Siegel & Strain Architects is featured in the recently published American Institute of Architects Commitment on the Environment (COTE) Report, "The Habits of High-Performance Firms." According to Mary Ann Lazarus, AIA COTE Chair, the Report is an overview of the key firm characteristics that drive success across frequent COTE Top Ten winners, including Siegel & Strain. The report offers insights from Siegel & Strain as well as other High-Performance Firms. States Lazarus, "These findings are valuable for any firm and are especially important now with AIA's commitment to achieving a more equitable, sustainable, healthy, and resilient built environment."

Pioneers of the architectural sustainability movement, Siegel & Strain Architects has often been recognized for innovative, beautiful architecture, sustainable design, and historic preservation and research, acknowledging that places designed to support and build community can also respond to site and climate and achieve high levels of environmental stewardship.

The firm has received four COTE Top Ten awards including: 2009 Portola Valley Town Center, in 2006 Emeryville Resourceful Building Residence, 2003 Wine Creek Road Home, and in 2002, the Camp Arroyo project.

"We are honored to be acknowledged in this report for our commitment to sustainable design together with other leading firms," says Susi Marzuola, Principal at Siegel & Strain. "For us, design and sustainability are one and the same. We integrate performance into every architectural decision and believe that advancing architectural design is advancing sustainability. The two are inextricable."