Archive for: modern architecture

“Appetite4Architecture” Dinner Features Special Guest Frank Harmon

The first in a series of dinners sponsored by Triangle Modernist Houses.

Frank Harmon, FAIA

January 18, 2012 (Raleigh, NC) – Frank Harmon FAIA, founder and principal of the award-winning firm Frank Harmon Architect PA in Raleigh, will be a featured guest at the first 2012 “Appetite4Architecture” dinner on Tuesday, January 31, beginning at 6:30 p.m. in 18 Seaboard restaurant in Raleigh.

Now in its third year, “Appetite4Architecture” dinners are sponsored by Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH), an award-winning, non-profit organization dedicated to documenting, preserving and promoting Modernist residential design. The purpose of the dinners is to give the general public a chance to dine with, and talk with, some of the Triangle area’s finest architects in a relaxed, informal setting.

Frank Harmon is well known for modern, innovative, sustainable and regionally appropriate architecture of all types, including houses. Among his best known, award-winning residential designs are:

  • The Taylor Vacation House in the Bahamas, which is included in the book Tropical Modernism and was featured in an exhibit in the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., among many other accolades.
  • The Strickland-Ferris Residence in Raleigh, which has been featured in a number of architectural magazines and received both Custom Home and Wood Design awards.
  • The Low Country Residence in Mount Pleasant, SC, which also received a Custom Home Design Award and a national AIA Housing Award.
  • And the own modern home and gardens he shares with his wife, landscape architect Judy Harmon, in Raleigh, which were featured in Sarah Susanka’s book Outside The Not-So-Big House.

In 2011, Frank Harmon was included in Residential Architect magazine’s “RA 50: A Short List of Architects We Love,” and in 2005 his firm received the magazine’s “Top Firm of the Year” honor. He has been profiled in Dwell magazine and Architectural Record, and he has been a featured guest on American Public Media’s “The Story” with Dick Gordon.

Joining Harmon for TMH’s inaugural 2012 “A4A” dinner will be Durham architect Ellen Cassilly, AIA, who worked in Harmon’s firm before founding her own firm Ellen Cassilly Architect Inc., and Randy Lanou, president of BuildSense/Studio B Architecture, also in Durham. Dona Aguayo of Go Realty is co-sponsoring the January 31 dinner.

The TMH “A4A” dinners are all held at 18 Seaboard, 18 Seaboard Avenue, No. 100, Raleigh, NC 27604. 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. Payments are nonrefundable except for event cancellation. All proceeds benefit TMH’s ongoing documentation, preservation, and house tours programs. For more information on TMH call George Smart, 919-740-8407 or visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.

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

About Frank Harmon, FAIA:

Frank Harmon, FAIA, is principal Frank Harmon Architect PA, and Professor in Practice at North Carolina State University’s College of Design. His work has been featured in numerous books, journals and magazines, including Dwell, Architect, Architectural Record, Arch Daily.com, and Residential Architect. A frequent lecturer on modern, sustainable, regionally appropriate architecture, he serves on design awards juries across the nation. For more information, visit www.frankharmon.com.

The House That Steve Jobs Grew Up In, And How It Shaped Apple

Essay and sketches by Frank Harmon, FAIA 

“We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us,” Winston Churchill said, and perhaps no place has the power to shape us like the place where we grow up.

Lyndon Johnson was born in the hardscrabble and desperately poor Hill Country of Texas. His life and political legacy were shaped by the threadbare surroundings of his childhood.

Steve Jobs grew up in a small, modern house in Mountain View, California. So important was the house that he took his biographer, Walter Isaacson, there to show him the many ingenious details of its design — like the radiant floor and the open plan and windows that brought the outdoors in. It’s nice to think that the man many call a genius grew up in a house with ingenious details.

Joseph Eichler, a California developer noted for bringing good design to the mass housing market, built Jobs’ childhood home. Eichler homes were airy and modern in comparison to most of the mass-produced, middle-class, postwar homes being built in the 1950s. Eichler believed that people of modest means could have beautiful things.

Including the modest family who adopted Steve Jobs.

The clean elegance of the Eichler home, available to everyone, was the original vision for Apple, according to Jobs. “That’s what we tried to do with the first Mac,” he recalled. “That’s what we did with the iPod.”

