Sim Van der Ryn

Sim Van der Ryn—architect, author, and educator—has been integrating ecological principles into the built environment for more than 40 years. He spent 35 years as professor of architecture at UC Berkeley and was California’s State Architect for Governor Jerry Brown in the late 1970s, designing and building the State’s first energy efficient and climate-responsive building.

The author of several influential books, he has won numerous honors—a Guggenheim in 1971, Rockefeller Fellowships in Bellagio, Italy in 1997 and 2012, and the Athena Lifetime Achievement Award from the Congress for New Urbanism in 2006—for his leadership and innovation in architecture and planning.