Jane Thompson

Jane (Fiske McCullough) Thompson, AICP, Hon. AIA, principal of Thompson Design Group, is an urbanist, designer and planner, whose work over forty years has touched cities in North America and around the world.

Ms. Thompson’s career in the design field has embraced both writing about it and working at it professionally.

Educated in the fine and applied arts at Vassar College with graduate work at Bennington College and NYU Institute of Fine Arts, her career has been devoted to the interaction of many facets of applied design. She spent early years in the Museum of Modern Art, becoming acting Assistant Curator in the Department of Architecture. This was followed by positions as Architecture Editor of Interiors Magazine and as the Founding Editor of Industrial Design (later I.D. International Design.)

In the 1960s, sponsored by Edgar Kaufmann Jr.'s Foundation, she worked with Walter Gropius on an exploration of the creative educational methods of the original Bauhaus; she became a partner in architect Ben Thompson’s pioneering retail venture, Design Research, during its 60s expansion from Cambridge to New York to California.

Benjamin Thompson Associates 1967-1994

Jane’s relationship with AIA Gold Medalist Ben Thompson (she became his second wife) began prior to the founding of Benjamin Thompson & Associates, Architects and Planners (BTA) in 1967. She participated in Thompson's self-sponsored pro-bono proposal to revitalize Boston’s abandoned Quincy Market site, which ultimately absorbed 12 years of historic restoration until completion of the instantly successful Faneuil Hall Marketplace, in which the Thompsons were also restaurateurs for two decades. The office practice in Cambridge (with Jane handling programming and planning ) blossomed with creative restoration projects, mixed use markets and urban waterfront developments around the world, In addition to waterfront restorations in New York, Baltimore and Miami with The Rouse Company, BTA had commissions for waterfront revitalization in London, Cardiff, Dublin, Amsterdam, Yokohama and Tokyo. In the noted restoration of Washington’s Union Station (1984–1988), BTA was responsible for replanning and redesign of the multi-modal terminal facility. Late in her career at BTA,as partner for planning, Jane headed Thompson's project teams on large urban planning projects, including the Chicago Navy Pier and Grand Central Business Improvement District. Ben Thompson retired in 1994, and died in 2002.

Founding of Thompson Design Group 1994-2013

Since 1994, as Principal of her own firm, Thompson Design Group (TDG), Jane creates places for people by addressing social interaction, commercial exchange, and economic vitality in the firm’s planning and design work. With an emphasis on preservation and imaginative reuse of obsolete places, TDG master plan projects have included Navy Pier in Chicago, Master plan for Governor’s Island NYC (now an active public destination under development by GIA) and Cleveland’s North Coast Harbor. All were accomplished in partnership with Pratap Talwar, AIIA, AICP, architect, urban planner, with advanced degrees from MIT graduate programs, TDG's Principal in Charge.

Since 1994 Thompson and Talwar have branched into large scale redevelopment planning; the firm’s Master Planning and Development Guidelines for the City of Long Branch NJ, leading the city’s redevelopment for over two decades, have received top awards from the Monmouth County Planning Department and New Jersey State Department of Planning. Thompson and Talwar have carried redevelopment of Long Branch oceanfront to complete construction and operation of a new Pier Village on the beachfront, a phased development of apartments, small hotels, shops and restaurants that is now the center of the annual New Jersey Marathon, and of intense statewide holiday celebrations on the city's famous public beach. Pier Village is now noted as the only oceanfront boardwalk and community that was still standing, undamaged and unflooded, after Hurricane Sandy (2012); peak storm preparedness -- 500-year flood strategies -- had been required in all building and site installations in the Village (2003 - 2013) affording unique sustainability.

TDG's comprehensive  Master Plan for all lands bordering Houston’s 10-mile-long  Buffalo

Bayou waterway ( a district of 10 square miles ) has won acclaim as a far-seeing urban planning model, bringing trails and outdoor amenities and flood control into and through downtown; its continuing implementation as linear water park brings great activity to the now-cleansed and usable Bayou, building Houston's repute as a leading American growth city.

Jane was active in IDCA (International Design Conference in Aspen) from 1971–2002, as a Board member, program chairman, and speaker. In 1994, she was awarded Institute Honors by the American Institute of Architects, and in 1998 received the Personal Recognition Award of the Industrial Design Society of America for a lifetime contribution to the field of design.

For their lifelong support of Finnish Design and way of life, the President of Finland in 2000 named Ben and Jane Thompson each individually as Knight First Class, Order of the Lion of Finland.

In 2010, "Sir Lady Jane' as she was nicknamed (as both a Knight and wife of a Knight) was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.Thenfollowed an Honorary PhD. from Boston Architectural College, 2011, and the Lifetime Honor Award from Boston Society of Architects in 2012. Jane Thompson and Thompson Design Group continues these visionary planning activities in 2013 with an anniversary celebration (30th) in 2014.

Bibliography

• Jane Thompson and Alexandra Lange, Design Research: The Store That Brought Modern Living to American Homes, 2010. ISBN 0-8118-6818-4.