Today the American Institute of Architects announced the election of Melissa DelVecchio to the AIA College of Fellows, which recognizes the achievements of individual architects and honors those who have made significant contributions to the profession and society on a national level.
Melissa DelVecchio has dedicated her career to advocating for both the “Classical” and the “Modern,” two outsized architectural descriptors whose tension provides a deep reservoir of lessons, references, and inspiration. Viewing them not as opposing ideologies, but as dynamic, conversational partners, she believes, offers a rich array of lessons that can enable a more sophisticated synthesis of the many visual, social, environmental, and cultural influences that give places identity and meaning.
Melissa DelVecchio joined Robert A.M. Stern Architects in 1998 and became a Partner in the firm in 2008. Melissa has led the design of many of the firm’s largest and most complex projects, including two new residential colleges at Yale University; buildings at Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School; and Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Ms. DelVecchio is a co-author of Designs for Learning: College and University Buildings by Robert A.M. Stern Architects (2016), which showcases many of the complex academic projects that have been a primary focus of her work at the firm, and an editor of The New Residential Colleges at Yale: A Conversation Across Time (2017). She directs the firm's Research Department.
Ms. DelVecchio received her Master of Architecture degree from Yale University and her Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Notre Dame. She frequently serves on juries for design studios at Yale and Notre Dame, and has lectured at academic conferences in the United States, Spain, and China. She is a member of the juries for the Richard H. Driehaus Prize and the Rafael Manzano Martos Prize. In 2018, she received the Orlando T. Maione Award for distinguished contributions to the University of Notre Dame's School of Architecture.
