This event serves as the AIA Austin Annual Meeting, where members can vote on the 2020 slate of candidates chosen by the nominating committee led by President Elect Eric Rauser, AIA. That ballot can be found here. After we vote, our speaker will take the stage for the rest of the event.

Frank Harmon, FAIA

The fifth in our five-part series of Design Talks for 2019, with a talk by celebrated architect and author Frank Harmon, FAIA. Founded in 1983, Frank Harmon Architect was a design studio of architects, designers, and makers whose work engaged pressing contemporary needs such as sustainability, placelessness, and the restoration of cities and nature. Located in a building the firm designed – a flagship structure for urban, environmentally sustainable design – the studio also functioned as a workshop in which ideas were tested on various scales, from cities and wilderness areas to stair treads and birdhouses.

Each project that came into the studio was approached as specific to its place yet universal in impact. Among other works, this innovative approach created the Walnut Creek Wetlands Center, where a wall of science and learning saves an endangered wetland and promotes public respect for nature; the Sunday School at the Circular Congregational Church in Charleston, where a 21st-century addition to the oldest church in South Carolina situates modern architecture in a historic setting, bringing respect to old and new; and the AIA NC Center for Architecture and Design in Raleigh, a prototype for sustainable urban architecture and construction in the Middle South.

In 2013, AIA NC honored the firm’s principal, Frank Harmon, FAIA, with the F. Carter Williams Gold Medal, the highest award AIA NC presents to an architect. In all, Frank Harmon Architect won over 60 design awards, and the most AIA NC awards of any North Carolina firm.

Frank will be signing his book Native Places: Drawing as a Way to See. With an introduction by Frank's friend Larry Speck, FAIA, this Design Talks promises to be a not-to-be-missed event. 

This Design Talks is also the AIA Austin Annual Meeting, which means AIA Austin members will vote on the slate of officers for the 2020 Board of Directors at the beginning of the meeting.

The event will be held at the Austin Central Library, 710 W Cesar Chavez St., from 11:30am to 1:00pm.

Design Talks offer 1 LU of continuing education credit for registered attendees (sign-in required).

Advance tickets are:

• $30 Early-bird pricing for Architect and Allied Members
• $15 Early-bird pricing for Associate Members and students
• $40 for non-members

Prices at the door will be:

• $40 for Architect and Allied Members
• $20 for Associate Members and students