North Carolina Pottery Center Seagrove, North Carolina FRANK HARMON ARCHITECT CREATES A POTTERY SHOWPLACE AND ARTISTS’ GATHERING PLACE WHERE DAYLIGHT AND RURAL CHARM ABOUND. By Jessica Dheere ‘rie: Fank cc | Program Frank Harmon, ras, principal in| Uke tobacco, Tarheels, and Christmas tres, pottery n North Carcina sa way off. Though ntl Noverber 1908, when the Noth Carcina Pettey Center NCPC) opened in Han | Seagrove p09. 200), dayeppers and touts mia never have known to 7s(MEP) Swanson | whatetert. nd Ascites (andicape),D 11988, a gyoup of psters and cher ceramophies began rain money for fecty whose ext and elicatonalunetons wou expose | vistors toca styles and rect them | tothe potters’ studios. In 1998, Fark ‘om Are ‘Consultants: Morrso ritual), St Dinensions exhibit fab Toh Willian Brown Harmon Architect of Raleigh won tho commission to design the center, ‘As reed, the center consists of three bullngs ona nine-ere site Cost: $1.25 mili Competion date: No Harmen designed two buicines ‘The itoring size and | amonga wove ook trees on a scale ofthe blldngs Sources kno 87/500-square-fot minitsea ‘and thee placement Rooting: Northsrate Roofing for exhib, lectures, meetings, among the mature Windows: Hopes Ste! Widows Cofficos, and archival storage and a || ||, oaks make the conor Pint Cabot 41,500 sauarefoot education bing {|| fect tike an enclave ‘Sling exterior doors: Ply for pattery workshops. An exiting , that has developed metal fame house vill seve asa visting artist's overtime (tls page Extbit ting JUNO Lighting residence, Exits chronicle the evo ‘and opposite) lution of pottery in North Cartina from pretistory to present day and wo ¥ WOW For more infor splay the work of more than 400 7 2 trad | el poten 2 $ 1. Pottery musewrt ¥ ‘www architecturalrecord.com ‘Solution g Harmon tela wets to er g i input from potters, professors, the * building ‘mayor of Seagrove, representatives: & Parki = fram tess’ depen ofc 5 On i tual resources end et desir fe ceneten zl Dan Gottlieb, Most local potteries are ‘SE RAN au. % Festival meadow = $22, Architectural Record 0100in arts homes orn stuclos A mezzanine —visile from attached tothe home, says Harmon, below and accessible via catwaks— so they wanted “to be friendly and prevdes storage fr hundreds of pos, open... tofeal he you were visting @ rod to the greenware(unfired pos) someone's house and stu that occupies every a surface in This sentiment called for natural most potters studos Final, the edu . materials and simple barike forms cation buli's wide, shaded porch t and colors to give the buldings a rural reproduces another common feature 1. Reception look. Daylight add through of home studios, which allows artists 2. Gift chop By lowering lent levels, cerestories in the manitorrocfand to werk outdoors. 23. Stomge ‘anentrance pergola wal windows imuod the main bul 4 Off 8. Exhibit ‘and handmade door _ing.ith an“openness [thet] knocks Structure/Materials. ‘vith tiny windows help people ou” says Terry Zug, a former Bath inside and outside the center, Visitors adjust tothe NCPC board member and professor Harmen working wth contractor Paul brightinterior (below). at UNC-Chapel Mill Unike most “Turbevile, left the wood structure museum or gallery architects, exposed so thatthe bulding would Hermon didnt have to worry abot “show its own sense of craft On the Iaiiainngow ight eves because exteor walls, te vertical support sunlit doesnt damage ceramics members ae visible, and rot the way lt dows paper or canvas. trusses, cokous, and outiggers Dospte the abundance of Kgit_ reveal these Inthe gale Harmon was concerned bul-up rom pieces of southern yo that fistrs entered the gry fom low pine seem “almost woven ‘thefull Soutnem day, wth ther together” Harmon says. Heat pine unis contracted, they would fee as © recyles fom centuy-ok texte mls they had walked ito the dark This ves the center's for “a rich quality sensation would have detracted from says Zug "particularly when it at the openness he had wed to create, night” Final, the corugate gata To cheat the eyes, Harmon ume reo is mare elegant than the esigred an entrance pergola that metal roofs of ne\ghbaring bung reduces dayight by about hal. Here, Visors wall trough thefrstoftve Commentary 200-pound maple doors handmade Renowned North Carolina potter and {and donated) by the architec, nto @ former NCPC board member Mak vestibule Foucinoh-square Plexiglas Hewitt pais the flexible exhibit windows in the doors admit even less spaces and educational mission that light than the pergola. Asa resul, are drawing potters from al ver when vistors fray step though the “With time ana leadership he pe ‘cond doc into the gallery, bright: cts, "tl be a leading center of ess not carkness greets them. ceramic exchange" Inside, columns