David Fischetti Archive
Introduction – David Carmichael Fischetti
The Historic Bridge Foundation honors David “Dave” Carmichael Fischetti for his tireless defense of historic timber bridges. Dave was born on 9 July 1946 and attended public school in Brooklyn, NY. He studied art at the Pratt Institute and graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in 1964. In 1969, he earned the B.S. in Civil Engineering from Clemson University, and shortly after took his first job with Koppers Co. of Pittesburgh, PA, where he designed laminated timber structures. Koppers transferred Dave to their Morrisville branch, and Dave began a productive collaboration with Lassiter Hopkins Engineers in Raleigh to improve his engineering knowledge. 1975 saw the opening of Dave’s own office, DCF Engineering, Inc., where he earned a reputation for solving problems in structural engineering by careful graphical analysis and mathematical modeling.
Dave’s love of art and history, combined with his penchant for solving engineering problems in his restoration work on historic structures, resulted in the preservation of many historic structures. Dave’s love of art and history, combined with his penchant for solving engineering problems in his restoration work on historic structures, resulted in the preservation of many covered bridges. Dave was honored with the 2000 A.S.C.E. Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award for his work as Engineer of Record on the project to relocate the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. While he may be best known for this project, Dave helped preserve many historic bridges, including the Covered Pedestrian Bridge in Old Salem, the Bunker Hill Covered Bridge in Claremont, and the Will Henry Stevens Covered Bridge in Highlands, all in North Carolina. Dave is also credited for his work on the the Cornish Windsor Covered Bridge between Cornish, NH, and Windsor, VT and the Tohickon Aqueduct in Point Pleasant, PA. Dave received numerous awards for his preservation work, including recognition from both professional organizations and governmental entities.
Dave distilled his preservation knowledge and wisdom in his 2009 book, Structural Investigation of Historic Buildings: A Case Study Guide to Preservation Technology for Buildings, Bridges, Towers, and Mills. (John Wiley and Sons, Inc.). View Amazon listing for this book.
The Fischetti Archive
The Historic Bridge Foundation is pleased to host this archive of David Fischetti’s architectural drawings of historic bridges. David was an advisory board member for the Foundation and a strong supporter of our work. We hope this archive will aid in the promotion and preservation of the engineering legacy of our historic bridges.
The Historic Bridge Foundation would like to thank the Fischetti family for the generous donation of the Fischetti papers.