VISION | EXPERIENCE | CRAFT

As a California licensed architect, urbanist and fabricator, Nick has over 20 years of experience spanning the practice of art and design. This website is the chronological archive of his work to date. He has designed, permitted, and managed award winning residential and commercial projects. He has helped publish architectural history books, been published in academic journals and magazines. For the last decade, Nick has shown his sculptures with galleries in San Francisco with the latest installment with Works in Progress III.

Nick studied architecture and landscape architecture at UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design. He spent four years working as a fabricator, designer and project manager for Lundberg Design in San Francisco, learning the rules of the trade. Nick returned to academia to earn his Master of Architecture degree from the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, where he was honored with the AIA Henry Adams Medal for highest academic achievement in 2014, as well as Merit Scholarship recipient for all 3 years. Nick was selected as artist in residence at Autodesk’s Pier 9 Workshop where he explored the material properties of hardwood with the waterjet. For the last 8 years, Nick worked as a Project Architect and Project Manager with Feldman Architecture with a focus in design process and facilitation. In 2023 Nick left the corporate market for a more hands-on approach to design, combining his rich experience and network into one practice of art and architecture under the studio name NWP.

His analysis of complex urban systems, his design and construction of commercial and residential projects, and his intimate relationship to craft and fabrication reflect his core belief that the material decisions of the design process are shaped by human and environmental systems that are already at play. Nick approaches each project with a highly collaborative attitude, creating frameworks for clients, consultants, and builders to maximize their expertise, resulting in the most refined, honest, and elegant results.

Nicholas Wilkes Polansky