August Lewis Polier was born on March 7, 1922, in Raleigh, Wake, North Carolina, United States. He graduated from Hugh Morson High School in 1939 and NCSU in 1949. During World War II, Polier served in the Army. He initially worked at Cooper, Haskins, and Rice with Richard Rice.
In 1955, he started working for Jesse Page. In 1974, he became a partner in the firm. Polier served as the senior partner after Page’s departure in 1976 before his retirement in 1988.
Polier was renowned for designing numerous buildings at North Carolina State University and East Carolina University, along with the Bath Building (North Carolina Labs) in downtown Raleigh.
He married Meldon Afton Daniels on March 21, 1942, in South Carolina, United States. During his time as a pupil at the NCSU School of Design, she worked to assist in paying for his schooling. Throughout their entire marriage, they were each immersed in the world of North Carolina architects and structures.
Between 1959 and 1977, he worked as the Executive Secretary of the North Carolina Board of Architecture with the assistance of Afton for nearly two decades. They had a happy marriage and raised four daughters in Raleigh until Afton died in 1973 from cancer.
In 1955, he built his own house at 111 Longview Lake Drive in Raleigh, which was sold to Adrianne Wilson in 2004, then to Adrianne and Thomas Jorgenson in 2006, and later to architect Matthew Griffith and his wife Ashley in 2007. As of the fall of 2014, Matt Griffith was designing an addition to the back of the house.
August Lewis Polier may have designed the Norwood Smith house at 335 Golf Course Drive in Raleigh.