18th Annual Arthur Rosenblatt Memorial Lecture: Weiss/Manfredi

The Arthur M. Rosenblatt Memorial Lecture on Museum Design is an AIANY signature event organized each year by the AIANY Cultural Facilities Committee. The series was established in 2006 to honor the work and memory of our founding Committee chair, Arthur Rosenblatt. Among his many accomplishments Arthur was the Vice President for Architecture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for 19 years during its period of great expansion, the founding Director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and a highly regarded Museum design consultant. He was an enthusiastic promoter of the architectural profession through the American Institute of Architects, and passionate about the role of art in our everyday lives. To honor Arthur Rosenblatt's Legacy, the Chapter presents an annual lecture focusing on museum design from the perspective of architects and other visionaries.

This year the committee is honored to host Weiss/Manfredi co-founders, Marion Weiss, FAIA and Michael Manfredi, FAIA, in person at the Center for Architecture, to present their work. Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi are recipients of the Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the 2024 Louis I. Kahn Award, the 2020 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture, the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Architecture, and were named one of North America's "Emerging Voices" by the Architectural League of New York.

Speakers:
Michael Manfredi, FAIA, Principal, Weiss/Manfredi
Marion Weiss, FAIA, Principal, Weiss/Manfredi

WEISS/MANFREDI Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism is at the forefront of architectural design practices that are redefining the relationships between landscape, architecture, infrastructure, and art. The firm’s projects are noted for clarity of vision, bold and iconic forms, and material innovation. Founded by Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi, WEISS/MANFREDI has been recognized with the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Architecture, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal, the New York Center for Architecture President’s Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Architecture, the Architectural League of New York’s "Emerging Voices" Award, the Tau Sigma Delta Gold Medal, the New York AIA Gold Medal, and the 2024 Louis I. Kahn Award. WEISS/MANFREDI has been featured in exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, the National Building Museum, the São Paulo Biennale of Architecture and Design, the Design Center in Essen, Germany, the Louvre, and the Venice Architecture Biennale. Three monographs on the firm’s work have been published by Princeton Architectural Press: Site Specific: The Work of WEISS/MANFREDI Architects, Surface/Subsurface, and Public Natures: Evolutionary Infrastructures

About the Speakers:
Michael Manfredi is cofounder of WEISS/MANFREDI Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism and a Senior Design Critic at Harvard University. He was born in Trieste, Italy, and grew up in Rome. Manfredi received his Master of Architecture at Cornell University, where he studied with Colin Rowe, and his Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Notre Dame. Winner of the Paris Prize, Manfredi was a Cornell Fellow and was awarded an Eidlitz Fellowship. At Harvard Graduate School of Design, he teaches Urban Design studios that focus on larger interdisciplinary questions that connect architecture to pressing urban and environmental challenges. He has also taught design studios at the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, Cornell University, and Yale University as the Saarinen Visiting Professor of Architecture. He was a founding board member of the Van Alen Institute and is currently a board member for the Storefront for Art and Architecture and a member of Cornell’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning Advisory Council. Michael is a recipient of the 2019 Residence Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome. He is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and was inducted into the National Academy of Design.

Marion Weiss is cofounder of WEISS/MANFREDI Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism and the Graham Chair Professor of Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. She was honored by Architectural Record with the Women in Architecture Design Leader Award and is a recipient of the 2019 Residence Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome. Weiss taught at Harvard Graduate School of Design and Cornell University, and she was the Saarinen Visiting Professor of Architecture at Yale University. Since 1991, Weiss has been a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design where she leads cross-disciplinary research studios that explore productive connections between architecture, nature, and infrastructure to address pressing social and environmental challenges. Weiss received her Master of Architecture at Yale University where she was awarded the AIA Scholastic Award and SOM’s Traveling Fellowship. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Virginia where she received UVA’s 2020 Distinguished Alumnae Award for her achievements in architecture. She is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and was inducted into the National Academy of Design.