Pre-Design Awards Tour of NC Botanical Gardens and Design Team Q&A

LIMITED TO 40 PARTICIPANTS

Approved for

1.5 AIA LU/HSW + 1.5 GBCI Credits

PRE-DESIGN AWARDS TOUR OF BOTANICAL GARDENS

NC Botanical Gardens | 100 Old Mason Farm Road | Chapel Hill, NC

NOTE: Parking is limited. Please consider sharing a ride if possible and arrive early

Thursday, April 7, 2022

4:30 PM – 6:00 PM

(Check in begins at 4:00 PM)

 $25 per person for tour

Environmental stewardship has become one of the foremost issues of our time. With AIA’s commitment to the 2030 Challenge (carbon neutrality for all new construction), examples of radical sustainability are invaluable. Join us for a walking tour led by Facilities Manager, Sierra Dickerson and participate in a Q&A session with the design team of Frank Harmon, FAIA and David Swanson, RLA, ASLA, to learn how they navigated challenges to deliver a LEED Platinum Education Center and enhanced conservation garden – a resource for all of North Carolina.

The walking tour will include:

Botanical Garden walking tour led by Facilities Manager, Sierra Dickerson featuring discussion of the Display Garden, Education Center, native habitats, and the parking area design.

Design Team Q&A and discussion led by Frank Harmon, FAIA and David Swanson, RLA, ASLA.

Topics of discussion include:

• How the project was conceived, and how the attitude of the design team supported the goals of the NCBG team
• How both active and passive sustainability strategies were implemented, and how the built facility integrates with the garden plan
• Which community stakeholders were involved in the design, and how their feedback benefited the project
• How the theme of education was implemented throughout the building and garden design
• Collaborative process between architect and landscape architect, and how the thinking and strategy shifted over the course of the design process
• Key challenges the design team faced during design and construction of the facility

Frank Harmon, FAIA is a multi-award winning architect who founded his North Carolina-based practice in 1985. While many architects have embraced the principles of sustainable design over recent years, Frank has been designing environmentally responsible, modern buildings for nearly three decades – long before “green architecture” became a part of the general lexicon. Sustainability is the most important architectural issues of our time. As a young architect, he quickly learned that everything he designed would cause the earth to be stripped or mined. Stunned by that realization, he knew that the only way he could work as an architect was to promise to make a site better than he found it. Sometimes that meant not building at all. From single-family homes and tiny artists’ studios to corporate headquarters, commercial educational, and institutional facilities, Frank’s practice has gone to great lengths to ensure that the buildings are energy-efficient and environmentally conservative.

David Swanson, RLA, ASLA was born in Beirut, Lebanon. His family moved back to North Carolina when he was a small boy. His first interest was in planning and city management, but eventually he settled on landscape architecture and graduated with an MLA from North Carolina State University College of Design in 1983. Swanson worked at Lewis Clarke Associates (LCA) when the first master plan for the North Carolina Zoo was developed as well as during the Fayetteville Street Mall Project in Raleigh, NC. In 1988, Swanson founded his own firm, Swanson and Associates, PA. The firm places particular emphasis on careful analysis through the planning process and preparation of creative and innovative solutions using sustainable design practices. The firm staff has over thirty collective years of experience in landscape architecture and planning in both public and private practice, with particular experience in sustainable site planning and historic preservation issues. David also specializes in the use of native landscapes and natural settings, and in the adaptive reuse of landscape and hardscape elements.

Sierra Dickerson is the current Facilities and Events Manager for the North Carolina Botanical Gardens. As part of her role, she manages the ongoing sustainable policies for weddings and catered events at the facility. She also has given countless walking tours of the grounds to various community groups, focusing on novel features of the LEED Platinum-rated Education Center and conservation practices of the garden.

Joining us for the AIA Triangle Design Awards Ceremony? 

Separate registration required HERE