Paul Jobs made a place on his garage workbench so his young son could work beside him. Outside he built a fence around their Eichler home, crafting the back of the fence to look as good as the front. Steve Jobs never forgot that lesson, and would insist that every element of his Apple products should be beautiful, not just on the outside but even on the inside. “But no one will see it,” his engineers groaned when he insisted on a beautiful hidden circuit board. “But I will!” Jobs replied.

Apple stores were conceived of and meticulously supervised by Steve Jobs. From the open plan to the glass stairs, no detail was unimportant. They are the 21st century embodiment of Paul Jobs’ workbench in Mountain View. We are used to thinking that the digital world is placeless, but in the digital world of Jobs, place mattered.

A student of Zen, Jobs absorbed the belief of Dogen Zenji, a Zen master who wrote, “Whoever told people that ‘mind’ means thoughts opinions, ideas, and concepts? Mind means trees, fence posts, tiles, and grasses.” And, we might add, IPods, workbenches, and Eichler homes.

Like Eichler, Jobs brought beauty to ordinary things. He shaped the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad. Now they shape us.

Frank Harmon Discusses The New AIA NC Center for Architecture and Design in New Video

Harmon and landscape architect Gregg Bleam talk about the design process. 

The iconic AIA NC headquarters nears completion in downtown Raleigh.

December 6, 2011 (Raleigh, NC) — Architect Frank Harmon, FAIA, of Frank Harmon Architect PA, recently posted a new video on his website (www.frankharmon.com) in which he and landscape architect Gregg Bleam discuss the design process behind the soon-to-be-completed AIA NC Center for Architecture and Design in downtown Raleigh.

Segments of the video will be updated as AIA NC (the American Institute of Architects North Carolina chapter) moves in and the landscape matures.

Harmon explains at the beginning of the video that the project is the result of his firm winning a professional design competition. One of the reasons Harmon won, according to the judges, was that his concept for a modern, thoroughly sustainable, and regionally appropriate Center embraced building and landscape as a single interdependent, interlocking whole.

“We knew this was a landscape problem,” Harmon says, because of the oddly shaped, triangular site and the parking requirements. As a result, he enlisted Bleam “before we drew a single line” and felt including Bleam in the video on the building was imperative.

Directed and shot by Allen Weiss of Allen Weiss: Works on Film and Paper in Raleigh, the video

Frank Harmon, FAIA

features Harmon in his warehouse-turned-office in Raleigh’s Boylan Heights neighborhood and Bleam in his office in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia. It also includes a variety of footage of the building under construction; of Harmon and Bleam walking the site, looking over plans and laughing together; and behind-the-scenes moments in the construction trailer.

This is the first video that Frank Harmon, a multi-awarding winning architect and Professor in Practice at NC State University’s College of Design, has done for his website. Why did he choose this particular project?

“Because of its design, the AIA NC Center for Architecture and Design is destined to be an icon in downtown Raleigh,” said Kim Weiss, Harmon’s public relations coordinator. “It’s also the first from-the-ground-up, ‘green’ AIA headquarters in the nation.

“But equally important,” she continued, “is that the general public rarely gets to hear an architect talk about the process that lead to the design of a building, especially one as iconic as this one. Through the video, Frank is creating a rapport with his audience, whether that means students, clients, future clients, or folks just interested in architecture. Together, he and Gregg are communicating more than a written description could.”

She also pointed out that “videos are entertaining. It’s simply a fact that people today are more likely to click on a video than to read a written description.”

The man behind the camera, Allen Weiss, noted how comfortable Harmon and Bleam were in front of the camera. “There was no script,” he said. “They just started talking and were of such a similar mindset that I could easily cut from one to the other as they discussed the design process. I was impressed.”

The video opens and closes with audible off-camera voices. Weiss said he purposefully left the “chatter” in during the edit to give the piece a casual, relaxed feel, “unlike the garden-variety, industrial, talking-head videos that are dry and offer no clues into the personalities behind them. I don’t believe you can separate the product from the dynamic and interesting personalities that lead to its creation. My intention was not only to showcase this important structure, but to allow viewers to get to know Frank and Gregg in a simply, personal, human way.”

To hear Frank Harmon and Gregg Bleam discuss the design process behind the AIA NC Center for Architecture and Design, visit www.frankharmon.com and click on AIA North Carolina Center for Architecture Design Video.” To read more about the project, click on “current” projects.

