Marion Weiss

Marion Weiss is the Graham Professor of Practice in Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania and co-founder of WEISS/MANFREDI. Marion Weiss’ design studios at Penn investigate the synthetic design potential intrinsic to infrastructural, social, and ecological challenges. Her New York City-based multidisciplinary design practice is known for the dynamic integration of architecture, art, infrastructure, and landscape. Her firm’s noted projects include the competition-winning Seattle Art Museum: Olympic Sculpture Park, recognized by Time Magazine as one of the “top ten architectural marvels” and by Architectural Record as one of “the most significant works that defined architecture in our era.” Her firm’s hybrid architecture and landscape projects include the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Visitor Center, Hunter’s Point South Waterfront Park in New York City, and the Sylvan Theater at the National Monument Grounds in Washington D.C. Other recent projects recognized for spatial and material invention include Penn’s Nanotechnology Center, Cornell Tech’s Tata Innovation Center, Barnard College’s Diana Center, and Kent State’s new Center for Architecture and Environmental Design. Current projects include the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India, the University of Toronto’s Schwartz Reisman Innovation Centre, and a tower that is part of MIT’s Kendall Square Initiative.

Marion Weiss has also taught at Harvard University, Cornell University, and Yale University as the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor. The distinct vision of her firm has been recognized by numerous awards including an Academy Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Architectural League of New York’s "Emerging Voices Award," and the New York AIA Gold Medal. Recently, Weiss was also inducted into the National Academy for her contribution to American architecture. Her firm’s work has been exhibited internationally at the Venice Biennale, the Sao Paulo Biennale, the Guggenheim Museum, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Triennial, the National Building Museum, Harvard University, and the Museum of Modern Art. Her firm’s most recent book, PUBLIC NATURES: Evolutionary Infrastructures (Princeton Architectural Press, 2015), proposes the potential of shaping public realms through newly productive connections between landscape, infrastructure and urban territories.