Talk:Benjamin Thompson (architect)

Article title
Why is this under "Benjamin C. Thompson"? As far as I know, he was and is rarely referred to that way. His architectural firm was named "Benjamin Thompson and Associates", and he was often called "Ben Thompson"—for example, Google search for ["Ben Thompson" "Design Research"] has somewhat more hits than ["Benjamin Thompson" "Design Research"]. Under usual Wikipedia article naming conventions, "Wikipedia does not necessarily use the subject's 'official' name as an article title; it prefers to use the name that is most frequently used to refer to the subject in English-language reliable sources.", cf. Bill Clinton. So this article should be titled Benjamin Thompson (architect) or Ben Thompson (architect). I think Ben is better (it will more easily be recognized), but perhaps others have other ideas? --Macrakis (talk) 09:23, 9 February 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 1 one external link on Ben Thompson (architect). Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20040406113133/http://bta-architects.com:80/c/BenjaminThompsonFAIA.html to http://www.bta-architects.com/c/BenjaminThompsonFAIA.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at ).

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 18:52, 30 October 2016 (UTC)

Title of article
I respectfully disagree with the use of "Ben" rather than "Benjamin" to refer to Benjamin Casper Thompson. His self-chosen firm name used Benjamin, and he generally signed that way, including on his artwork. "Ben" is acceptable, certainly, because it was his nickname and he was known informally as "Ben". But in business and education, he referred to himself as "Benjamin Thompson." I think he would have preferred "Benjamin" to "Ben" in a Wikipedia article about his life and accomplishments. The middle name of "Casper" he would have liked to have seen forgotten. Thanks for listening. Whistler49 (talk) 19:52, 31 October 2016 (UTC)


 * Given what you say, it sounds as though we should change the title to Benjamin Thompson (architect). Does anyone else object? --Macrakis (talk) 21:40, 31 October 2016 (UTC)
 * No objections. Done. --Macrakis (talk) 14:16, 4 November 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on Benjamin Thompson (architect). Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110707155559/http://architectureboston.com/ben-spring-2011-volume-14-number-1/ to http://architectureboston.com/ben-spring-2011-volume-14-number-1/
 * Corrected formatting/usage for http://bta-architects.com/c/BenjaminThompsonFAIA.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 05:31, 18 July 2017 (UTC)

New cites and corrections
I have made a number of additions to the article, particularly as regards the architect's relationship with The Architects Collaborative (TAC). I added a number of additional projects that he worked on while at TAC with associated cites. I corrected a mistatement that Thompson was the one who had encouraged Gropius to join the firm and added new text and cite from Gropius's own book about TAC. I completely removed a very strong, but uncited contention--- "As TAC grew, Thompson objected to the firm's acceptance of a number of controversial large commissions, including the Pan Am Building atop Grand Central Station in New York City, and the University of Baghdad project, commissioned by Iraq's military regime." It is interesting if true, but needs a cite. For now, I replaced it with a reason for the departure cited by his son in a published article. I have also reorganized the career section with a new subsection for "Festival Marketplaces" with a description of "adaptive reuse." Fothergilla (talk) 21:47, 9 February 2022 (UTC)