Proving that architectural drawings are still relevant in the age of computer-generated images, award-winning architect Frank Harmon, FAIA, founder and principal of Frank Harmon Architect PA in Raleigh, NC, recently launched, “Native Places,” a new blog in which he uses hand-drawn sketches and mini-essays to examine the relationship between nature and built structures.

Harmon introduced “Native Places” in April by sketching and offering a few thoughts on Ash Lawn, US President James Monroe’s small cabin near Charlottesville, Virginia. According to Harmon, the cabin embodied all the common-sense principles of sustainable design and construction nearly two centuries before the architectural profession rediscovered the concept. His sketch of Ash Lawn expresses his thoughts in pen-and-ink with colored pencil highlighting.

Harmon’s most recent sketch and mini-essay focus on the small, historic houses of Salterpath, North Carolina. Designed and built by fishermen, these houses have survived vicious hurricanes for generations because “they were built with nature in mind,” he writes. His sketch captures the simplicity of the fishermen’s homes, glimpsed beyond spreading oaks.

Mike Welton, the author of the blog Architects + Artisans.com, once hosted a tour of Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest home. Frank Harmon joined the group. But when it came time to tour the house or grounds, Welton recalls, Harmon did neither. “Instead, sketch pad and pen in had, he settled under the shade of a centuries-old tree and began to draw the home and landscape. To understand it, he sketched it.”

Harmon plans to post new content to “Native Places” every two weeks. Anyone interested may sign up on the blog to receive an email when those posts are made: nativeplaces.tumblr.com.

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