Drifting Symmetries by Marion Weiss & Michael Manfredi with Justin Davidson

The new monograph by Weiss/Manfredi is a manual for expanding the terrain of contemporary architecture to construct more resilient settings for contemporary life. Cofounders Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi will be in conversation with Pulitzer Prize–winning critic Justin Davidson, followed by a signing.

PLEASE NOTE: RSVPs are encouraged but not required. Seating is limited and will be first come, first served. Doors open at 5:30 pm.

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In an era when the dual challenges of climate change and social isolation loom large, Drifting Symmetries emerges as a pivotal exploration of architecture’s role in shaping a sustainable and connected future. Weiss/Manfredi’s groundbreaking work transcends the boundaries between landscape, infrastructure, and architecture by reinventing sites in response to environmental and social challenges. Presented in this comprehensive volume of projects and parallel research, their work demonstrates a multidisciplinary approach that invents new settings for public life by exploring the gradient between nature and architecture.
Featuring Weiss/Manfredi’s most acclaimed built works alongside historical precedents and insights from Thom Mayne, Barry Bergdoll, Walter Hood, Nader Tehrani, Tatiana Bilbao, James Corner, Meejin Yoon, Rahul Mehrotra, Hashim Sarkis, Sarah Whiting, and many others, Drifting Symmetries is more than a showcase of projects; it’s a manual for expanding the terrain of contemporary architecture to construct more resilient settings for contemporary life.

Marion Weiss is cofounder of WEISS/MANFREDI Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism and the Graham Chair Professor of Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2017, Marion was honored by Architectural Record with the Women in Architecture Design Leader Award. Marion was born in California and received her Master of Architecture from Yale University and Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Virginia. At Yale, she won the American Institute of Architects Scholastic Award and the SOM Traveling Fellowship. She has taught design studios at Harvard University, Yale University, Cornell University, and since 1991 has been a faculty member at Penn's Weitzman School of Design where she leads research studios on the intersection of infrastructural, social, and ecological challenges. In 2019, Marion received the Residence Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome and was honored with the University of Virginia’s 2020 Distinguished Alumnae Award for recognition of her achievements in Architecture. She is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a National Academy of Design inductee.

Michael Manfredi is cofounder of WEISS/MANFREDI Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism and a Senior Design Critic at Harvard University. Michael was born in Trieste, Italy and grew up in Rome. He completed his undergraduate education in the United States at Notre Dame and 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 Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, Cornell University, and, most recently, at Harvard University where he teaches Urban Design studios that focus on larger interdisciplinary questions that connect architecture to pressing urban and environmental challenges. With Marion Weiss, Michael is a recipient of the 2019 Residence Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome. A founding board member of the Van Alen Institute, Michael is currently a board member for the Storefront for Art and Architecture and has been a member of the Advisory Council of Cornell's College of Architecture, Art, and Planning. He is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and was recently inducted into the National Academy of Design.

Justin Davidson has been the architecture and classical music critic at New York magazine since 2007, and his architecture columns also appear in the magazine’s website Curbed. Before that, he spent 12 years as classical music critic at Newsday, where he also wrote about architecture and was a regular cultural commentator. He won a Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 2002 and was a finalist again in 2020. Davidson is the author of , which leads readers through a portrait of the city told through its history, architecture, music, art, and literature. A native of Rome, Davidson graduated from Harvard and later earned a doctoral degree in music composition at Columbia University. He is on the faculty of the Urban Design program at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. He has contributed to many publications, including The New Yorker, the New York Review of Books, and the book Beyond Architecture: the New New York.

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