Alfredo De Vido


Alfredo De Vido was an architect and author in New York City. He is known for his residential projects, mostly constructed on the East Coast of the United States.
Born in Brooklyn to Edoardo and Maria De Vido, who had immigrated from Italy several years previously, De Vido studied at Carnegie Tech and Princeton University, including under Buckminster Fuller. His education was interrupted by service in the U.S. Navy, stationed at Atsugi Naval Air Station in Japan, and after completing his graduate degree, he worked for Walter Gropius in Rome, before returning to New York to join MacFadyen and Knowles. Eventually, that partnership split up, and De Vido joined MacFadyen as a partner. When MacFadyen retired, the firm continued as Alfredo De Vido & Associates.
His work also includes the 1993 renovation of the Queens Theatre in the Park, the theater that is now Filene Center at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and the Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia.
Musician Mitch Miller hired him for the Green Briar development in the town of Somers, New York. De Vido's design work was part of the Weekend Utopia: The Modern Beach House on Eastern Long Island, 1960-1973, exhibition at Guild Hall in East Hampton. The book Alfredo De Vido by Michael J. Crosbie, Richard J. Wertheimer highlights some of his residential work.
De Vido was the architect for the renovation of the circular Theaterama at Queens Theatre in Park, originally part of Philip Johnson's New York State Pavilion for the 1964 World's Fair. The theatre was once decorated with the artworks including those of Andy Warhol and Robert Indiana. The circular theater was converted according to De Vido's plans into the 476-seat Queens Theater in the Park, a wonderful success according to Borough President Claire Shulman of Queens, who said she was an attendee at the 1939 World's Fair as a little girl.
De Vido's addition of four floors to the Brinckerhoff Carriage House in 1992, a victorian architecture building, was somewhat controversial for destroying the mansard roof. The work was done for the Allen-Stevenson School.

Projects

Publications

  • Alfredo De Vido: Selected and Current Works by Alfredo De Vido, Stephen Dobney Images Publishing, 1998 – 256 pages
A collection of residential projects that is part of the 'Master Architect Series'.
  • Alfredo De Vido: Designing Your Client's House: An Architect's Guide to Meeting Design Goals and Budgets, Watson-Guptill, 1990 – 208 pages
  • Alfredo De Vido: Innovative Management Techniques: For Architectural Design and Construction, Whitney Library of Design, 1984 – 207 pages
Features 45 richly illustrated, well-researched case studies of houses, stores, and public buildings, each chosen to provide a valuable example of skillful management.
House Design: Art and Practice is a step-by-step overview of all the nuts-and-bolts, human factors, and numerous intangibles that must be successfully orchestrated to produce a good house.
  • Alfredo De Vido: Ten Houses, Rockport Publishers, 1998 – 108 pages
The Ten Houses series makes the most important elements of architectural design available to a large and varied audience. Each infinitely useful volume presents one of the world's foremost architects and features 10 of his or her finest residential works-including presentation, drawings, sketches, and working drawings.