The Georgia Tech School of Architecture is pleased to announce the appointment of Maryann Thompson as the 2012 Portman Visiting Critic. Founder and principal of Maryann Thompson Architects, she is widely recognized for her firm’s design excellence evident in its approach to the craft and fabric of building, site-integration, and sustainability.

As Portman Visiting Critic, Thompson will participate as a visiting design studio critic and guest lecturer, and will serve as jury chair for the selection of the Portman Prize recipients. She will also contribute to the School’s comprehensive building design workshop organized in the second year of the three-year Master of Architecture program.  This graduate design studio integrates coursework in architectural and site design, construction technology and the art of detail.

Maryann Thompson FAIA
Founder and Principal, Maryann Thompson Architects

Maryann Thompson, FAIA, was educated at Princeton University and the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, where she is a member of the Architecture faculty.  She founded Maryann Thompson Architects in 2000, following her tenure as a founding partner of Thompson and Rose Architects.  She specializes in architecture that is sustainable, regionally driven, and which heightens one’s sense of site and landscape.  Her architectural investigations revolve around ideas like the creation of a rich and thoughtful edge between inside and outside; the utilization of light as a material; and strategies for employing natural materials to accentuate a sense of place.  Thompson carries degrees in both architecture and landscape architecture, bringing to her practice an interdisciplinary approach where issues of site and landscape are central to design thinking. 

Thompson’s work has garnered some 60 design awards, including two AIA National Honor Awards and numerous AIA New England Design Honor Awards and BSA Honor Awards for Design Excellence. Her projects have been widely published in magazines including Architectural Record, Architectural Digest, the Boston Globe, Design New England, Boston Magazine, New England Home, Landscape Architecture Magazine, Art New England, Progressive Architecture, Architecture, and in various architectural books, including Norton's A Guide to 250 Key Twentieth-Century American Buildings, 40 Under 40, and Contemporary American Architects. 

Portman Prize History
The Portman Prize is an annual competition within Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture that brings top practicing architects from around the country to serve as critics and jurors. Students receive cash awards for outstanding design work and the top winner receives a paid summer internship with PORTMAN.

The award was created for the purpose of encouraging students to develop a holistic design approach that ties the big idea to the small detail. 

John Portman & Associates, Inc. is an internationally recognized architectural and engineering firm with offices in Atlanta, Georgia and Shanghai, China. Established in 1953 by Tech alumnus John Portman, the firm has 55 years of expertise in designing hotels, offices, trade marts, universities and mixed-use urban complexes. For more information, visit www.portmanusa.com. John Portman & Associates is affiliated with Portman Holdings (www.portmanholdings.com), a real estate development and management company that is internationally recognized for its significant domestic and international projects.