Pioneer Information
Trained as an engineer, Vitale immigrated to the United States and designed numerous private estates and public spaces and was an avid professional activist for landscape architecture.
Born in Florence, Italy, Vitale was trained as an engineer at the Royal Military Academy of Modena and worked in his father’s architectural practice before discovering landscape architecture. He moved to New York in 1902, and in 1908 established his practice with Alfred Geiffert, with whom he worked for the rest of his life. Vitale is known for the design of numerous private estates in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, as well as for his vigorous promotion of the profession of landscape architecture. His leadership of the New York Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects and his many public lectures attest to his professional activism. In addition to private commissions for Percy Rockefeller, Richard B. Mellon, and numerous other illustrious families, Vitale’s public projects include work for the Town Planning Division of the United States Housing Corporation during World War I and the planting plan for Meridian Hill Park in Washington, D.C.
Vitale joined the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1904 and was elected a Fellow in 1908. His firm, Vitale, Brinckerhoff and Geiffert, received the Architectural League of New York’s first gold medal award in landscape architecture in 1920. Vitale became an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects in 1927.
