Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Mount Auburn as a Mosaic of American Culture | Page 11

Hall in Harvard Yard, he led the way in adaptive reuse in architecture. Thompson founded Design Research, known as D|R, in 1953. Within a decade, D|R had become the most impor- tant source of modern interior design products in America. D|R introduced this country to the work of Marimekko, the Finnish firm known for bold, colorful fabric design. Ben taught at Harvard and became Department Chairman of the Graduate School of Design when Walter Gropius retired. Founding Benjamin Thompson & Associates (BTA) in 1966, he championed an architecture of “joy and sensibility” in an urban environment he called “The City of Man,” a place that has a human scale, is sensitive to nature, and encourages social activity. In 1986, BTA won the AIA Firm of the Year Award. In 1992, he received the AIA Gold Medal, the profession’s highest award, and he was Knighted by the President of Finland. Thompson’s wife, Jane, was a vital partner, personal and professional, in all of these accomplishments, and an in- novative designer as well. The Thompsons were the “parents” of one of the country’s first and most suc- cessful adaptive reuse projects, the restoration of Boston’s Faneuil Hall Market- place, opened in 1976. Faneuil Jane and Ben Thompson in 1986 Hall Market- place is widely credited with saving downtown Boston and became the model for regenerating urban centers. He brought this model to many other successful revitalization projects such as Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, South Street Seaport, and Miami Bayside. This year marks the 40th Anniversary of the D|R Headquarters building at 48 Brattle Street, Cambridge, Mass. It pioneered a unique design of frameless glass panels, allowing people outside an unimpeded view of its mer- chandise and interior. This landmark building was the first butt-glazed building in the country. It recently received the AIA 25 Year Award. A recently concluded D|R retrospec- tive, housed in the building since autumn 2009, had been displaying vintage D|R furnishings and Marimekko dresses from 1950s and 1960s, stirring Cambridgian memories. “During the last ten years of his life, Ben was paralyzed and in bed, so he couldn’t accompany me when I made an appointment with Meg Winslow [Curator of Historical Col- lections] to look at space at Mount Auburn,” recalls Jane Thompson. “Earlier, while driving through the Cemetery, The “Finland Designs” 50th Anniversary display (2010) in the D|R building at 48 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA. Photo: Peter Vanderwarker (Newton, MA) I’d discovered a huge monument with my family name, Fiske, on it, marking the lot of those I eventually learned were my relatives. Through friends, we learned Mount Auburn is an absolute treasure-trove of architects, not to mention poets and other people, so we were very affectionate about Mount Auburn. “Then Jim Holman [Director of Cemetery Services Ad- ministration] showed me the new space being developed, Halcyon Garden, and I thought it was a grand site. I said, ‘Put me on the list.’ I went home and told Ben, and he was delighted. “When Ben died, landscape architect Gary Hilderbrand had completed the design of Halcyon Garden. It was over- looking Mary Baker Eddy’s monument, had birch trees, and was absolutely amazing. “I wanted to do something really special for Ben. I asked sculptor Anne Lilly to design a mobile sculpture. I wasn’t sure the Cemetery would allow that type of monument, but the Trustees gave their approval and we went ahead to create an ever-moving piece in a garden with a bench overlooking the monument and Halcyon Lake. “We studied the site and took pictures. We had Ms. Lilly design something that would meet all of the conditions, which were very tough: the sculpture had to be durable, wind-activated, and in perpetual motion. We worked six or eight months to resolve the formal and technical problems, and then, suddenly, there it was! “I think of it as Perpetual Motion or Perpetual Emotion. It’s always throbbing, pulsing, like a living thing!” Wind-activated sculpture near Ben Thompson’s monument, designed by A.M. Lilly Spring 2010 | 9