Benjamin Thompson

Faneuil Hall Marketplace, at Boston, Massachusetts, 1971 to 1976.

      map of works

(b. St. Paul, Minnesota 1918; d. 2002)

Benjamin Thompson was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1918. He graduated from Yale with a Bachelors in Fine Arts degree in 1941. After serving four years in the navy during the Second World War, he boldly approached Walter Gropius with a plan to form an architectural practice with some of his former Yale classmates. Gropius accepted and The Architect's Collaborative (TAC) was formed.

During the period when Thompson was with TAC, he also started a business called 'Design Research' which specialized in the design of accessory products. The success of this venture was enhanced by the building he designed for the business which exists as one of the most outstanding examples of commercial architecture of the century.

Thompson separated from the Collaborative in 1966, but his work remained faithful to its cause. Thompson maintains a strong belief in the power of architecture. Bemoaning the collapse of standards and the disintegration of American society, he strives to create buildings that improve the quality of life.

Thompson creates designs that share a characteristic sense of simple elegance and definitive structure. Often tucked away in the woods of New England, he instills his buildings with a sense of place through siting and choice of materials.

Using utility and humanism as his guiding principles, Thompson creates simple, honest structures that seem world's away from the theories of most post-modernists.

References
Muriel Emmanuel. Contemporary Architects. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1980. ISBN 0-312-16635-4. NA680.C625.

Ruth A Peltason. 100 Contemporary Architects. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers. ISBN 0-8109-3661-5. NA2700.L26. p224.

Details

Recipient of the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal, 1992.

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