Defiantly urban and socially responsible, the buildings of Diamond and Schmitt Architects-most recently, the Toronto Opera House-are celebrated internationally. The firm has won more than 140 awards, including six Governor General’s Awards and an aia design award, and in 2004 and 2007, Business Week/Architectural Record named two of their projects on their list of the world’s ten best buildings. Today the firm is at the heart of a critical debate: how do we make cities livable and sustainable in the twenty-first century? Insight and On Site addresses such issues in twelve essays, including one by architecture critic Witold Rybczynski, and interweaves a veritable portfolio of the Diamond and Schmitt oeuvre, including Jerusalem City Hall, the York University Student Centre, the Earth Sciences Center at the University of Toronto and the Life Sciences Centre at the University of British Columbia. AUTHOR: A.J. Diamond was born in South Africa and is a graduate of the Universities of Capetown, Oxford and Pennsylvania. He is a Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Gold Medalist, an Honourary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, a member of the Order of Ontario and an Officer of the Order of Canada. Diamond is the founding Principal of Diamond and Schmitt Architects, which has received numerous national and international awards for design and sustainability. Since 1964 he has been resident in Toronto. Don Gillmor is the author of the Libris Award winning Canada: A People’s History as well as six books for children. He was a contributing editor to Saturday Night magazine and has won many awards for journalism; he is currently senior editor of Walrus magazine. Donald Schmitt’s many projects include the University of Guelph-Humber Building. A distinguished architect and a founding chair of Toronto’s Public Art Commission, he is currently a member of the Advisory Committee on Planning Design and Real Estate of the National Capital Commission in Ottawa. 279 images
