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.