Maryann Thompson
Maryann Thompson, FAIA, was educated at Princeton University and the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, where she earned master’s degrees in architecture and in landscape architecture. She brings to her practice an interdisciplinary approach in which issues of site and landscape are central to design thinking. Ms. Thompson received a 1998 AIA Young Architects Award, which states that “...although Maryann has been in practice for less than a decade, she has made a significant contribution to architecture. Her work reconnects architecture with the landscape and celebrates tectonics, materials and a poetic approach to design."
Ms. Thompson is a professor in practice of architecture at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. She has taught design as a visiting faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Rhode Island School of Design, the University of Virginia, the University of Michigan, and Rice University. She founded Maryann Thompson Architects in 2000. Prior to that time, she was a founding partner of Thompson and Rose Architects.
Statement: I am very moved by the decision to create the Oberlander Prize to recognize the world’s inspiring practitioners in landscape architecture. A prize of this type is long overdue. Landscape architects singularly possess the tools and design thinking to address the issues we face on the planet today. Issues such as water shortages, drought, rising sea levels, and the changing face of the Earth’s ecosystems represent some of the most pressing concerns of this generation. The solutions will come, I believe, from broad and inspired landscape thinking. I am happy to lend my support—in the name of Cornelia Hahn Oberlander!—to help recognize those landscape architects who are doing thoughtful work that makes a difference.