Monika Zofia Pauli, Architect

Monika is a licensed Architect in the state of Massachusetts. She first began her studies in fine arts and architectural history while at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts. She later attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), where she received a Master’s Degree in Architecture. She was honored for her thesis examining the potential of urban and university planning combined with historic preservation to foster an urban revival in Troy, New York. She carried these interests into her professional life, rehabilitating dilapidated houses in the historic center of Albany, New York and participating in federally-sponsored urban improvement programs in small towns in the Hudson Valley.

After moving back to the Boston area in 1985, Monika joined the architectural firm of James McNeely A.I.A., later to become McNeely & Pauli, and Beacon Hill has been her base ever since. The documents and drawings from McNeely & Pauli have been selected to be preserved and stored in the Historic New England Library and Archives.

Over the years, Monika worked on numerous projects, both large and small, successfully taking them from the initial concept, through the design phase, approval process, and actual construction. In addition to dozens of residential projects requiring review by the Beacon Hill Architectural Commission, she designed and completed a new 40,000-square-foot facility for Suffolk University which included an underground basketball court. Other successful projects include the conversion of an abandoned firehouse into a community center and the complete remodeling of the Union Boat Club’s squash courts. Monika worked on a new residence on the island of Nantucket, and major renovations of four historic townhouses on Louisburg Square, including the home of a past presidential candidate and his wife. Farther afield, she has provided architectural and interior design services for the on-going renovation of her family’s 17th-century chateau near Toulouse, France, where she also collaborated with her artist mother on decorative wall paintings. Their work has been featured in “The World of Residences, Interiors, and Gardens”, a semi-annual Polish magazine.

Monika enjoys figure skating, skiing, painting animal portraits for clients and writing books for children. Also, her hands-on renovation of two 19th-century family homes in America and the chateau in France, gives her an in-depth understanding of the challenges of the craft of restoration. She enjoys personally applying faux finishes when needed.

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