CCA Founding Director Emeritus and one of the most famous international names in the architecture industry, Phyllis Lambert has been selected as recipient of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement of the 14th International Architecture Exhibition Fundamentals at the Venice Biennale.

The Golden Lion award will be officially awarded during the opening and award ceremony of Fundamentals in the Giardini of la Biennale on Saturday 7 June 2014.

“Phyllis Lambert has made a huge contribution to architecture,” said Rem Koolhaas, the director of the Biennale di Venezia. “Without her participation, one of the few realisations in the 20th century of perfection on earth – the Seagram Building in New York – would not have happened. Her creation of the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal combines rare vision with rare generosity to preserve crucial episodes of architecture’s heritage and to study them under ideal conditions.”

Accepting the honour Phyllis Lambert said, “I am thrilled and wonderfully honoured to receive from the Board of the Venice Biennale the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. Together with the Biennale’s 14th International Architectural Exhibition, Fundamentals, the award marks the urgent role of architecture writ large in the unfolding of the world’s increasingly challenging social and ecological condition.”

“I am extremely pleased that this recognition is bestowed upon Phyllis Lambert at this very special moment, as the CCA celebrates its 25th anniversary,” Bruce Kuwabara, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the CCA said. “Phyllis Lambert has been absolutely committed to excellence in architecture for her entire life and the CCA is a result of this ongoing mission.”

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