Toronto Star

It can start with a sharpened tip of lead and end with a skyscraper. For Jack Diamond, it often does. "Today, yesterday, the day before, every day, I sketch out everything I design," said the internationally recognized architect. Diamond is responsible for some of the world's greatest buildings, such as the Israeli Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, the Jewish Community Centre in Manhattan and the York University Student Centre here. His favourite tool is the underrated pencil. "The flexibility and nuance of the pencil is unparallelled," he says. "You can change and correct it in an instant."