Nick De Pace

Nick De Pace has taught in RISD’s Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Interior Architecture departments since 1999. In 2012 he was Chief Critic of RISD’s European Honors Program in Rome, which he participated in as a student at RISD in 1992–93. This summer he will teach an immersive field drawing course at RISD’s campus in Rome: the Palazzetto Cenci. In the fall he will lead a cross-disciplinary design studio on the mechanics and craft of the scenic arts with support from the Turner Theatrical and Performance Design Fund and the Department of Interior Architecture.

Between 1996 and 2001, De Pace was project designer for the of the National World War II Memorial in Washington, DC under design architect Friedrich St. Florian. Since 2002, he has designed numerous award-winning residential and commercial projects through his independent practice, Ad Hoc/Architecture in Providence.

De Pace’s interest in ancient infrastructural systems, territorial land-water management and the 18th-century drawings of Giovanni Battista Piranesi led to a Fulbright Fellowship in 2005 to document the Emissarium of Lake Albano, a monumental subterranean water conduit of ancient Roman engineering. Since being certified in urban speleology by Roma Sotterranea, he has collaborated on numerous archaeological activities, most recently the architectural reconstructions for the forthcoming publication on the Villa Magna Project in southern Latium.