Hydrothermal reaction of metal nitrates, 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (H2fdc) and the conformationally flexible dipyridylamide ligand 3-pyridylnicotinamide (3-pna) afforded three new coordination polymers which were structurally characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. {[Cd2(fdc)2(3-pna)(H2O)4]·6H2O}n (1) exhibits a 1D ladder structural motif with tethering anti-conformation 3-pna ligands acting as the rungs. {[Ni(fdc)(3-pna)2(H2O)]·2.5H2O}n (2) displays a (4,4) rhomboid grid structure that resembles a rarer (3,6) triangular grid if supramolecular interactions provided by pendant syn-conformation 3-pna ligands are considered. [Co(fdc)(3-pna)(H2O)]n (3) manifests {Co2(OCO)2} anti-syn dimer-based 3-connected 4.82 layers pillared into a novel 3D 3,5-connected self-penetrated (4.6.8)(4.658310) topology network by anti-conformation 3-pna ligands. The specific metal coordination environments, fdc binding mode, and 3-pna conformation act synergistically to enforce structure direction in this system. Thermal decomposition properties of these three new materials are also discussed.