Phyllis Lambert
Phyllis Barbara Lambert (née Bronfman; born January 24, 1927) is a Canadian architect, philanthropist, and member of the Bronfman family.
Also recorded as Phyllis Bronfman · Phyllis Barbara Lambert
Phyllis Lambert
![Dorothy Jarvis [Photographer] From The Trustees of Phillips Academy.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3b/Abbot_Academy_students_on_steps_of_McKeen_Hall-_Anne_Hurlbut%2C_Frances_McTernen%2C_Barbara_Reinhart%2C_Barbara_Chamberlain%3B_Elizabeth_Barnes%2C_Phyllis_Lambert%2C_Nancy_Marsh%3B_Clara_Estes%2C_E_-_DPLA_-_f6080738d2ee12be2af6f380f7efc3a0.jpg/1280px-Abbot_Academy_students_on_steps_of_McKeen_Hall-_Anne_Hurlbut%2C_Frances_McTernen%2C_Barbara_Reinhart%2C_Barbara_Chamberlain%3B_Elizabeth_Barnes%2C_Phyllis_Lambert%2C_Nancy_Marsh%3B_Clara_Estes%2C_E_-_DPLA_-_f6080738d2ee12be2af6f380f7efc3a0.jpg)
Abbot Academy · Abbot Academy / Cc-by-sa-4.0 · File URL IIIF manifest Catalog record · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Name
- Phyllis Lambert
- Born
- 24 January 1927
- Birthplace
- Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- Birth Name
- Phyllis Barbara Bronfman
- Awards
- Order of Canada National Order of Quebec Golden Lion, Venice Biennale of Architecture
- Nationality
- Canada
- Occupation
- architect · philanthropist · author
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Phyllis Barbara Lambert (née Bronfman; born January 24, 1927) is a Canadian architect, philanthropist, and member of the Bronfman family.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
Phyllis Lambert (born 1927) is an architect, author and philanthropist, of Canadian nationality. The architect was born in Montreal.
Phyllis Lambert was educated at Illinois Institute of Technology and Vassar College. The architect worked for Canadian Centre for Architecture and is a member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and Royal Society of Canada. Activity centred on Architecture and urbanization.
Languages used include English and French. Honours include Chomedey-de-Maisonneuve award, Companion of the Order of Canada and Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, among others.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Phyllis Lambert. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
Documentary evidence
Evidence Panel
not yet certified
- Identity
- resolved
- Independent source families
- 0
- Admitted assertions
- 0
- Open conflicts
- 0
Authority files
wikidata · Q3381859 · wikipedia · Phyllis Lambert
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Phyllis Lambert • Born — 24 January 1927 • Birthplace — Montreal, Quebec, Canada • Birth Name — Phyllis Barbara Bronfman • Parents — Samuel Bronfman (father) Saidye Rosner Bronfman (mother) • Relatives — Edgar Bronfman, Sr. (brother) Charles Bronfman (brother) • Awards — Order of Canada National Order of Quebec Golden Lion, Venice Biennale of Architecture • Illustration — Canadian Centre for Architecture, founded by Phyllis Lambert
Life
Life
Born in Montreal, Quebec, she studied at The Study, a premier independent school for girls, and was educated at the liberal arts Vassar College (A.B. in 1948). At the age of nine she was already committed to sculpture and her drawing skills were commented upon as remarkable early on in life. And at eleven she began exhibiting in annual juried exhibitions at the Royal Academy of Arts and the Société des Sculpteurs du Canada. While reading architecture history in New York she became engaged with the connections of art and architecture which would last a lifetime. Her family is of Jewish background. On 17 May 1949, in Montreal, she married Jean Lambert, a French-German economic consultant and the only son of Adolphe Lambert of Elmhurst, Queens, New York. The couple divorced in 1954. After the divorce she decided to remain in Paris, living and working alone in a studio on her art and sculpting. In 1951 Lambert's father Samuel Bronfman established Cemp Investments, a holding company for his four children, in which Phyllis was given a 22% ownership stake. It controlled the family's distilling empire, The Seagram Company Ltd., which over time controlled billions of dollars in liquor, real estate, oil and gas, and chemical companies.
