Weiss/Manfredi

Weiss/Manfredi is a multidisciplinary New York City-based design practice that combines landscape, architecture, infrastructure, and art.

Major Projects

The firm's design for the Seattle Art Museum's Olympic Sculpture Park, awarded by international competition, was recognized as the ‘Nature’ category winner at the World Architecture Festival and won the I.D. Magazine Environments ‘Best in Category’ Design Award.^[1][2] The project has also won a Progressive Architecture Award, multiple AIA Awards, an ASLA Honor Award, the EDRA Places Award, and was the first North American project to be awarded Harvard University’s International Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design.^{[3] [4][5]}

The Diana Center, a multi-use arts building at Barnard College whose design won a national design competition and a Progressive Architecture Award, establishes a new nexus for social, cultural, and intellectual life for both the campus and the city.^[6] The Diana Center also won the New York State AIA Best Building Award in 2010 as well as a National AIA Honor Award.^{[7] [8]} The firm’s Visitor Center at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden recently opened to the public. Other built works include the Museum of the Earth in Ithaca, New York; the Smith College Campus Center in Northampton, Massachusetts; and the Women’s Memorial and Education Center at Arlington National Cemetery—which won a Federal Design Architectural Award, a National AIA Honor Award, and I.D. Magazine’s Environments Award.^[9]

The firm recently won a national competition to redesign the Washington Monument Grounds at Sylvan Theater.^[10] Other current projects include the Hunters Point South Waterfront Park, located on the East River in Queens, New York; and the Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnology at the University of Pennsylvania. The firm’s urban design projects include the New York Olympics Rowing Venues, featured in both the São Paulo International Biennial and the Van Alen Institute’s Open exhibition; and Wandering Ecologies, a design proposal for Toronto’s Lower Don Lands, which has won the American Architecture Award and an AIA New York Merit Award. Urban planning studies include a redesign of New York City’s Columbus Circle, commissioned by the Municipal Arts Society, and the Brooklyn Bridge Master Plan to develop design strategies for Lower Manhattan areas affected by the events of September 11.^[11]

Recognition

The firm’s work has been exhibited internationally including the “Groundswell” show at The Museum of Modern Art.^[12] Their work has also been exhibited at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, the National Building Museum, Max Protetch Gallery, Harvard University, Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, the Van Alen Institute, the Architectural League of New York, Storefront for Art and Architecture, the Essen Germany Design Center, the São Paulo International Biennial, the European Landscape Biennial, and the Venice Architecture Biennale.^[13]

The monograph Surface/Subsurface, published in January 2008, features cross-disciplinary projects in master planning, urban design, landscape, and architecture.^[14]

Co-founders

Marion Weiss, is the Graham Chair Professor of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design. She received her Master of Architecture at Yale University and her Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Virginia. At Yale she won the American Institute of Architects Scholastic Award and the Skidmore, Owings and Merrill Traveling Fellowship. She has taught design studios at Harvard University, Yale University, Cornell University.^[15]

Michael Manfredi , is a founding board member of the Van Alen Institute, is currently a board member for the Storefront for Art and Architecture, and has been the Gensler Visiting Professor at Cornell University. He received his Master of Architecture at Cornell University where he studied with Colin Rowe. He won the Paris Prize, was a Cornell Fellow and was awarded an Eidlitz Fellowship. He has taught design studios at Harvard University, Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies.^[16][17]

Projects

This is a partial list of works by The firm.

• Brooklyn Botanic Garden Visitor Center Brooklyn, New York City^[18][19][20]
• Seattle Art Museum: Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle, Washington
• Barnard College Diana Center, New York City
• Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument Grounds, winner of the "National Mall Competition", Washington, D.C.
• Women in Military Service for America Memorial, Arlington, Virginia
• McCann Residence, Tuxedo Park, New York
• Wandering Ecologies: Toronto Lower Don Lands, Toronto, Canada
• Museum of the Earth, Ithaca, NY
• PS 42 Robin Hood Foundation Library, Arverne, New York
• NYC 2012: Olympic Rowing Facilities, Queens, New York
• Smith College Campus Center, Northampton, Massachusetts
• Olympia Fields Park and Community Center, Olympia Fields, Illinois
• LMDC: Brooklyn Bridge Anchorage Master Plan, New York City
• Columbus Circle, New York City
• Yongsan National Urban Park Master Plan, Seoul, Korea
• Constitution Gardens: Living Waters, Washington, D.C.

Bibliography

• Public Natures: Evolutionary Infrastructure, Princeton Architectural Press, 2015 (ISBN 978-1616893774)
• Weiss, M.; M. Manfredi (2000). Site Specific: The Work of Weiss/Manfredi Architects. USA: Princeton Architectural Press. ISBN 1-56898-208-9. 
• Weiss, M.; M. Manfredi (2007). Weiss/Manfredi: Surface/Subsurface. USA: Princeton Architectural Press. ISBN 1-56898-733-1. 

References

External links

• Official website
• Weiss/Manfredi Vimeo