For more information on Gregg Bleam Landscape Architect, go to www.gbla.net.

For more information on Allen Weiss, visit www.allen-weiss.com.

About Frank Harmon Architect PA

Frank Harmon Architect PA is an award-winning architectural firm that is recognized nationally as a leader in modern, innovative, sustainable and regionally appropriate design. Its competition-winning design for the AIA NC Center for Architecture & Design is currently under construction in downtown Raleigh. 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. The firm ranked 21st in Architecture magazine’s Top 50 firms in the nation this year and Frank Harmon, FAIA, founder and principal, was included in Residential Architect magazine’s first “RA 50: The short list of architects we love.” For more information, go to www.frankharmon.com.

Nowell’s Architecture Movie Series Presents Louis Sullivan Documentary

Examining the life, career, and influence of the American architect/artist. 

November 30, 2011 (Cary, NC) — Triangle Modernist Houses continues the 2011-2012 Nowell’s Architecture Movie Series this month with a special screening of “Louis Sullivan: The Struggle for American Architecture” on Thursday, December 15 at 7:30 p.m, in Cary’s Galaxy Cinema.

Directed by Mark Richard Smith, the film focuses on the life and career of Louis Sullivan as an artist and what he tried to do for American architecture. Much of the footage is comprised of moving shots that trace building details and ornamentation not readily seen by the casual eye.

“Louis Sullivan: The Struggle for American Architecture marks the first time that the life and career of Louis Sullivan have been brought to the screen,” the film’s website states. “Aside from several films that presented certain parts of Sullivan’s career such as his skyscrapers and banks, there has never been an in-depth exploration of him as an artist and what he tried so hard to do for American architecture.

The film presents Sullivan as an artist who never felt completely comfortable in the romanticism of the nineteenth-century or the unsentimental, mechanized world of the 20th century. It also looks at how Louis Sullivan exerted a tremendous influence on the development of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Tickets to the film are $9 at the door. Galaxy Cinema is located in the Village Square Shopping Center at 770 Cary Towne Boulevard, Cary, NC 27511. Phone: 919-463-9959.

Hanbury Preservation Consulting in Raleigh is sponsoring this special screening of “Louis Sullivan: The Struggle For American Architecture.” Sponsors for the entire series are Nowell’s Contemporary Furniture, Kontek, Alphin Design Build, Cherry Modern, Modern Home Auction, Studio B Architecture, and Dail Dixon FAIA.

Hosted by Triangle Modernist Houses, the Nowell’s Architecture Movie Series features exciting and hard-to-find films about Modernist architects and architecture. Films are shown one Thursday of each month from October through March 2012. For a complete list of the upcoming films, to buy advance tickets, and to see a trailer of upcoming film, go to www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/movies.

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. Visit the website at www.trianglemodernisthouses.com. TMH also has an active community on Facebook.

Nowell’s Architecture Movie Series Presents Louis Sullivan Documentary

Examining the life, career, and influence of the American architect/artist. 

November 30, 2011 (Cary, NC) — Triangle Modernist Houses continues the 2011-2012 Nowell’s Architecture Movie Series this month with a special screening of “Louis Sullivan: The Struggle for American Architecture” on Thursday, December 15 at 7:30 p.m, in Cary’s Galaxy Cinema.

Directed by Mark Richard Smith, the film focuses on the life and career of Louis Sullivan as an artist and what he tried to do for American architecture. Much of the footage is comprised of moving shots that trace building details and ornamentation not readily seen by the casual eye.

“Louis Sullivan: the Struggle for American Architecture marks the first time that the life and career of Louis Sullivan have been brought to the screen,” the film’s website states. “Aside from several films that presented certain parts of Sullivan’s career such as his skyscrapers and banks, there has never been an in-depth exploration of him as an artist and what he tried so hard to do for American architecture.

The film presents Sullivan as an artist who never felt completely comfortable in the romanticism of the nineteenth-century or the unsentimental, mechanized world of the 20th century. It also looks at how Louis Sullivan exerted a tremendous influence on the development of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Tickets to the film are $9 at the door. Galaxy Cinema is located in the Village Square Shopping Center at 770 Cary Towne Boulevard, Cary, NC 27511. Phone: 919-463-9959.

