Claire Weisz

Claire Weisz, RA, FAIA, Hon. FRAIC, is a founding partner of WXY, a New York-based studio globally recognized for its community-centered approach to design. Combining architecture and planning, the practice works at all scales. WXY was one of Fast Company's World's Most Innovative Companies for 2019 and Most Innovative Companies in Urban Development and Real Estate for 2023. WXY won the AIA New York State Firm of the Year Award in 2016. With her partner Mark Yoes, she received the Architectural League of New York's Young Architects Award and the Emerging Voices Award. Weisz was named one of Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business in 2017, awarded the Medal of Honor from AIANY in 2018, honored with the Women in Architecture Award by Architectural Record, and recognized as ENR's New York Legacy Award Winner in 2024.

Academic Research/Specialty Areas

  • Adaptive reuse
  • Architectural design
  • Architectural practice 
  • Collaborative practice
  • Community-based planning and development
  • Historic preservation planning
  • Housing
  • Infrastructure planning
  • Land use/spatial planning
  • Participatory and collaborative planning
  • Social policy
  • Structures in architecture
  • Sustainability
  • Urbanism

Related News

Classes (Selected)

  • ARCH 4101/4102/5101 Combined Design VII, VIII, IX
  • ARCH 5116 Combined Vertical Design Option Studio II
  • ARCH 7112 Design B: Topic Studio — Edible Homes

Awards, Grants, and Fellowships (Selected)

  • Architizer A+ Awards — Winner, Best Public Projects Firm, 2025.
  • AIANY Excelsior Award — Coastal Conservation Center: A Model for Resilient and Inclusive Public Space, 2025.
  • New Yorkers for Parks Annual Benefit — Honoree, 2024.
  • ENR New York Legacy Award — Winner, 2024.
  • Most Innovative Companies — Fast Company, No.3, "Urban Development and Real Estate," 2023.

Exhibitions and Presentations (Selected)

  • The Dunes: Resilient Communities, 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, "Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective." curated by Carlo Ratti, 2025.
  • Engaging at all Scales, TMU DAS x BEAT Lecture Series, Toronto Metropolitan University Department of Architectural Science, 2025.
  • Big Ideas to Help NYC Thrive in the Post-Pandemic Economy, Center for Urban Futures, New York, New York, 2024.

Publications (Selected)

  • Weisz, Claire, Andrei Harwell, Marc de la Bruyere, Edward P. Bass, Nina Rappaport, and Charis Armstrong. "Oil, Land, People." Yale School of Architecture, 2025.
  • Weisz, Claire. "Set Up to Fail: How the Parts of Design Have Taken Over the Purpose of Practice." Harvard Design Magazine, no. 52, "Instruments of Service," 2024: 94-101.

Selected Work

  • a circular glass and metal building surrounded by trees

    Battery SeaGlass (2015), New York, New York. photo / WXY Studio

  • an angular concrete structure with no windows

    DSNY Manhattan District 1/2/5 Garage and Salt Shed (2015), New York, New York. photo / WXY Studio

  • a long low wood building with solar panels on the room and a large sloping deck

    Coastal Conservation Center (2023), Queens, New York. photo / WXY Studio

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