Photo by Jim Ryce
Context and Content: The Memoir of a Fortunate Architect

By A.J. Diamond (Dundurn Press, 2022)
REVIEW Stefan Novakovic
In the opening chapter of his memoir, architect A.J. Diamond recounts a conversation with Vladimir Putin. Following the lengthy?and astonishingly bureaucratic?design and construction process to build Saint Petersburg?s now-iconic Mariinsky II Theatre, the renowned Canadian practitioner chronicles a complex development saga, capped off with a quip from the dictator himself. So impressed was Putin with Diamond?s design that he compared it to the works of Italian architects that designed much of Saint Petersburg in the 18th century. ?They did a good job, as you have done here,? Putin told Diamond. ?We did not let them leave the country.? It?s a fleeting anecdote, but one that illustrates the breadth of an uncommonly varied and eventful architectural career. In the newly published Context and Content: The Memoir of a Fortunate Architect, Abel Joseph ?Jack? Diamond reflects on 60-odd years of architectural practice, as well as a personal journey spanning from a childhood in South Africa to a rugby career in the United Kingdom, and culminating in a leading place in Canada?s contemporary architectural canon.
Born in 1932 in the South African town of Piet Retief, Diamond traces a rustic childhood and a long family history. Told in elegantly simple prose, the intimate narrative touches on formative memories, Jewish faith, the Holocaust, race relat...