Born in Saint Petersburg, he studied as a military engineer and served in the Imperial Russian Army during the First World War.

Palmaw fled the country after the Russian Revolution, eventually travelling to Shanghai to stay with his uncle, architect Alexander Sergeevich Khrenov [ru].

Alongside two other architects, he formed the partnership Baker, Stewart and Palmaw in 1934, but continued to work on independent contracts, including the Saint Spiridon Orthodox Cathedral in 1936–1938.

He worked at Khrenov's architecture office in Shanghai, helping to design and construct a number of houses and apartments.

He additionally noted that he had fully designed one of the apartments and seventeen of the residences, including their electrical and plumbing infrastructure.

While with Stewart and Baker, Palmaw joined their ongoing program of designing worker housing at Ross Dam, for Seattle City Light's Skagit River Hydroelectric Project.