Nick Guertin is a practitioner that has worked in community and economic development, affordable housing design, and city planning. His work has spanned communities throughout Central Appalachia and the Northeast. Currently, he supports the community-based real estate development and construction projects of Coalfield Development, a nonprofit organization serving southern West Virginia.
Guertin holds an M.Arch and Bachelor of Science in architecture from Northeastern University. He also serves on the board of directors with the Association for Community Design, a non-profit membership network founded in 1977 which envisions a practice of design that dismantles systemic injustice and creates an equitable built environment. He was a Rose Architectural Fellow from 2019-2021; and a Senior Policy Fellow with DesegregateCT from 2020-2022.
While at MacDowell, Guertin worked on several projects related to his professional practice in community-based design and construction. He researched historic and contemporary models that integrate the creation of community assets with direct employment and poverty alleviation for local people. He also spent time honing a proposed resource framework to document and circulate grassroots knowledge of community design and construction techniques. Most importantly, he found inspiration and energy in the many new friendships made with fellow artists in residence at MacDowell.
Portrait by Erin Pearlman
