Diamond, whose projects included the Four Seasons Center for the Performing Arts, Museum Station, Corus Quay, the Richmond Hill Central Library and the Holy Blossom Temple, died Sunday afternoon, the Diamond Schmitt Company said in a statement . Born in South Africa, Diamond studied architecture before attending Oxford University, where he studied politics and philosophy and economics. From there he went to Philadelphia in the early 1960s and then to Toronto. He began working in architecture in 1968, but his experience in apartheid South Africa left an indelible mark, business partner Don Schmitt told CBC radio’s Here and Now. There’s a mindset now that goes for simple slogans or a kind of negativity instead of looking at what the evidence is.- Jack Diamond Diamond’s experience in South Africa eventually led him to leave, but it was instrumental in shaping him as an “activist,” Schmitt said. “That sense of inequality and racism in society was something he fought hard for,” Schmitt said. “He was always an activist in the sense of looking for solutions that had a social benefit,” Schmitt said. “All these issues, his interest in human rights, all these commitments, I think, were part of what made him an architect, but something much more.” On his firm’s website, Schmitt wrote that Diamond’s contributions to urban reform “were profound.” LISTEN | We remember Jack Diamond and his contribution: 7:46 Remembering Toronto architect Jack Diamond and his contribution to Toronto’s urban landscape One of Toronto’s leading architects has died. Jack Diamond has passed away, just a week before his 90th birthday. Jack was the mastermind behind Toronto buildings such as the Four Seasons Center for the Performing Arts. Hospital St. Michael’s, Museum subway station and more. Gill Deacon spoke with Diamond’s friend and collaborator Don Schmitt. Diamond, he says, pioneered the implementation of infill housing in Toronto to help strengthen at-risk neighbourhoods. “It demonstrated the economic and social benefits of transforming heritage for new uses,” the statement said. “Articulate the negative impacts of low-density suburban sprawl on public transport, service costs, social cohesion and the environment.”
“Teacher, partner and mentor”
But Diamond’s contributions went far beyond Toronto. Also on his list of architectural achievements are Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and City Hall, The Mariinsky II Opera and Ballet Hall in St. Petersburg, Russia, and the University of British Columbia’s medical school. “Jack was a teacher, collaborator and mentor who shaped an exciting studio culture,” his company said in a statement. WATCHES | Mariinsky Theater the “crown” in Diamond’s career:
The Canadian Mariinsky Connection
Canadian architect Jack Diamond is designing a new opera house for Russia’s venerable Mariinsky Theatre. CBC’s Jean-François Bélanger reports. Along the way, Diamond became a Gold Medalist of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, a Member of the Order of Ontario and an Officer of the Order of Canada. He was also one of five commissioners appointed by the Premier of Ontario to review land use, transportation, taxation and governance in the Greater Toronto Area, the statement said. Among his final projects was the design of the UK Holocaust Memorial in London — a project that the firm says “combined his passion for human rights, social inclusion, equality and a just society with a powerful architecture that captured the landscape and shaped the visitor’s journey from darkness to light.”
“Good policies must be based on good evidence”
In 2014, Diamond delivered the William Kilbourn Memorial Lecture at the Heritage Toronto Awards. In it, he spoke of the need for Toronto and Canada as a whole to invest in a “long-range” vision for public infrastructure, including but not limited to public housing and transit. The city, he said, needed to recommit to investing in its future and building capacity. The Four Seasons Center is seen during intermission at a dress rehearsal for the Nutcracker ballet on Dec. 9, 2021. (Evan Mitsui/CBC) “Our leadership hasn’t figured it out and actually continues to cut taxes. I think what we need is tax value, not tax cuts.” “There’s a mindset now that goes with just slogans or kind of negativity instead of looking at what the evidence is,” he said. “I have a long list of where we’ve lost our way in Canada over the last eight years,” he said, pointing to cuts to Health Canada, Environment Canada, among other examples. “Good policies must be based on good evidence. Democracy requires an informed electorate.” Former Toronto mayor David Miller described the Diamond in a tweet as “a towering presence in architecture worldwide.” “He understood that city building is ultimately about people and how they use buildings and public space,” he said. Mayor John Tory also tweeted that he was saddened to hear of Diamond’s death. “His legacy as a world-renowned architect will live on in so many of his works here in Toronto,” he said in part.
