Insight and On Site: The Architecture of Diamond and Schmitt

Over the past 30 years, Diamond and Schmitt Architects, one of the world's leading architecture firms, has produced a portfolio that reflects their core belief in the importance of content and context in architecture. Buildings should live in their environments, not be set apart.

Since its formation in 1975, Diamond and Schmitt Architects has also been at the vanguard of socially responsible architecture and urban planning, and Jack Diamond and Donald Schmitt have long been vocal advocates for environmental sustainability. Today the firm is at the center of a critical debate: How do we make cities livable in the twenty-first century? An increasing number of trophy buildings-structures that consume money, steel, and glass, and require huge energy expenditures-are being erected as advertisements for cities. Suburban sprawl is eroding irreplaceable green space and contributing to pollution and environmental degradation. The need for socially and environmentally responsible architecture has never been greater.

Part manifesto, part architectural monograph, this book addresses today's most important architectural issues at a critical point in the future of the urban form. It features the most important projects in Diamond & Schmitt's oeuvre, interspersed with 11 essays, including one by Witold Rybczynski.