Architect, photographer, lecturer, historian and critic of architecture and urbanism, Phyllis Lambert (CC, GOQ, CAL, FRAIC, FRSC, FRIBA (Hon.), FAIA (Hon.), LL D) is Founding Director Emeritus of the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montréal, an international research centre and museum founded in 1979 on the conviction that architecture is a public concern. Lambert first made architectural history as the Director of Planning of the Seagram Building in New York (1954-58). She is recognized internationally for her contribution in advancing contemporary architecture, for her concern for the social issues of urban conservation and for the role of architecture in the public realm.

Phyllis Lambert has pioneered publications on photography and architecture, architecture and landscape, and various periods in the history of the architecture of Montreal and the first half of the twentieth century in New York City. Lambert’s writings include major essays in: Court House: A Photographic Document; Photography and Architecture; Architecture and Its Image; Canadian Centre for Architecture: Buildings and Gardens; and En Chantier, the Collections of the CCA, 1989-1999. Lambert is editor and author of Opening the Gates of Eighteenth-Century Montréal; Fortifications and the Synagogue: The Fortress of Babylon and the Ben Ezra Synagogue, Cairo; Viewing Olmsted: Photographs by Robert Burley, Lee Friedlander, and Geoffrey James; and Mies in America. Building Seagram, a cultural history of architecture, art, urban regulations and real estate, as well as conservation and stewardship in New York City, 1950-2000, was published in 2013.

Lambert holds a B.A. (1948) from Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, an M.S. (1963) in Architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, and honorary degrees from twenty-seven universities in North America and in Europe. She is the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions for her contributions to scholarship and architecture, and for her tireless commitment to civic activism. Lambert holds the highest civil honours in Canada as Companion of the Order of Canada and Grand Officier de l’Ordre National du Québec.

Hans Ibelings, an architectural historian based in Montreal, wrote about Phyllis Lambert in a recent article on Canadian Architecture, entitled "Mies en Valeur: Rigid conservation regulations spearheaded by Phyllis Lambert preserved the Seagram Building in New York City."