For the third consecutive year, Frank Harmon Architect PA has made Architect magazine’s “Architect 50” list of architectural firms from across the nation, placing 21st.

Architect magazine ranks firms for its annual Architect 50 list based on a composite assessment of the firms’ commitment to sustainability, design quality, and profitability.

“The usual rating of firms by gross billing, number of employees, etc., would not include our firm,” said Frank Harmon, FAIA, principal of Frank Harmon Architect PA. “But when we are rated on design recognition for our clients, sustainability, and financial performance, our firm shows up well.”

“By looking at the whole picture, we're able to honor not the biggest, but the best,” writes executive editor Amanda Kolson Hurley in the May 2011 edition of the national journal. “The 2011 Architect 50...shows that [architecture] and [architecture/engineering] firms, large and small, can do well in this economy.”

Frank Harmon Architect PA, an intentionally small firm, specializes in modern, sustainable, and regionally appropriate design. Among the firm’s 2010-2011 design awards, its thoroughly “green” Sunday school addition at the Circular Congregational Church in downtown Charleston, SC, received three awards: a national award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture; an AIA NC Honor Award; and an AIA Triangle Honor Award.

Harmon’s firm also received three awards for the Walnut Creek Wetland Center over the past year: an AIA NC Merit Award; an Environmental Design award from the City of Raleigh; and a Sir Walter Award for Community Appearance, also from the City of Raleigh.

The only other North Carolina firm to make the 2011 list is Pearce Brinkley Cease + Lee of Raleigh and Asheville, at 23rd.

For more information on Frank Harmon Architect PA, visit www.frankharmon.com.

To see the entire Architect 50 list, go to www.architectmagazine.com.