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Articles by Frank Harmon
Darkness and Hope
Tonight the newspaper was full of world crises. Between global warming and war, children at the border and terrorism, we seemed to be on the edge of oblivion. But then I read this headline in the Washington Post: “New cricket discovered in long-neglected amber collection.” The story was about a cricket that flourished 20 million years ago. I stepped outside. Overhead the sky was a dark ceiling. Lightning bugs fired up and bats flashed by in the nightshade of trees.
Barragan’s Choice
When Luis Barragan (1902-1988) left Mexico in 1931 to study architecture in Paris, he left behind the chickens and paddock fences of the hacienda where he grew up. In Paris he absorbed the tumultuous newness of modern art and architecture. Here, Le Corbusier and German modernists were his teachers. Four years later he returned to Mexico, determined to implement the new architecture he’d discovered in Europe.
Gardening and Living
Christopher Lloyd (1922-2006) was born and raised at Great Dixter, a rambling, 15th century manor house in Northiam, East Sussex. He inherited a love of gardening from his mother. After studying horticulture at Wye College he returned to Great Dixter to start a plant nursery. Then he remade his mother’s garden into a work of art. Christo, as he was called, was a meticulous record keeper. He inspected his plants twice a day and recorded the results in a weatherproof notebook.
Anywhere But Here
The Freedom Tower, the replacement for the World Trade Center, opened last month and not everyone was happy about it. On November 29, 2014, New York Times critic Michael Kimmelman wrote, “It could have been anywhere, which New York isn’t.” That’s not unusual. We’re used to seeing tall buildings that look the same in San Diego and Sarasota shellacked with a coat of tinny glass. They serve as 3D indicators of real estate value.
Standing Tall
Why are tall buildings starting to be forgettable? Twenty stories high, 300 feet in the air and we don’t give them a second look. Here’s a tall building you can’t fail to notice, Christ Church Spitalfields built in 1729 by architect Nicholas Hawksmoor to serve the poor on the outskirts of London. His church soared above the squat buildings around it with a limestone tower shining through the coal smoke of London. Hawksmoor’s tower was an expression of joy, pure and unrepentant.
Chimney Swifts
A chimney swift is a small brown bird that weighs less than a heaping tablespoon of sugar and flies from North America to Peru every winter. In autumn the swifts form flocks to migrate southward, congregating above city roofs at dusk when as many as 5000 birds will spiral downwards into a brick chimney to roost. Enter the US Navy. Some far-sighted Navy scientists are trying to learn how these tiny birds can fly so close together without colliding. Why?
The Four Elements of a Modern Home
Stroll through Triangle-area neighborhoods developed in the 1950s, and you’ll see Cape Cod and Colonial Revival houses — and, of course, plenty of ranch homes featuring neat lawns and trimmed hedges. Occasionally, you may spot a house that’s a bit out of the ordinary: a mid-century modern gem, half hidden among the trees, with a flat roof, large windows, and an entrance partly concealed by the forest. As a young architect, I was weaned on mid-century modernist architecture.
Holiday Roundup of Architecture Books
Among the many architecture and design books published throughout the year, record receives a number we would like to peruse at leisure or delve into to better understand significant contributions to the discipline.
Raleigh needs more diverse, affordable housing | News & Observer
I live a block away from N.C. State University in a neighborhood called University Park, where students come from all over North Carolina to leave their empty beer cans and fast food wrappers in my yard. I like living here. It’s lively. I can walk to three coffee shops and several restaurants and to the College of Design where I teach. I can live with a little litter. But lately there’s a move to bring more than litter to my street.
Public transit is good for you and Wake County | News & Observer
Within a four-mile stretch of Creedmoor Road, a thriving Raleigh thoroughfare, there are eight drugstores and umpteen fast food joints. There are sidewalks, too, but few people use them and almost every journey of more than 20 steps is made by car.Roughly two thirds of Americans are overweight and one third are obese. Epidemiologists have correlated the increase in heart disease with the increase in fast food restaurants.
Harris’ buildings a study of creativity, design
Today the values of modern and historic architecture are widely debated in Raleigh, often acrimoniously. We live in a city where change is constant. Yet learning to navigate change is part of life. Respectful debate about architecture is necessary and healthy, but supporting historical architecture does not equal hating contemporary architecture, and vice versa.
Serious lack of design innovation plagues Raleigh
Downtown Raleigh’s rapid growth is clearly visible. Our major streets are changing before our eyes. And a disturbing trend has begun to reveal itself.Downtown Raleigh is being transformed by repetitive, five-story, stick-built apartments atop concrete parking structures. Residents enter them by car, not from the sidewalk.
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