Maciej Nowicki: Global Architectural Visionary & NC State Legend
1910-1950
The Polish-American Club of the Triangle is partnering with North Carolina State University’s College of Design to create an endowment to honor the late Maciej Nowicki. Funds generated from the Maciej Nowicki Polish Architecture and Design Endowment will support faculty and students to study Polish architecture, design, graphic design and landscape architecture in Poland and America. April 22, 2023 will be named Maciej Nowicki Day at North Carolina State, in conjunction with the 75th anniversary of NC State’s College of Design.
Background:
Maciej Nowicki was a Polish architect who fought for his country during the German Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939. During the occupation, he taught underground classes in architecture and town planning under the guise a bricklaying course. Post-War, Nowicki designed the urban plan for the reconstruction of Central Warsaw. In 1946, he joined the design team for the new United Nations Headquarters in New York City, working alongside Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright and Oscar Niemeyer. Nowicki was recruited in 1948 to become the first chairman of Architecture Department at the then School of Design at NC State, a position he held until his tragic death in 1950. Among his many achievements was the design of the J.S. Dorton Arena in Raleigh, an international landmark. He worked with Eero Saarinen, Albert Mayer and William Deitrick. His tremendously talented architect and designer wife Stanislawa Sandecka-Nowicki partnered with him on numerous projects, later becoming the first woman to be tenured as a full professor of architecture in America at University of Pennsylvania in 1958. She died in 2017 at age 105.
Nowicki wrote ‘’Man and his way of life become the main source of inspiration for a modern architect...[one of the aspects] deals with the constant change of human life... Now this change is rapid and conspicuous, and it demands constant changes in architectural forms.”
Please join us in honoring and building the legacy of this remarkable global architectural visionary.
Donate to Maciej Nowicki Endowment
Online:
Send check:
Please make your tax-deductible check payable to: NC State Foundation In the memo line, write: “Maciej Nowicki Polish Architecture & Design Endowment” and mail it to: ATTN: Alli Mosco; NC State College of Design; Campus Box 7701; Raleigh, NC 27695.
Links
Polish Diplomat Tours ISE, Celebrates Design Endowment
https://www.ise.ncsu.edu/blog/2023/05/04/polish-diplomat-tours-ise/
Maciej Nowicki: Life and Legacy - slides
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Wb4e_vp2WWKMoLMk0qt00RJIrOUJMJo1/view?usp=share_link
North Carolina Architects & Builders - NCSU
https://ncarchitects.lib.ncsu.edu/people/P000044
Matthew Nowicki Drawings and Other Material 1944-2011 - NCSU
https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/findingaids/mc00190/contents
Pencil Sketches Full of Promise - Alumni Magazine
https://magazine.alumni.ncsu.edu/2014/pencil-sketches-full-of-promise/
Dorton Arena's Incomplete Legacies - Southern Cultures
https://www.southerncultures.org/article/a-symbolic-project/
Maciej Nowicki Pionier Architektury Światowej - Wydawnictwo IPN
https://ksiegarniaipn.pl/pdf/549000/549501_Maciej_Nowicki_broszura_PL.pdf
Stanisława Nowicki - wife - University of Pennsylvania
https://almanac.upenn.edu/articles/stanislawa-nowicki-architecture