Lori Ferriss, AIA, PE, LEED AP BD+C

Co-Founder and Executive Director

Lori Ferriss, co-founder and executive director of Built Buildings Lab, is an internationally recognized expert in leveraging existing and historic buildings toward a sustainable, resilient, and equitable future. Her award-winning work as an architect, structural engineer, conservator, and educator combines broad policy development with deep technical insights to harness the existing built environment as a climate solution.  

Lori is a pioneer in quantifying the environmental benefits of building reuse. She is a co-developer of Architecture 2030’s CARE Tool, which estimates the carbon benefits of reusing and retrofitting buildings, and her work on this topic has been published in peer reviewed publications and presented at venues from preservation conferences to the UN COP.  She brings her perspective as a practitioner and technical expert to policy making and implementation through her appointment to the City of Boston’s BERDO Review Board and as the Climate Heritage Network’s liaison to the UNEP Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction. 

The AIA recognized Lori with the Young Architect Award for expanding the role of architects while elevating building reuse as a prime strategy to combat climate change. She was the 2023 Chair of the AIA Committee on the Environment and serves as a Steering Committee representative of the Climate Heritage Network, a founding Co-Chair of the Zero Net Carbon Collaboration for Existing and Historic Buildings, an expert member on the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Energy, Sustainability and Climate Change, and a Senior Fellow of Architecture 2030.