Marion Weiss, FAIA: Liftoffs and Landings

Marion Weiss is co-founder of WEISS/MANFREDI and the Graham Chair Professor of Practice at the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design. Her New York City-based multidisciplinary practice is known for the dynamic integration of architecture, art, infrastructure, and landscape. Notable projects include the Seattle Art Museum: Olympic Sculpture Park, recognized by TIME Magazine as one of the “top ten architectural marvels.” Her work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, the Sao Paulo Biennale, the Guggenheim Museum, the Cooper-Hewitt, the National Building Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art. She is a National Academy Inductee and recipient of Architecture Records 2017 Design Leader Award. Her firm has also been recognized with the New York Center for Architecture President’s Award, the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Architecture, and the 2020 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture. Princeton Architectural Press has published monographs on WEISS/MANFREDI’s work, including PUBLIC NATURES: Evolutionary Infrastructures.

WEISS/MANFREDI Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism is at the forefront of architectural design practices that are redefining the relationships between landscape, architecture, infrastructure, and art. Named one of North America's "Emerging Voices" by New York's Architectural League, WEISS/MANFREDI received the 2020 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture and the 2018 Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Institution's National Design Award, as well as the New York AIA Gold Medal and the Academy Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Most recently, WEISS/MANFREDI was selected through an international competition to re-envision the world-renowned La Brea Tar Pits and Museum in Los Angeles; and the Trinity Park Conservancy in Dallas selected the firm to serve as design architects to bring new life to the former Jesse R. Dawson State Jail.