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18 ACUMEN • SPRING 2021 J ared Della Valle ’93 has a history of doing at least two things at the same time: studying for his bachelor’s in architecture and urban studies at Lehigh while running the woodshop and slide library for the program; earning double master’s degrees in architecture and construction management at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.; winning a design competition and building a federal building plaza in San Francisco while working for a high-end New York City construction firm; and venturing into the realm of real estate development in 2006 as co-founder and CEO of Brooklyn, NY-based Alloy Development while running a successful architecture firm. At cocktail parties, Della Valle simply tells people, “I make buildings.” While he has managed the acquisi- tion and predevelopment of more than two million square feet in New York City — winning multiple prestigious design awards along the way — he said, “I don’t really fit within the architectural profession, but I don’t fit within the development community, either.” Della Valle is particularly invested in “making build- ings” in his own slice of the city, Brooklyn’s DUMBO neighborhood. DUMBO — which stands for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass — used to be an industrial area where few people lived. It is now a center for technology startups and has become the most exclusive neighborhood in Brooklyn, boasting spacious and luxurious lofts with great views of the Lower Manhattan skyline. Over the last 12 years, every project Alloy has worked on has been within a block of Della Valle’s home there, which is also across the street from his office and next door to his artist wife’s studio. The 2,400 square-foot “f lat townhome” home Della Valle shares with his wife, Carolina, and their two teenage kids was once the ground f loor of a Making Buildings … Better CYNTH I A T I NTORR I Jared Della Valle ’93 has carved out a career that unites design excellence with public responsibility