, reduced water usage, and increased energy efficiency.

“As we come out of the recession, we won’t be building in the same wasteful ways,” Harmon said. “With new emphasis on alternative energy and sustainable design, the AIA NC Center will show us a new way to build.”

Harmon also believes the Center will be a compelling example for responsible revitalization of the cores of towns and cities across the state, including Raleigh.

“It will demonstrate sustainable urban development and put Raleigh ‘on the map’ as a leader in this endeavor,” he noted, “from re-using every shovel of earth removed for the footprint, to the porously paved parking garden and state-of-the-art ‘green’ technology.”

Deferring to the natural topography, the new building will be situated along the edge of the property and porously paved so that the majority of the site will be park-like – a public park in an area of the city that doesn’t have one. This will provide an outdoor gathering space for AIA NC and community events and effectively expand AIA NC’s outreach program.

“One of AIA NC’s goals is to contribute to the vitality of that section of downtown by transforming an awkward, unused piece of property into a ‘people center’ that will, in turn, impact the businesses around it,” Harmon said.

Architecturally, the overriding objective of the building’s concept is “to demonstrate and encourage aesthetic and ecological integrity – to create a flagship for green architecture in North Carolina that is architecturally, environmentally, socially, and aesthetically inspiring,” Harmon said.

Construction should be completed in 10-12 months.

For more information on the building’s design, visit www.frankharmon.com/current/3/. For more information on AIA NC, visit www.aianc.org.

NC Landscape Architect’s Work Featured In National Press

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Dick Bell photographed in Pullen Park, one of the many landmark projects he created in Raleigh. (photo by f8 Photo Studios)

Dick Bell, FASLA, is back in the news

November 8, 20101 (ATLANTIC BEACH, NC) – Master landscape architect Richard C. “Dick” Bell, FASLA, was honored recently to have one of his favorite projects included in Landscape Architect magazine’s Centennial Issue and to have his career praised in Architects + Artisans, an online magazine dedicated to “thoughtful design for a sustainable world.”

A resident of Atlantic Beach, NC, now, Bell was in Raleigh visiting his daughter recently when he picked up a copy of Landscape Architect’s October edition and discovered his drawing for the NC State University Student Plaza, also known as “The Brickyard,” in the section on Design. Landscape Architecture is the official publication of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

“I had no idea,” he said. “I was truly surprised and honored.”

The Design section spotlights landscape architecture projects that embraced modernist design, rather than European-inspired formalism or classicism. Three blocks long and one block wide, The Brickyard’s flowing, curvilinear design exemplifies the modern aesthetic in landscape architecture and has become an iconic gathering place for NC State students, faculty and visitors since it was competed in 1970.

Concurrent with the appearance of his design in Landscape Architecture, Architects + Artisans.com posted an article entitled “A Life In Landscape Architecture” on October 26.

"The Brickyard" at NC State University

“New Yorkers may claim Frederick Law Olmsted as their own, and Virginians might cling to the gardens that Charles Gillette once molded and shaped, but North Carolinians today can embrace their own living icon of the landscape architecture profession,” wrote A+A editor Mike Welton with staff writer Cheryl Wilder about Bell and his career, which began in the 1950s and continues today.

In the A+A article, Bell names The Brickyard as one of his favorite projects among over 2000 projects he has completed. A+A also notes:

“When [Bell] was inducted into the 2008 Raleigh Hall of Fame, the non-profit group noted that he’s driven by a single professional mission: ‘To leave a little beauty behind wherever I go.’ Over a long and successful career, that’s the very least he’s achieved.”

Architects + Artisans is located at www.architectsandartisans.com.

The Meredith College Amphitheater

For more information on Dick Bell, visit http://dickbell.wordpress.com and http://trianglemodernisthouses.com/dbell.htm.

About Dick Bell:

A native of Manteo, NC, award-winning landscape architect Richard C. Bell is a fellow of both the American Society of Landscape Architecture and the American Academy in Rome. He was educated at the North Carolina State University School of Design, graduating as a member of its School’s first graduating class in 1950. He apprenticed under Simonds & Simonds of Pittsburgh, PA, and Frederick B. Stresau of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. At the age of 21, he was the youngest designer to receive the Prix de Rome. He founded his first firm in Raleigh, NC, in 1955, introducing the practice of landscape architecture as a registered profession to the state and was the first person elected to the registration board. He has completed over 2000 landscape architecture projects ranging from major city and highway corridors to city parks, university plazas and amphitheatres, mixed-use beachfront developments, and individual residences. A recognized leader in environmentalism and sustainable design long before the words became part of the general lexicon, he was inducted in the Raleigh Hall of Fame in 2008 and continues his practice in Atlantic Beach, NC.

Frank Harmon Architect PA Completes New Lath House for JC Raulston Arboretum

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The new structure will help young plants transition to the gardens.