Work
Work
• Illustration — Lambert was closely involved with the design of the Seagram Building in New York. While Lambert was living in Paris, the Seagram Company Ltd was planning a new headquarters in New York City under her father's instructions. During her time in Paris, she had come into contact with the newest artistic and architectural movements of the time. She was vehemently against the building that had already been designed for the plot by Pereira and Luckman Architects. In an eight-page letter to her father (dated June 28, 1954), the 27-year-old Phyllis managed to convince him to re-think the initial project. She was given the mandate to find a suitable alternative and after an extended research lasting six weeks Mies van der Rohe was brought forward as the new candidate. He received the project and became her mentor supporting her in her wish to become an architect. From 1954 to 1958, she was immersed in the process of designing and building the Seagram Building on Park Avenue in New York City. Though she enrolled at the Yale School of Architecture in 1958, she then changed to the Illinois Institute of Technology, which she felt better suited to what she wanted to learn. Lambert later became the consultant to the Seagram Building, entrusted with its maintenance including the supervision and the curation of all exhibitions and collections, until 2000. After she obtained her master's degree in 1963, her family commissioned her to design an arts centre in Montreal to be known as the Saidye Bronfman Centre, in honor of her mother. Lambert designed a ‘Miesian Structure’. • Illustration — Lambert opened the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Shaughnessy Village after advocating for preserving the neighbourhood and saving the building from demolition. After the demolition of the Van Horne Mansion on Sherbrooke Street in 1973, 23 citizen groups formed Sauvons Montréal. Lambert became one of the advocates in the efforts to revitalize the struggling Shaughnessy Village district. In 1975, she founded the heritage preservation group Heritage Montreal. (She served as its first president until 1983.) Héritage Montréal raised funds so that conservation groups could take action. Their tools to stop demolition included marching in the streets, publishing ads and booklets and working with residents. They developed Canada's largest non-profit cooperative housing renovation, Milton-Parc. Lambert also saved Shaughnessy House from demolition by buying it. In 1989 the 19th century mansion became part of the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA). She considered an investment in renovating low-to medium-income neighbourhoods as important as the conservation of monuments or building anew. Since 1997 she held the Fonds d’investissement Montréal (FIM). It achieved in bringing private sector investment to communitarian housing beyond the limits of government programs. In 1979, she founded the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), an influential museum and research centre in Montreal's Shaughnessy Village neighbourhood, and donated 750,000 shares of Seagram to help fund the Centre. It houses extensive collections of architectural drawings, books, photographs, and archival materials. The guiding belief of the CCA is that "architecture is a public concern," and its collection and activities "are driven by a curiosity about how architecture shapes—and might reshape—contemporary life." She served on the board of directors of Cemp's subsidiary, Cadillac Fairview for which she later picketed the offices of project developer. Again she suggested working with Mies and supported what was to be known as the Toronto-Dominion Centre. Her work also includes serving as developer on the restoration of the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles by architect Gene Summers (architect).
National and International Recognition
National and International Recognition
In 1990 she received an honorary DFA in Architecture from the Pratt Institute. In 1992, she was made Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de France. She holds honorary degrees from some 26 universities in North America and in Europe. In 1985 she was made a Member of the Order of Canada, promoted to Officer in 1990, and promoted to Companion in 2001. In 1985, she was made a Knight of the National Order of Quebec and was promoted to Grand Officer in 2005. Lambert was awarded the Vincent Scully Prize by the National Building Museum in 2006. Executive director Chase Rynd stated, "The Museum is honored to present its 2006 Scully Prize to Phyllis Lambert for a lifetime of outstanding achievements in the design of the built environment. From the Seagram Building to the CCA, to her work as a preservationist and educator, Phyllis Lambert has deeply enhanced the world we build for ourselves." In 2007, Citizen Lambert: Joan of architecture, a documentary film about Lambert was directed by Teri Wehn-Damisch. Lambert was the recipient of the Golden Lion at the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale. In 2016, she was awarded the Wolf Prize in Arts. Alongside Blanche Lemco van Ginkel, Cornelia Oberlander and Denise Scott Brown, she is one of four prominent female architects profiled in the 2018 documentary film City Dreamers. In 2023, Phyllis Lambert was awarded the Ada Louise Huxtable prize for her contribution to the wider architectural industry.
