The investigation of these new light and flexible technologies is the heart of my interest in architecture and engineering. 

Nic Goldsmith is the Founding Director of the Lightweight Structures Group at Silman a TYLin Company. Previously he was the Principal of FTL Design Engineering Studio a leading design firm specializing in membrane construction systems where Mr. Goldsmith has helped pioneer lightweight technologies over the past forty years into an art form. A graduate of Cornell University, Mr. Goldsmith’s work has been greatly influenced by Bucky Fuller, Felix Candela and Pritzker Prize winning Frei Otto with whom he apprenticed in Germany for three years.  

Mr. Goldsmith designed FTL’s legacy projects including the Carlos Mosley Pavilion for the Metropolitan Opera, the Rosa Parks Transit Center, ASU Skysong, the DKNY Headquarters, and the Sun Valley Pavilion. He spearheads the firm’s innovation including the Cooper Hewitt’s “Under the Sun” exhibition with the first integrated PV tensile structure; an air lock for NASA’s Space Shuttle and the first wood clad cable net in the US. 

Mr. Goldsmith has been a Visiting Professor at the Graduate Design Studio of University of Pennsylvania for fourteen years, an adjunct Professor at Pratt Institute, Cornell, Columbia University and Visiting Professor at Innsbruck, Austria.  He has given a wide range of lectures on lightweight structures worldwide and was the Chair of the Fabric Structures Association. He has been featured in innumerable publications including an Architectural Monograph titled:  FTL: Softness, Movement & Light, published by Academy Editions and his new book Mass to Membrane published by ORO Editions. 

Awards include the 2021 AIA Twenty-five Year award, the Dupont Benedictus Award, the IDEA Bronze Award, over ten Regional and National AIA Design Awards, over 25 IFAI awards, the 28th Bard Award in NY, the Waterfront Center's Award in Cincinnati and the State of Florida's Governor’s Design Award. 

Professional affiliations: 

• Member of College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects
• Certified by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB)
• Chair of the Lightweight Structures Association 2004 - 2006
• Member of International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures (IASS) and the Advanced Textile Association (ATA)

Areas of expertise: 

• Lightweight Structures
• Sustainable Enclosures
• Tensile Architecture
• Innovative Skins  

Exhibitions:   

• “SKIN” – Cooper-Hewitt Museum, curated by Ellen Lupton; “Power to the People” Fordham  “Portable Structures – Todd Dalland / Nicholas Goldsmith” Galerie Jorg Heitsch, Munich; “Under the Sun: An Outdoor Exhibition of Light” Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum, New York; “Tensions in Architecture” an exhibit at the Material Connexion, NY; Spontaneous Construction at the Building Centre in London, UK; Portable Architecture at the RIBA Centre in London, UK; Buckminster Fuller Centennial Exhibition at St. John the Divine, New York.   

Publications:  

• Goldsmith, Nic: Mass to Membrane published by ORO Editions. A 206 page book outlining Goldsmith’s thoughts on lightweight structures;  
• Goldsmith, Nicholas, “Form Finding Techniques of Branched Construction Developed by Frei Otto” for the IASS;  
• Goldsmith, Nicholas, “Light Building Skins: Textile Architecture”, Textile World September/October 2016. Pages 2-5;  
• Goldsmith, Nicholas, “The Physical Modeling Legacy of Frei Otto”, International Journal of Space Structures, Special Issue: Frei Otto, Volume 31, Number 1, March 2016. Guest Editor Irmgard Lochner Aldinger, Pages 25 – 30. Published by Sage Publishing. 
• Campasso, Aldo, Editor, Atopic Architecture and Membrane Structures. Clean Edizioni, Napoli 2014. Articles “Interior Textiles: Permanent and Ephemeral Realizations” and “Textile Architecture in America: Past, Present and Future” written by Nicholas Goldsmith.  
• Goldsmith, Nicholas, “The Butterfly has shed its Skin” SEFAR Architecture November 2013. www.sefar.us/htm/573/en/News-Detail.htm?Article=2199162 
• Goldsmith, Nicholas, “Cool Concert Venue, Music in the Mountains”, Metal Steel Construction, August 2012, pages 42-43. 
• The Sun Valley Pavilion, edited by Shannon Besoyan. Copyright 2010 Sun Valley Resort, printed in China, 109 pages. Book written about FTL’s design for the Sun Valley Pavilion in 2008 with text by Mr. Goldsmith. 
• Goldsmith, Nicholas, “Frozen Music”, Auditoria Magazine Annual Review 2010, published by UKIP Media, pages 144 – 145.  
• Greenwood, Tom, “A Sneak Peak into Detoit’s Rosa Parks Transit Center”, Detroit News, July 9, 2009. Article on FTL’s Rosa Parks Transit Center in Detroit Michigan.