Hanbury Preservation Consulting in Raleigh is sponsoring this special screening of “Louis Sullivan: The Struggle For American Architecture.” Sponsors for the entire series are Nowell’s Contemporary Furniture, Kontek, Alphin Design Build, Cherry Modern, Modern Home Auction, Studio B Architecture, and Dail Dixon FAIA.

Hosted by Triangle Modernist Houses, the Nowell’s Architecture Movie Series features exciting and hard-to-find films about Modernist architects and architecture. Films are shown one Thursday of each month from October through March 2012. For a complete list of the upcoming films, to buy advance tickets, and to see a trailer of upcoming film, go to www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/movies.

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. Visit the website at www.trianglemodernisthouses.com. TMH also has an active community on Facebook.

Paul Hobgood Joins Triangle Modernist Houses’ Advisory Council

Paul Hobgood

To assist the non-profit with its ongoing mission.

November 30, 2011 (Raleigh, NC) – Paul Hobgood, a design associate in the award-winning architectural firm Kenneth E Hobgood Architects in Raleigh, has been selected to serve on Triangle Modernist Houses’ 2012 Advisory Council.

TMH is a 501C3 nonprofit established in 2007 to preserve and promote Modernist architecture in the Triangle. The award-winning website is now the largest educational and historical archive for Modernist residential design in America.

Selected from a cross-section of the design community, Advisory Council members support and improve TMH’s programming, including popular house tours, architecture movies, trips, presentations, and many other events.

Paul Hobgood graduated from North Carolina State University’s College of Design in 2008 with a Masters in Architecture. He was a finalist for the Kamphoefner Honor Fellowship, an annual award that recognizes the College’s outstanding Master of Architecture student. He has worked at Kenneth E. Hobgood Architects since 2004, and has served as a design architect on a number of the firm’s modern, award-winning projects since then.

“I’m excited about serving on the Advisory Council for two reasons,” Hobgood said. “One, it’s an opportunity to further enhance a resource – TMH — that spotlights the Triangle’s rich history as it pertains to modernist homes and architects, since I’ve spent most of my life in and around modernist architecture. Two, I have a genuine sense of pride when it comes to the Triangle. I’m also intrigued by the broad spectrum of interests and specialties that comprise this year’s Advisory Council. It should make for a spirited debate/process.”

The 16-member Advisory Council meets twice a year at the modern Durham home of TMH founder and board chair George Smart.

“The Advisory Council is part focus group, part brain trust,” said Smart. “The members’ experience and insights into design and preservation have helped us create so many popular events over the years that our website is now up to 40,000-plus views a month. I’m looking forward to the innovations that will no doubt come from the 2010 Advisory Council.”

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

For more information on Paul Hobgood and Kenneth E. Hobgood Architects, visit www.kennethhobgood.com.

About Kenneth E. Hobgood, Architects:

Kenneth Hobgood, FAIA, founded Kenneth E Hobgood, Architects in Raleigh, NC, in 1992. Since then, the firm has received 39 design awards from the American Institute of Architects North Carolina chapter and its work has been published and exhibited in the United States, Japan, Italy, the Netherlands, England and Germany. In 1997, Kenneth Hobgood as awarded the Kamphoefner Prize from North Carolina State University’s College of Design for “consistent integrity and devotion to the development of modern architecture” in North Carolina. He has served as a visiting critic at Auburn University, Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech, and the University of Kentucky, and as an adjunct professor at North Carolina State University since 1988. For more information visit www.kennethhobgood.com.

Triangle Modernist Houses Names 2012 Advisory Council

November 17, 2011 (DURHAM, NC) – George Smart, founder and director of Triangle Modernist Houses.com (TMH), has named the organization’s 2012 Advisory Council.

TMH is a 501C3 nonprofit established in 2007 to preserve and promote Modernist architecture in the Triangle. The award-winning website is now the largest educational and historical archive for Modernist residential design in America.

Appointment to the Advisory Council is a one-year term starting January 1, 2012. Selected from a cross-section of the design community, Advisory Council members support and improve TMH’s programming including popular house tours, architecture movies, trips, presentations, and many other events.

