Education 

Rhode Island School Of Design: BFA – Industrial Design 

Cornell University: M.Arch 

Nicolas’ contributions to the profession stem from a fundamental belief that beauty is a natural resource and that it benefits from stewardship as much in rural landscapes as in urban ecosystems. To choose Architecture is to care about the environment we live in, how we shape it, and how it shapes us in return. 

His creative career started at the drawing board in art school, studying the fundamentals of Design through the unforgiving process of making and honing the increasingly rare skill of drawing as a way of thinking.  

He came away from his Design education with a deep reverence for craftsmanship and the beauty inherent to process and material, which led him to pursue traditional apprenticeships with master shipwrights, housewrights, masons, and furniture makers. After a decade spent practicing the traditional lifestyles and building methods of the rural Northeast, from the Adirondacks to Vermont, from Timber Framing to Slate Roofing, he returned to the drawing board and pursued a master’s degree in Architecture. 

Today, he brings to the table a rare combination of physical know-how from years of using his hands in the field, a sensitivity to the historical context of New England and New York, an eye for lines and proportions, and an adeptness with the technological tools to turn Architectural dreams into a buildable reality. 

When we asked him what his advice would be to someone who wants to build a new home today, this was his response. “Before you build anything, look around at the choices people made last year, 10 years ago, 30 years ago, 150 years ago. Which houses are we most likely going to save from rotting into the ground, and ultimately revisit and learn from? The houses we will be demolishing in 30 years will not be lacking in technological advancements, ergonomics, hyper efficiency, and cutting-edge envelope design. They will be lacking in beauty and knocked down because they will be irrelevant.”