Claire Weisz, principal-in-charge of WXY Architecture + Urban Design, is ENR New York’s 2024 Legacy Award winner. She will be featured in the February issue of ENR New York. 

The Legacy Award is given annually to an individual in the region who has established a solid “legacy” of lifetime service to the construction industry, their colleagues and to their community. ENR New York includes New York and New Jersey.

Weiz founded WXY firm with Mark Yoes in 1998. The duo has built the firm into one that is recognized worldwide for its place-based approach to architecture, urban design, and planning, all while focusing on public engagement and social awareness.  

The firm has been given awards by the likes of Fast Company, the Architectural League, the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Chicago Athenaeum and the American Planning Association.

A Fellow of the AIA and the Urban Design Forum, Weisz is cited frequently in media on topics ranging from social equity to environmental justice. She has served on the New York State Council on the Arts’ Architecture Design Panel and the state’s AIA Board of Directors. Weisz also serves on international design juries, including the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize, Big Ideas for Small Lots housing design competition, and Texas Society of Architects’ 2022 Design Awards. Her publications include Blue Dunes, a critically lauded book on coastal resiliency.

Weisz has won the AIA Medal of Honor for New York state, the Women in Architecture Award from Architectural Record, and Fast Company’s 2017 Most Creative People in Business. She has been presented with research grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the Graham Foundation, including the Blue Dunes pilot for HUD’s Rebuild by Design initiative.

Her critically acclaimed works in metro New York include the Spring Street Salt Shed, Sea Glass Carousel, the 100% affordable Peninsula mixed-use development, the Drawing Center, Douglass Pedestrian Bridge, REED Academy, the Arverne East nature center, and the redesigned Astor Place. Her community-focused planning and urban designs include The East Harlem Neighborhood Plan, Brooklyn Tech Triangle and the East River Blueway Plan.

To learn more about Weisz and her work, check out the February issue of ENR New York when it goes on line.