A three-hour session with Marlon Blackwell, Ellen Cassilly, Tom Kundig, and Scott Renk

March 12, 2015 (Raleigh, NC) --  Frank Harmon, FAIA, a multi-award winning architect in Raleigh, NC, and the author/illustrator of the website  Native Places, will present a three-hour seminar at the American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) National Convention in Atlanta in May entitled “ Urban Sketching.”

Above: 17th Street, Denver CO. Sketch by Frank Harmon

Raleigh sketch artist Scott Rent will join Harmon to discuss the means and methods for sketching. Marlon Blackwell, FAIA, a nationally prominent architect from Fayetteville, Arkansas, Tom Kundig (Olson Kundig Architects, Seattle, WA), and Ellen Cassilly (Ellen Cassilly Architect, Chapel Hill, NC), will discuss the value of sketching in their work.

"Leonardo Di Vinci said that drawing was a way to understand the world,” Harmon said recently. “Drawing allows you to see things you never noticed before. The point is not to make a pretty drawing. The point is to draw what you see."

In the Convention program, AIA organizers note, “In a world of design software and technology modeling tools, spontaneous freehand sketching remains the most efficient and effective way to jump start the creative process.”

  Above: Row houses in Philadelphia. Sketch by Frank Harmon

Harmon’s two-part session includes a one-hour seminar and a two-hour excursion for sketching.

The AIA National Convention will be held at the Georgia World Congress Center May 16-18. Harmon’s “Urban Sketching” session will take place on May 16 from 7-11 a.m., beginning at the World Congress Center.

For more information on Frank Harmon, visit  www.frankharmon.com. To see examples of his sketches, visit  Native Places – “a collection of thoughts and hand drawn sketches that illustrate the value of looking closely at buildings and places.”

About Frank Harmon:

Frank Harmon, FAIA, is principal of the multi-award-winning firm Frank Harmon Architect PA in Raleigh, NC, a Professor in Practice at NC State University’s College of Design, and the 2013 winner of AIA North Carolina’s F. Carter Williams Gold Medal, the highest honor presented by the Chapter to an AIA NC member to recognize a distinguished career and extraordinary accomplishments as an architect. In 2010 Harmon was included in Residential Architect’s inaugural “RA 50: The Short List of Architects We Love.” In 2013, his firm was ranked 21st among the top 50 firms in the nation by Architect Magazine. Frank Harmon is also the author and illustrator for NativePlaces.org, a series in which he uses hand-drawn sketches and mini-essays to examine the relationship between nature and built structures. For more information:  www.frankharmon.com. Contact information:  Email Contact;  919.829.9464; 14 East Peace Street, Raleigh, NC 27604.