Jane Thompson facts for kids

Jane Thompson (born June 30, 1927 – died August 22, 2016) was an amazing American urban planner and designer. She spent over 40 years helping to shape cities and public spaces around the world. She was known for her creative ideas and her passion for making places better for people.

Early Life and Career

Jane Thompson, whose maiden name was Fiske, studied art and design at Vassar College. She also did advanced studies at Bennington College and NYU Institute of Fine Arts. Early in her career, she worked at the Museum of Modern Art. She even became an Assistant Curator in the architecture department.

After that, Jane became an editor for Interiors Magazine. In 1954, she helped start a magazine called Industrial Design. She was its main editor for a while.

In the 1960s, Jane worked with a famous architect named Walter Gropius. They explored creative teaching methods from the original Bauhaus school of design. She also became a partner in a cool retail store called Design Research. This store was expanding from Cambridge to New York and California.

Jane Thompson married Ben Thompson, who was also an architect, in 1969.

Designing Better Cities

Jane Thompson was a key partner in Benjamin Thompson & Associates (BTA). This company was founded in 1967 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As the partner for planning, Jane led teams on big city planning projects. These included the Chicago Navy Pier and the Grand Central Business Improvement District. She passed away at the age of 89 on August 22, 2016.

Thompson Design Group (1994-2015)

After 1994, Jane Thompson became the head of her own company, Thompson Design Group (TDG). Her company focused on saving old places and finding new uses for them. They worked on master plans for places like Navy Pier in Chicago. They also planned for Governors Island in New York and North Coast Harbor in Cleveland. All these projects were done with architect and urban planner Pratap Talwar.

Thompson and Talwar also worked on large-scale redevelopment plans. Their plans for the City of Long Branch, New Jersey, won top awards. These awards came from the Monmouth County Planning Department and the New Jersey State Department of Planning.

TDG's big plan for the lands along Houston's Buffalo Bayou waterway was also praised. This plan covered a large area of 10 square miles. It was seen as a forward-thinking model for city planning.

Awards and Special Recognition

Jane Thompson was very active in the International Design Conference in Aspen (IDCA). She was on the board, led programs, and gave speeches from 1971 to 2002. In 1994, she received special honors from the American Institute of Architects. In 1998, she got the Personal Recognition Award for her lifetime work in design. This award came from the Industrial Design Society of America.

For their support of Finnish design and way of life, the President of Finland honored Ben and Jane Thompson in 2000. They were each named Knight First Class of the Order of the Lion of Finland.

In 2010, Jane was given the Lifetime Achievement Award. This award was from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. She was sometimes called "Sir Lady Jane" because she was a Knight and married to a Knight. She also received an Honorary PhD from Boston Architectural College in 2011. In 2012, she got the lifetime Award of Honor from the Boston Society of Architects.