{{short description|American architect (1927-2016)}} {{about||the former slave|Jane Jackson Thompson|the British writer and diarist|Jane Tonge Thompson}} '''Jane Thompson''', AICP (June 30, 1927 – August 22, 2016) was an American urbanist, designer and planner, with an international career exceeding forty years.
==Biography== Thompson (née Fiske) was 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''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Jane Thompson |date=16 June 2010 |url=https://www.idsa.org/content/jane-thompson |publisher=Industrial Designers Society of America |access-date=10 February 2022}}</ref> In 1954, she helped found Industrial Design magazine (later known as International Design) and served as its Editor-in-Chief.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lamont |first1=Matt |title=Industrial Design Magazine – American Modernist Inspiration |date=2 May 2021 |url=https://www.designreviewed.com/industrial-design-magazine-american-modernist-inspiration/ |access-date=10 February 2022}}</ref>
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 retail venture, Design Research, during its 60s expansion from Cambridge to New York to California. <ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Dunlap |first=David W. |date=2016-08-26 |title=Jane Thompson, Designer Who Helped Transform Waterfronts, Dies at 89 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/28/us/jane-thompson-dead.html |access-date=2018-03-22 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
She married Ben Thompson in 1969.<ref name=":0" />
Thompson handled programming and planning at Benjamin Thompson & Associates, Architects and Planners (BTA), working on large urban planning projects, including the Chicago Navy Pier and Grand Central Business Improvement District.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tribune |first=Chicago |date=1991-01-23 |title=GRUMBLES GREET PIER ARCHITECT CHOICE |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1991/01/23/grumbles-greet-pier-architect-choice/ |access-date=2025-04-14 |website=Chicago Tribune |language=en-US}}</ref> She later founded the Thompson Design Group, working with Pratap Talwar on well-received large-scale redevelopment plans, such as for Houston's Buffalo Bayou waterway.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://res.dallasnews.com/interactives/buffalobayou/|title=What Dallas can learn from Buffalo Bayou in Houston|website=res.dallasnews.com|date=26 February 2015 |language=en|access-date=2018-03-22}}</ref>
Thompson was active in the International Design Conference in Aspen (IDCA) from 1971 to 2002, as a board member, program chairman, and speaker.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Noruschat |first1=Suzanne |last2=Snoyman |first2=Natalie |last3=Nanol |first3=Emmabeth |title=Finding aid for the International Design Conference in Aspen records, 1949-2006 |url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8pg1t6j/entire_text/ |access-date=10 February 2022 |publisher=Onlive Archive of California}}</ref>
She died at the age of 89 on August 22, 2016.<ref name=":0" />
== Honors == Thompson was awarded Institute Honors by the American Institute of Architects in 1994, and in 1998 received the Personal Recognition Award of the Industrial Design Society of America for a lifetime contribution to the field of design in 1996.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jane Thompson AICP (2015) |url=https://www.architects.org/wid-award-of-excellence-recipients/awardee-jane-thompson-aicp |access-date=2025-04-14 |website=Boston Society for Architecture |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Architect Staff |date=2016-08-25 |title='Sir Lady Jane' Thompson Dies |url=https://www.architectmagazine.com/design/sir-lady-jane-thompson-dies_o |access-date=2025-04-14 |website=Architect Magazine |language=en}}</ref>
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.<ref name=":0" />
In 2010, "Sir Lady Jane" as she was nicknamed<ref name="AIA-2016">{{cite web |title=Obituary: 'Sir Lady Jane' Thompson Dies |url=https://www.architectmagazine.com/design/sir-lady-jane-thompson-dies_o |publisher=The Journal of the American Institute of Architects |access-date=10 February 2022 |date=25 August 2016}}</ref> (as both a Knight and wife of a Knight) was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.<ref>[http://www.cooperhewitt.org/national-design-awards/about/history History of Honorees & Jurors] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140514202607/http://www.cooperhewitt.org/national-design-awards/about/history |date=2014-05-14 }}, National Design Awards (Smithsonian). Retrieved 2013-12-21.</ref> Then followed an Honorary PhD from Boston Architectural College, 2011, and the lifetime Award of Honor from Boston Society of Architects in 2012.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.architects.org/awards/bsa-award-honor|title=BSA Award of Honor|website=Architects.org|access-date=2018-04-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181221231236/https://www.architects.org/awards/bsa-award-honor|archive-date=2018-12-21|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Bibliography==
* Jane Thompson and Alexandra Lange, ''Design Research: The Store That Brought Modern Living to American Homes'', 2010. {{ISBN|0-8118-6818-4}}.
==Notes== <references/>
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Jane}} Category:1927 births Category:2016 deaths Category:American designers Category:National Design Award winners Category:Vassar College alumni Category:Bennington College alumni Category:New York University Institute of Fine Arts alumni Category:Knights First Class of the Order of the Lion of Finland Category:20th-century American architects Category:21st-century American architects Category:American urban planners Category:American women architects Category:Women urban planners Category:21st-century American women