Born in South Africa, Jack Diamond received his Bachelor of Architecture degree, with Distinction, at the University of Capetown. There he received the Thornton White Prize for design, an Italian State Bursary and the Marley Scholarship. At Oxford University he received a Masters Degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, where he also earned a rugby blue. His graduate degree, a Master of Architecture, was received at the University of Pennsylvania where he was also awarded the Graham Foundation Scholarship.
After teaching architecture at the University of Pennsylvania with the rank of assistant professor, and working in the office of Louis Kahn, he emigrated to Canada to inaugurate and run the Master of Architecture degree program at the University of Toronto from 1964-1970.
Jack Diamond has held the rank of full professor at York University and the University of Texas. He has taught, as a visiting critic, at many universities including Harvard, Princeton and University of California, Berkeley. In 1995 he was appointed Commissioner of the Greater Toronto Area Planning Task force and in 1996 he was appointed to the Graham Chair in Architecture, University of Pennsylvania.
Since 1965 he has been a practicing architect in Toronto, with a practice that extends across Canada, the U.S.A., Europe, the Middle East and Asia. He and his firm have won many regional, national and international awards in design, such as the Credit Foncier Prix and six Governor General's awards.
In 1989, he was the recipient of the Toronto Arts Award for Design and Architecture. In 1994, he was named an Honourary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. In 1995 he received a Doctor of Engineering Degree from Daltech, Nova Scotia, and in 1997 the Order of Ontario was conferred on him.
In 1996, Jack Diamond was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, and in 2001 he received the Royal Architecture Institute of Canada Gold Medal. These are respectively the highest civilian and professional honours a Canadian can receive.
In addition to the recently opened opera house for the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, Jack Diamond and his firm are working on the Shakespeare Company's new theatre in Washington, D.C.; a performing arts centre, museum and art gallery in Medicine Hat, Alberta; life sciences buildings for the University of British Columbia and McGill University; and a school of engineering and computer science in Jerusalem. Among the recently completed projects are the JCC in Manhattan, the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Jerusalem, the Victoria Wing at St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto and the Canadian Embassy in Prague.