Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi Receive 2020 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture

WEISS/MANFREDI is pleased to announce that design partners Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi are the recipients of the 2020 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture. The award is the highest honor bestowed by the University of Virginia and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello and recognizes the recipients' exemplary contributions to the endeavors in which Jefferson excelled and held in high regard.

Fellow 2020 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal recipients include Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Sonia Sotomayor for the Medal in Law, President of the Rockefeller Foundation Dr. Rajiv Shah for Citizen Leadership, and media pioneer and philanthropist Ted Turner for Global Innovation.

"Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi have been critically redefining the relationship between landscape, architecture and urbanism," said University of Virginia School of Architecture Dean Ila Berman. "Their transformation of coastal brownfields in Seattle and New York has breathed new life back into these cities, while generating truly public spaces that support inclusiveness and social equity. Innovative, thoughtful and carefully crafted, their works are both powerful and beautiful—urban social condensers and light-filled landscapes that express the profound cultural significance and transformative potential of architecture."

Weiss and Manfredi join a distinguished roster of past winners that includes architects Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, I.M. Pei, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Toyo Ito, and Sir David Adjaye.

In recognition of this award, the UVA School of Architecture will host a virtual public talk given by Weiss and Manfredi on Monday, April 20 at 5pm EST. For more information on the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medals and the 2020 recipients, click here.