My connection with Northern New Mexico goes back to 1964 when I worked on a University of New Mexico archeological dig at Sapawe pueblo near El Rito. Pleasant coincidence kept drawing me back to El Rito. After architectural school I wanted to come back to the southwest. Friends of mine introduced me to Peter van Dresser who had several projects related to solar design and energy consciousness. I worked for him for several years in El Rito, and later I taught drafting at what was then Northern New Mexico Community College.  I bought some property in the area and did my own riff on Henry David Thoreau building an adobe building. I used rocks from the creek for the foundation, made and laid the adobes, cut the vigas for the roof in the nearby National Forest, and framed the roof myself. In architecture I focused on solar and energy efficient buildings. I also taught at owner/builder solar and adobe workshops around the southwest.

I have built furniture of my own design as well as reproductions of R. M. Schindler furniture for the Schindler House in Los Angeles, the Calvin Klein company in New York and Europe, and for several different architects. I also built some Frank Lloyd Wright lamps which had never been fabricated, for the Storrer House in Los Angeles.

At my 60th birthday, I started running marathons. Now I just jog and I’m getting slower and slower but I still enjoy it.

I currently split my time between El Rito and Los Angeles, quite a contrast.

Please email me your inquiries at rnicolaisarch@aol.com