Nick Adams

In his workshop or on a job site, this is a man made for architecture.

- Veronica Theodoro

Nick Adams’ first experience designing a house was during a high school geometry class. “I was not an overachiever,” says the owner of Mademan Design, “but we were asked to take graph paper and go home and design our ideal house. I loved it.”

A competitive golfer throughout his youth, Adams planned to play college golf, but when a scholarship at the D-1 level didn’t pan out, he took it as a sign that the pro tour wasn’t in his future. “I decided I needed to become a pro at something else,” he says.

Adams enrolled in the architecture program at the University of Kansas. In the Studio 804 course, students built a house, “hammering two-by-fours, pouring the foundation, hanging windows. It was a pivotal life moment,” he says.