October 27, 2010 (RALEIGH, NC) – Frank Harmon Architect PA, an award-winning firm located in Raleigh, NC, well-known for designing projects that showcase and celebrate plant life, has completed the design and construction of the new Lath House at the JC Raulston Arboretum at NC State University in Raleigh.

The ten and one half-acre JC Raulston Arboretum is a nationally acclaimed garden with one of the largest and most diverse collections of plants, shrubs and trees adapted for use in Southeastern landscapes from over 50 different countries. Plants are collected and evaluated in an effort to find superior plants for use in southern gardens. Every October since the early 1990s, the JC Raulston Arboretum gives away literally thousands of rare and choice plants it has cultivated during its Friends of the Arboretum Plant Distribution event.

The Lath House is a key element within the Arboretum’s work. An open-air laboratory for horticultural research, the original structure sheltered approximately 700 young and tender plants that perform best in shade as they transition towards planting in larger gardens. The new lath house may provide space for 1000 new plantings.

When the Arboretum’s previous lath house needed to be replaced, Frank Harmon, FAIA, volunteered his firm to design a new structure pro bono that would fulfill the specific light-to-shade ratio needed for the plants, using a screen of wood two-by-twos. According to Harmon, the new structure was designed an abstract of a tree that spreads its branches to protect the plants.

“Over the last three decades, the JC Raulston lath house nurtured some of the most successful plants for use in Southern gardens, including hosta, ferns, hydrangea and rhododendron,” Harmon said. “We were honored to be a part of the Arboretum’s mission by designing the new Lath House.”

Other projects the firm has designed that involve support and protection of plant life include the North Carolina Botanical Gardens Visitors Education Center at UNC-Chapel Hill and the Prairie Ridge Outdoor Classroom and Garden Pavilion at the NC Museum of Natural Science’s Prairie Ridge Eco-station in Raleigh. The firm is currently designing Prairie Ridge’s future Eco-Lodge, a residential dormitory for students, teachers and visiting researchers.

The design team for the Lath House included Frank Harmon, FAIA, Erin Sterling, AIA, and Will Lambeth, architectural intern. For more information, visit www.frankharmon.com.

Located at 4415 Beryl Road in Raleigh, the JC Raulston Arboretum is largely built and maintained by NC State University students, faculty, volunteers, and staff. It is named for the founder, former director, and Horticultural Science Department teacher the late J.C. Raulston, Ph.D. For more information, visit www.ncsu.edu/jcraulstonarboretum.com.

About Frank Harmon Architect PA:

Frank Harmon Architect PA, a multi-award-winning firm headquartered in downtown Raleigh, is recognized nationally as a leader in innovative, modern, and regionally inspired “green” architecture. This year the firm was ranked 13^th 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 include Duke University’s Ocean Science Teaching Center in Beaufort, the NC Botanical Garden’s new Visitors Center at UNC-Chapel Hill, and Merchants Millpond Outdoor Educational building in Gatesville, N.C. 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.

Triangle Modernist Houses Presents “Fairmount” Tour

Categories: architecture, art, environmentalism, environmentalist, garden design, green architecture, modern architecture, news, non-profit
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Aerial view of Fairmont

The Joseph Rowand Residence will be on public tour for the first time.

July 5, 2010 (CHAPEL HILL, NC) – “Fairmount,” a 4500-square-foot house designed by Chapel Hill architect Phil Szostak, FAIA, for Somerhill Gallery owner Joseph Rowand, will be open for public touring on Saturday, July 24, from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. The tour is part of Triangle Modernist Houses on-going tours of significant architecture.

Designed as a “country home without yielding to literal historicism,” according to the architect, Fairmount is a sleek yet simply proportioned residence sited on a hilltop between Chapel Hill and Hillsborough, NC. The 22.5-acre estate includes a separate guest quarters, a salt-water swimming pool, a trellised garden and storage shed. The interior features Rowand’s extensive collection of fine art.

“Naturally, Joe’s beautiful home is a reflection of his gallery with volumes of exceptional paintings, sculpture, fine art glass, and other works by nationally recognized artists and craftspeople,” said TMH founder and director George Smart. “The quality of the art alone is worth a visit.” Photography is allowed both inside and outside the house.

Fairmount also features landscape design by master landscape architect Richard C. Bell, FASLA. Punctuated by Rowand’s collection of outdoor sculpture, the landscape is integrated into the house’s interior through an abundance of windows that frame vistas of the surroundings. Szostak was also careful to site to house to take advantage of passive solar heat gain in winter and natural lighting and ventilation.

The house was built by Chuck Lewis Construction and completed in 2000. The pool addition was completed in 2003.

Phil Szostak will be on site during the tour to talk about the design of the house, which is currently for sale. Listing agent Susan Peak will also be on hand to take questions.

For more information on the Rowand residence and to reserve advance tickets ($5.95), go to www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/register.htm. For more information on Triangle Modernist Houses, visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.

About Triangle Modernist Houses

Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) is a 501C3 nonprofit established in 2007 to restore and grow 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.

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