Frank Harmon was born in 1941 in Georgia, and he was raised in Greensboro, North Carolina. From 1959 to 1961 he attended the NCSU School of Design, and he graduated in 1967 from the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, England. After graduation he worked with McMinn, Norfleet & Wicker of Greensboro, moved to New York to work with Richard Meierfor, and was a principal in the firm of Harmon & Simeloff, RIBA, in London. In 1981 he set up his own firm in Raleigh, North Carolina. Harmon taught at the NCSU College of Design for 20 years. In 1995, the firm was awarded the AIA NC Kamphoefner Prize for innovative modern design over a 10 year period. In 1998 Harmon became an AIA Fellow. In 2005 Residential Architect named the company Firm of the Year.
Since 1992, his firm, Frank Harmon Architecture, has won more professional association design awards than any firm in North Carolina for both residential and commercial projects. Award-winning projects include the following: the Rake and Hoe Utility Storage Building (Raleigh, which Time gave a Ten Best Building Award in 1988), the NC Pottery Center (Seagrove, NC, which Architectural Record gave a Small Museums recognition in 1999), the Taylor Vacation House (Abaco, Bahamas, which Residential Architect named House of The Year in 2003), the Blacksmith Studio at Penland School of Arts and Crafts (which Business Week/Architectural Record gave an International Honor Award in 2004), and the Lowcountry Residence (Mt. Pleasant, SC, which the national AIA gave a Housing Award in 2009). In 2008, Harmon won the national design competition for the AIA NC Center for Architecture and Design in downtown Raleigh.
From the guide to the Frank Harmon Papers, Circa 1940 - 2012, (Special Collections Research Center)
