PHILADELPHIA (Feb.13, 2024) – WEISS/MANFREDI Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism, a renowned New York-based architecture firm, will present a talk in acceptance of the 37th Louis I. Kahn Award, an award given by DesignPhiladelphia. The ceremony will take place at the Penn Museum at 6:30 pm on Wednesday, April 3, 2024. Tickets are on sale now on the DesignPhiladelphia website and can be found here.
The award-winning firm, founded by Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi, has consistently pushed boundaries in architectural design, with projects ranging from cultural institutions to urban landscapes-- demonstrating a deep understanding of context, sustainability, and human experience, resulting in architecture that resonates both aesthetically and functionally. Notable examples of their work include the Seattle Art Museum's Olympic Sculpture Park, the Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnology at the University of Pennsylvania, Hunter’s Point South Waterfront Park on the East River in New York. After winning an international design competition in 2019, WEISS/MANFREDI was selected to re-envision the world-renowned La Brea Tar Pits and Museum in Los Angeles. In 2021, the firm broke ground on two much-anticipated projects: the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India, expected to open in 2027, and Longwood Reimagined: A New Garden Experience—a sweeping reimagination of 17 acres of Longwood Gardens Conservatory and grounds in Kennett Square, PA, opening in fall 2024.
The annual Louis I. Kahn Award, founded in 1983, is Philadelphia's signature event honoring individuals who have made significant contributions to the field of architecture. The event celebrates these achievements in memory of the storied career of Philadelphia architect Louis Kahn—widely considered the most critical Modernist American architect and designer of such famous structures as the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California; the National Assembly Building in Dhaka, Bangladesh; and the Richards Medical Research Laboratories at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
The event raises funds to provide free design education to children in Philadelphia through the Design Education program of DesignPhiladelphia, which brings practicing architects and designers into public school classrooms. Design Education introduces children to the fields of architecture and design while empowering them to use design to shape their homes, neighborhoods, and city.
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.
The firm has won numerous awards and competitions and has been featured in exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the National Building Museum, the Essen Design Centre, the Louvre Museum, and the Venice Biennale. Princeton Architectural Press has published three monographs on their work including PUBLIC NATURES: Evolutionary Infrastructures. Their upcoming book, DRIFTING SYMMETRIES, is slated for publication with Park Books in fall 2024.
Past Kahn awardees include Pritzker Prize Winning Architecture Firm Herzog & de Meuron, architects of Tate Modern gallery in London, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, National Stadium in Beijing; Stephen Kieran, FAIA + James Timberlake, FAIA, founders of the firm KieranTimberlake and architects of the Embassy of the United States in London; Diller Scofidio + Renfro, architects of the High Line and The Shed at Hudson Yards; Bjarke Ingels, architect of Google headquarters; Sir David Adjaye, architect of the National Museum of African American Museum in Washington D.C.; Lord Norman Foster, architect of Comcast Innovation + Technology Center; Peter Bohlin, FAIA, architect of Apple’s iconic glass cube; Daniel Liebskind, BDA, architect of the original Freedom Tower concept; Robert A.M. Stern, FAIA, architect of the Comcast Center; Rafael Viñoly, FAIA, architect of the Kimmel Center; and César Pelli, FAIA, architect of Cira Center.
The 2024 Louis I. Kahn Award is generously supported by presenting sponsor Gattuso Development Partners—a developer of exceptional, sustainable high-performance workplaces. Led by former Liberty Property Trust leaders John S. Gattuso, President and CEO, and Anne Cummins, COO, the Gattuso team has played a vital role in reshaping the Philadelphia skyline and revitalizing its urban landscape.
Louis Isadore Kahn was born in Pärnu, Estonia, in 1901, emigrating to Philadelphia in 1906. A student of Philadelphia’s Central High School and, subsequently, the University of Pennsylvania, Kahn is considered one of the most influential architects of the second half of the twentieth century, according to his biography on The Athenaeum of Philadelphia’s website. His style, based mainly on geometric shapes, is most noted as being heavy and monumental. Kahn’s notable projects include the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, CA; the Kimball Art Museum in Fort Worth, TX; and the Library of the Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, NH. Kahn was also a renowned teacher at Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, MIT, and Princeton.
DesignPhiladelphia's vision is that together we will create a Philadelphia that is designed for and by everyone. We foster a vibrant design community from K through Career committed to excellence, inclusivity, and connections. As an invaluable partner in Philadelphia’s progress, we do that through multidisciplinary design education, our annual festival, and public programs. We do this because for students we will open doors and create economic opportunities in underserved communities, providing support and sparking new aspirations, from kindergarten through career. For designers we will support and unify the design industry across the region; make it less siloed, more inclusive, and more consequential in Philadelphia’s progress. And for the Philadelphia region we will ignite the narrative that Philadelphia is a global design hub, charting a new course to make design by and for everyone. Learn more at www.designphiladelphia.org.
About DesignPhiladelphia Community
We foster a vibrant design community from K through Career committed to excellence, inclusivity and connections. As an invaluable partner in Philadelphia’s progress we do that through multidisciplinary design education, our annual festival, and public programs about design.
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- Rebecca Johnson
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Executive Director
AIA Philadelphia | DesignPhiladelphia - rebecca@aiaphila.org
- 2152669235