A.J. Diamond graduated from the Universities of Cape Town, Oxford and Pennsylvania. He is a Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Gold Medallist and an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. He has received honorary doctorates from the University of Toronto and Daltech, in Nova Scotia. He is a Member of the Order of Ontario and an Officer of the Order of Canada. He is the founder of Diamond and Schmitt Architects Incorporated, which has received numerous national and international awards for design and sustainability. Diamond lives in Toronto.