Maciej Nowicki Polish Architecture and Design Endowment

A Formative Influence on the Early Years of the College

Maciej “Matthew” Nowicki served as the first acting head of the School of Architecture and was one of Dean Kamphoefner’s first appointees as faculty in 1948. He served in that role until his untimely death in 1950. In 1948, he and colleague William Deitrick designed Raleigh’s J.S. Dorton Arena, whose iconic design influenced a whole range of famed buildings, such as Kenzo Tange’s Olympic Hall for Tokyo in 1964, and Eero Saarinen’s Yale Hockey Rink.

Nowicki was a formative influence on both the curricular direction of the college, as well as its position as a school of design in the southeast. His untimely death spurred the creation of the first issue of The Student Publication, in which prominent architect Lewis Mumford wrote: “Few architects anywhere could match him in his adventurousness and gaiety, his open-eyed daring, his fertility of invention, his unflagging discipline, his deep sense of duty, above all, in the humility that is given only to great genius.”

A collection of his drawings and other materials is available at the NC State Libraries, and includes his sketches and drawings for the North Carolina State Fairgrounds and Dorton Arena.

Furthering the Study of Polish Design

Members of the Polish-American Club of the Triangle (PAC) formed the Maciej Nowicki Polish Architecture and Design Endowment to support faculty and students interested in studying Polish design. With the formation of the endowment, the Polish-American Club of the Triangle hopes to encourage future students to pursue the study of Polish architecture and design.

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Images from the student publiction featuring Matthew Nowicki

From Tragedy, a New School Found Its Voice

The first issue of The Student Publication of the School of Design paid tribute to the school’s first head of architecture, Matthew Nowicki, after his untimely death. Uplifted by his pioneering spirit, his students chose to carry it forward.

Matthew Nowicki Pencil Sketch Dorton Arena

Pencil Sketches Full of Promise

The pencil must have danced across the paper. In one drawing, a whirling merry-go-round sits atop an elevated midway. On another page, streams and paths crisscross a park that forms the center of an oval track. A yellow sports car races in front of a grandstand held up by giant curved pillars.

Those are visions of the North Carolina State Fair, circa 1950 — a state fair that, in fact, never was. The drawings, more than 50 in all, exemplify what remains of the imagination of Matthew Nowicki, the NC State architecture professor who designed Dorton Arena — and then died in a plane crash before it was built and before many of his ideas could be realized.

Trees of Design

As the College of Design faces the social, environmental and economic challenges of the 21st century in its 75th anniversary, the Tree of Design stares out from the pages of this early bulletin to capture our imagination on what interdisciplinary thinking might look like in the 21st century.