On Thursday, July 31, at 5 PM, LongHouse Reserve will host an evening of architectural dialogue. Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Paul Goldberger will join renowned architects Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi for a conversation. As part of the LongHouse Talks series, this event will explore how architecture can respond to and shape a world marked by ecological challenges and social change.
This occasion celebrates Drifting Symmetries, Weiss/Manfredi’s latest monograph, which will be available for purchase from BookHampton. Published by Park Books, Drifting Symmetries is a beautifully illustrated volume that showcases the firm’s multidisciplinary approach. This approach blurs the lines between infrastructure, architecture, and landscape. At a time when the impacts of climate change and social division are urgent, Weiss/Manfredi’s work promotes a new design philosophy that values connection, resilience, and community in the spaces we inhabit.
As the founders of Weiss/Manfredi Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism, Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi have consistently pushed the boundaries of integrated design. Their notable projects—from the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle to the Women’s Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery—create hybrid civic spaces where architecture and the environment intersect. Their work emphasizes the movement of people through space, their experiences with nature, and their interactions with each other.
Their current portfolio includes diverse and ambitious projects such as the United States Embassy in New Delhi, the expansion of the Tampa Museum of Art, and an innovative redesign of the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. Most recently, the firm won an international competition to reimagine the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, surpassing over 180 submissions from six continents.
Their accolades continue to grow. These include the 2024 Louis I. Kahn Award in Architecture, the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award, the 2020 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award. Their work is part of the permanent collections at MoMA, the Library of Congress, and the Cooper Hewitt, and has been showcased globally, from the Venice Biennale to the Guggenheim Museum.
Moderating the conversation is Paul Goldberger, whose critical insights have shaped architectural discussions for over forty years. As a former architecture critic for The New York Times, contributing editor at Vanity Fair, and longtime columnist for The New Yorker, Goldberger won the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism and remains a highly respected figure in the field. As Joseph Urban Professor of Design at Parsons and Chair of the Board at the Glass House, his impact stretches across both scholarship and preservation. He was also a close friend and colleague of Jack Lenor Larsen, the visionary founder of LongHouse.
This LongHouse Talk will not just focus on buildings but will also encourage attendees to think about how architecture can help create a more human-centered and environmentally conscious future. As Weiss and Manfredi note in Drifting Symmetries, architecture is not a fixed object but a dynamic process that responds to the connection between nature and the built environment.
In the intimate and art-filled setting of LongHouse Reserve, which embodies design, nature, and cultural dialogue, this conversation offers a rare chance to hear three of the field’s most influential voices discuss the possibilities of public space, artistic form, and environmental awareness.