Birgit Siber, a principal at Diamond Schmitt Architects, is to be recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award for her commitment to sustainable design by Sustainable Buildings Canada (SBC).
The award acknowledges Siber’s many green building initiatives through advocacy, research, innovation and design excellence across a range of building types.
“This award is for exemplary devotion to the cause of greater sustainability in the built environment,” said Mike Singleton, SBC Executive Director.
Since 1996, Siber has been an architect at Diamond Schmitt, where she became a principal in 2003.
She led the design installation of the first large-scale living wall biofilter at the University of Guelph Humber campus more than a decade ago, which spawned dozens more in Diamond Schmitt’s projects in Canada and the U.S.
Siber also spearheaded ecoMetrics, an energy-use benchmarking databank and analysis tool to highlight and inform strategies for energy-use reduction.
As a project architect, Siber has focused on institutional and laboratory projects including the LEED Platinum certified CANMET Metallurgical Materials laboratory in Hamilton, a recipient of the 2015 AIA COTE Top 10 Award for sustainable design.
In 2019, Wilfrid Laurier University’s Lazaridis Hall achieved LEED Gold certification and won a Civic Trust Award (UK) and SCUP Excellence in Architecture Award (USA).
“I think of architecture as a team sport—a creative and complex opportunity to work collaboratively towards sustainable design solutions,” said Siber.
Birgit serves on the Toronto 2030 District Advisory Board and the RAIC Committee of Regenerative Environments (CORE).
She chairs the office sustainable design committee, and has contributed to the design conversation on biophilia, resilience, energy literacy and net-zero energy at Canadian and international sustainability conferences.
The Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented at the Green Building Festival in Toronto on October 8th.