Members of the 2012 TMH Advisory Council are:

  • Queron Smith, Senior Vice President, M&F Bank
  • Architect Chad Parker, AIA, of Gensler
  • Caterri Woodrum, Chief Financial Officer, NC Museum of Art
  • Architect Brian Shawcroft, AIA
  • Greg Raschke, Associate Director for Collections and Scholarly Communication Administration for the N.C. State University Libraries
  • Architect Robby Johnson, AIA, of Clearscapes
  • Stan Williams, Senior Director of Public Affairs for the North Carolina Symphony
  • Architect Matt Griffith, AIA, principal of in situ studio
  • Dr. David Brook, Director, North Carolina Archives & History
  • Architect Jessica Johnson Moore, AIA, of More Space Studio
  • Design associate Paul Hobgood of Kenneth Hobgood Architects
  • Architect Jody Brown, AIA, author of the blog “Coffee With an Architect”
  • Project designer Tika Hicks of Frank Harmon Architect PA
  • Ann Marie Baum, Cherry Modern
  • Architect K.C. Ramsay
  • Kim Weiss, principal of Blueplate PR and public relations coordinator for Triangle Modernist Houses

“One of the greatest challenges we face in architectural history is the identification, protection, and public appreciation of North Carolina’s modernist architecture—especially of houses,” said Dr. Brook, “I am particularly interested in the intellectual and architectural legacy of Dean Henry Kamphoefner and the faculty and students of the former School of Design at NCSU. I welcome membership on the TMH Advisory Council as a way to preserve this heritage and to encourage future excellence and innovation in architectural design.”

“The Advisory Council is part focus group, part brain trust.  Their experience and insights into design and preservation tapped new wildly popular events moved our website up to 30,000+ hits a month.  It’s an honor to get this dream team together, and I look forward to a great 2012,” said George Smart.

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

About Triangle Modernist Houses:

Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) is an award-winning 501C3 nonprofit established in 2007 dedicated to documenting, preserving, and promoting Modernist residential design. The award-winning website is now the largest educational and historical archive for Modernist residential design in America. TMH also hosts popular house tours several times a year. For more information: www.trianglemodernisthouses.com. TMH also maintains an active community on Facebook. For more information: www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.

 

Umicore Building Products Holds Open House in New Headquarters

November 15, 2011 (Raleigh, NC) – Umicore Building Products USA, manufacturer of VMZINC® architectural zinc, held an open house together with its parent company Umicore USA in its new North American headquarters at 3600 Glenwood Avenue in Raleigh, North Carolina, on November 1.

Umicore invited site managers from North America as well as corporate executives from global European headquarters to the open house, along with customers, clients, and other companies with whom Umicore does business.

UBP North American President Norbert Schneider and Daniel Nicely, Associate AIA and Director of Market Development, welcomed 150 guests as they toured the company’s new 15,000-square-foot headquarters.

Other company VIPS in attendance included Ravila Gupta, President of Umicore USA; Martine Verluyten, Former Chief Financial Officer of Umicore; LudoVandervelden, Chief Financial Officer of Umicore; and Denis Goffaux, Chief Technology Office of Umicore.

Catering Works catered the event.

For more information on Umicore Building Products and VMZINC, visit www.vmzinc-us.com.

About Umicore Building Products USA, Inc.

Umicore is a world-leading producer of architectural zinc. For over 160 years Umicore has been providing innovative solutions for building owners, architects and contractors. Umicore has offices and representatives all over the world. In the United States, Umicore Building Products USA, Inc., is based in Raleigh, NC. For additional information, visit www.vmzinc-us.com.

Umicore Building Products Wins Project of Distinction Award

American Builders Quarterly praises Gateway Center project. 

The Gateway Center features extensive use of VMZINC architectural zinc.

November 2, 2011 (Raleigh, NC) — American Builders Quarterly magazine (ABQ) has chosen the Gateway Center at Westchester Community College in Valhalla, New York, as a Project of Distinction in its 2011 Building Excellence Awards.

Umicore Building Products USA (UBP) entered the 70,000-square-foot project in ABQ’s annual competition since it features extensive use of VMZINC® architecture zinc. Umicore, UBP’s global parent company, is a world-leading manufacturer of architectural zinc.

Designed by Ennead Architects LLP of New York with Worth Construction as contractor, the Gateway Center’s building materials integrate the structure with the existing fabric of the campus and establish a new signature building for the College. Fieldstone at the base of the building resonates with historic buildings on campus, while offices and classrooms, cantilevered over a base of structurally glazed walls, are clad in VMZINC (installed by Barrett Roofing).