Honours and awards
• Member of the Order of Canada (1985) • Knight of the National Order of Quebec (1985) • Officer of the Order of Canada (1990) • Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts in Architecture from Pratt Institute (1990) • Gold Medal from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (1991) • Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1992) • Hadrian Award of the World Monuments Fund (1997) • Companion of the Order of Canada (2001) • Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec (2005) • Vincent Scully Prize from the National Building Museum (2006) • Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement from the Venice Biennale of Architecture (2014) • Wolf Prize in Arts (2016)
![Dorothy Jarvis [Photographer] From The Trustees of Phillips Academy.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a2/Virginia_Priest%2C_Virginia_Holden%2C_Phyllis_Lambert%2C_Ruth_Pratt_on_Abbot_Academy_campus_-_DPLA_-_a8b9ca21ecb799e07e6e385c9befd80f.jpg/800px-Virginia_Priest%2C_Virginia_Holden%2C_Phyllis_Lambert%2C_Ruth_Pratt_on_Abbot_Academy_campus_-_DPLA_-_a8b9ca21ecb799e07e6e385c9befd80f.jpg)
Dorothy Jarvis [Photographer] From The Trustees of Phillips Academy.
Abbot Academy · Abbot Academy / Cc-by-sa-4.0 · File URL IIIF manifest Catalog record
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Phyllis, Lambert. Building Seagram. 2013. 9780300167672.
- 2.Wagg, Susan. Phyllis Lambert. The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. May 19, 2008.
- 3.50% of New "Giving Pledge" Donors are Jewish.
- 4."Lambert & Co.: 'Some Mistakes'—Head of Investment House Looks Back on Losses", The New York Times, 1 April 1967, pages 31 and 44
- 5."Phyllis Bronfman Wed in Montreal", The New York Times, 18 May 1949, page L-31
- 6.Canadian Jewish Review, 16 September 1949, page 18
- 7.Jean Lambert later became a banker, founding Lambert & Company, an investment bank in New York City; he was not Baron Jean Lambert of the Belgian banking family.
- 8.Jean Lambert married, in 1963, as his second wife, Jacqueline Reille, the former wife of Christian, Count de Fels, per "Jean Lambert, Investor, Marries Countess Reille", The New York Times, 25 November 1963, page L-22
- 9.Citizen Lambert: Joan of Architecture, directed by American documentary filmmaker Teri Wehn-Damisch, 2007
- 10.Nicolas Faith, The Bronfmans: The Rise and Fall of the House of Seagram. St. Martin's Griffin, 2007. . Retrieved 2015-04-22
- 11.Phyllis Lambert reflects on her 75 years in architecture - Archpaper.com. archpaper.com. 21 February 2017.
- 12.Canadian Centre for Architecture. Phyllis Lambert and the Canadian Centre for Architecture.
- 13.Scott, Marian. Montreal architecture icon Phyllis Lambert helped shape the city. Montreal Gazette. January 20, 2017.
- 14.Canadian Centre for Architecture. Overview.
- 15."A Personal Stamp on the Skyline, Mark Lamster, New York Times, April 3, 2013
- 16.All News Releases and Press Releases from PR Newswire. www.prnewswire.com.
- 17."Architect Phyllis Lambert awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement of the 14th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale earlier today", http://www.newswire.ca. Retrieved 2017-09-12
- 18.Israel's 'pre-Nobel' Wolf Prize awardees announced. The Times of Israel.
- 19.Review: City Dreamers: Portraits of four women who shaped the world we live in. The Globe and Mail. 2019-05-16.
- 20.Kazuyo Sejima and Phyllis Lambert Are the Recipients of the 2023 Jane Drew and Ada Louise Huxtable Prizes Celebrating Women in Architecture. 31 January 2023.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Design
11,558 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Philips VingboonsDesigner
- Phillip James DoddDesigner
- PhilonDesigner
- Phyllis BirkbyDesigner
- Pier Carlo BontempiDesigner
- Pier Francesco OrsiniDesigner
- Pier Francesco SilvaniDesigner
- Pier Giacomo CastiglioniDesigner
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Phyllis Lambert?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.