July 29, 2019

Birgit Siber, a principal at Diamond Schmitt Architects, is to be recognized for her commitment to sustainable design by Sustainable Buildings Canada (SBC).

The Lifetime Achievement Award acknowledges Birgit’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.

Birgit has practiced architecture at Diamond Schmitt since 1996 and became a principal in 2003. She led the design installation of the first large-scale living wall biofilter in Canada more than a decade ago at the University of Guelph Humber campus. Its success spawned dozens more in Diamond Schmitt projects in Canada and the U.S. She also spearheaded ecoMetrics, an energy-use benchmarking databank and analysis tool to highlight and inform strategies for energy-use reduction.

As project architect, Birgit has focused predominantly on institutional and laboratory projects. These include the LEED Platinum certified CANMET Metallurgical Materials laboratory in Hamilton, the recipient of the 2015 AIA COTE Top 10 Award for sustainable design. Lazaridis Hall at Wilfrid Laurier University achieved LEED Gold certification and won a Civic Trust Award (UK) and SCUP Excellence in Architecture Award (USA) in 2019.

“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 presented extensively at Canadian and international sustainability conferences, contributing to the design conversation on biophilia, resilience, energy literacy and net-zero energy.

The Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented at the Green Building Festival in Toronto on October 8^th.