“We received entries from all over the nation, but [Umicore’s] stood out as an exemplary work in keeping with the best aesthetic and pragmatic traditions of architecture, engineering, and construction management in the United States,” said ABQ features editor Geoff George.

“We are honored to receive the American Builders Quarterly award,” said Dan Nicely, Director of Market Development UBP. “And we are very proud to be associated with such a great project by the very talented designers at Ennead Architects.”

The project is featured in ABQ’s November-December edition. 

The Gateway Center also recently received a national award from the Metal Construction Association for “the exceptional use of metal in innovative architectural designs.”

Now in its fifth year covering America’s construction industry, American Builders Quarterly provides an industry-specific look at high-quality companies spanning all aspects of the building trade. For more information on ABQ and to download the digital edition, go to http://americanbuildersquarterly.com.

For more information on Umicore Building Products USA and VMZINC®, visit www.vmzinc-us.com.

About Umicore Building Products USA, Inc.

Umicore is a world-leading producer of architectural zinc. For over 160 years Umicore has been providing innovative solutions for building owners, architects and contractors. Umicore has offices and representatives all over the world. In the United States, Umicore Building Products USA, Inc., is based in Raleigh, NC. For additional information, visit www.vmzinc-us.com.

 

 

TMH Announces 2011 Macon Smith Research Grant Recipients

To support research into residential modernist architecture and architects

David Hill

October 27, 2011 — David Hill, Assistant Professor of Architecture at North Carolina State University’s College of Design, has won a second Mason Smith Research Grant from Triangle Modernist Houses, the non-profit, award-winning organization dedicated to documenting, preserving and promoting modernist residential design.

Hill and his students will use the grant to create digital models of houses designed by ground breaking modernist architect George Matsumoto, FAIA. The models will be posted on the TMH website and elsewhere.

This is Hill’s second Macon Smith Research Grant from TMH. In 2009 he received the grant to interview Matsumoto at the architect’s home in Oakland, California.

TMH also awarded a 2011 MSR Grant to Tyler Merkel of Grand Rapids, Michigan, who will create

Tyler Merkel

infrastructure for his website, Mid-century Michigan, and to research Alden Ball Dow, FAIA (1904-1983) for TMH’s archives. Mid-century Michigan is an independent project Merkel initiated to document modern houses in East Grand Rapids and the surrounding areas.

George Smart, founder and board chairman of TMH, announced the award recipients this week.

Smart established the Macon Smith Research Grant Program in 2009 to support research into residential modernist architecture and architects. Grants of up to $1000 are available to private citizens, academics and students, or institutions.

The grants are named for modernist architect Macon Smith (1919-2008). From 1996 to 1999, Smith was instrumental in the publication of an award-winning historical chronology of AIA North Carolina: “History of the North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, 1913-1988: An Architectural Heritage.” He served on countless AIA boards and committees and won both the 2001 Deitrick Medal and the 2006 F. Carter Williams Gold Medal, the highest honors presented by AIANC.

In early 2008, Smith spent many hours scouring his own records and driving around Raleigh, NC, with George Smart to help TMH get started.

“Through my dad [the late architect George Smart Sr.], I knew Macon my entire life, but it wasn’t until we started TMH that I got to know him well,” said Smart. “We had some great afternoons riding around finding his work around Raleigh.  His knowledge of NC architecture became my inspiration for expanding our archives beyond the Triangle area.  David and Tyler now carry the torch for the passion we all share.”

Anyone interested in applying for a 2012 Macon Smith Research Grant an send an email and PowerPoint proposal to Smart at George@trianglemodernisthouses.com. The proposal should include up to 300 total words describing the project the grant would fund, and 10 photos in up to five slides, plus one slide of contact information.

For more information on Macon Smith, go to www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/smith. For more information on Triangle Modernist Houses, visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.

About Triangle Modernist Houses:

Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) is a 501C3 nonprofit organization established in 2007 and dedicated to documenting, preserving and promoting modernist residential architecture. The award-winning website is now the largest educational and historical archive for modernist residential design in America. TMH also hosts popular modernist house tours several times a year, giving the public access to the Triangle’s modernist residential architecture, past and present. These tours and a host of other TMH-sponsored events 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.