Philip Johnson, Ludwig Mies van Der Rohe, and Phyllis Lambert discuss the Seagram in front of an image of the building model soon after she helped the architects win the commission in 1955.
Building Seagram Philip Johnson, Ludwig Mies van Der Rohe, and Phyllis Lambert discuss the Seagram in front of an image of the building model soon after she helped the architects win the commission in 1955.

The Board of la Biennale di Venezia has selected Phyllis Lambert, Hon. FAIA, for the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at this year's International Architecture Exhibition. The award will be presented on June 7.

Rem Koolhaas, Hon. FAIA, the director of this year's architecture festival and past recipient of the award, said in a statement: "Not as an architect, but as a client and custodian, Phyllis Lambert has made a huge contribution to architecture."

Lambert notably convinced her father to hire Ludwig Mies van der Rohe to design the now-famous Seagram Building in New York, which she outlined in her book Building Seagram (Yale University Press, 2013). In 1979, she helped found the Canadian Centre for Architecture.

Other past winners of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement include Alvaro Siza, Hon. FAIA, James Ackerman, Richard Rogers, and Paolo Soleri.