Marianne Kwok

Position

Principal

Education

Master of Architecture,
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Bachelor of Architecture,
Cornell University College of Architecture, Art & Planning

Marianne has dedicated her 30+ years as an architect to exploring how design can best connect people to the built environment within an ever-changing and complex world. Through close collaboration and the thoughtful examination of program, context, and materiality, her work has redefined skylines, places for cities, and experiences for users in a variety of mixed-use, commercial, residential, and cultural projects across multiple continents.

Propelling KPF’s portfolio of office and mixed-use projects, Marianne’s approach is guided by an unwavering commitment to understanding the context, user needs, and character and requirements of her clients, translating their identities into the built form. For tech company TP Link, she has designed multiple buildings that enable and embody its innovative and collaborative culture, including its Shenzhen headquarters.

Marianne has a unique understanding of how to create a city within a city, designing mixed-use districts that foster a sense of community within dense urban landscapes. Marianne led the design team for 10 and 30 Hudson Yards in New York City, the centerpieces of a new neighborhood built on a platform over the country’s busiest train yard. In China, she directed the design of One Shenzhen Bay, an 11-acre, eight-tower neighborhood, which seamlessly weaves into the fabric of Houhai.

Similarly, in Vancouver, Marianne worked on the 1.5 million square foot redevelopment of the Bentall Centre, which includes Burrard Exchange. An example of her dedication to both sustainability and wellness, the project is one of the tallest exposed hybrid mass timber office buildings in North America, reducing the building’s embodied carbon.

Marianne received her Master of Architecture degree from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and her Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University, where she was the recipient of the Charles Goodwin Sands Memorial Silver Medal (thesis prize). Marianne has taught studios at Cornell; been invited to reviews at Yale, Pratt, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and Harvard; and delivered lectures including on the regenerative city for CTBUH, building community through design at the British Council for Offices, and quality urban development at the Creating Communities Conference in Sydney.