Foundations: AIA New Jersey President Andrew Thompson, AIA, NOMAC, is A Product of His Environment
I was raised in Brooklyn, NY, in the East Flatbush neighborhood. My education in New York City public schools taught me to be smart and tough. My high school was James Madison HS in Marine Park, Brooklyn. Two famous alumni from the school were actor Martin Landau and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
I loved to draw as a kid and my Mom would buy me sketchbooks from the local variety store down the block, which I would fill up with drawings within a month. My dad would drive me through Manhattan, where I would gaze at the tall buildings and marvel at the World Trade Center twin towers.
In high school, I had a shop class in carpentry. Our shop teacher, Mr. Ray, always warned us, “Don’t cut your fingers off!” One of the projects was to build a ¼” scale model of a house, but it had to be a framing model. I had to learn what a wall stud was, a lintel, and how to frame a window and door, all in ¼” scale. I had to sketch the house before I built it. It took about a month, and I was pleased and surprised when my project was done. Mr. Ray said, “Nice job, you got potential, kid!”
Later, I found out I was one of three models selected to be exhibited in the local shopping mall. I took my friends there and said, “Look
at my house!” They didn’t know what an architect did, but when I spent a month building that model from my sketch, I knew what my career path would be.
I went on to attend Pratt Institute; what a learning experience. Most of the professors were practicing architects. One of my professors was Robert Zaccone, AIA, Albert Zaccone’s brother. There were famous architects whose studios I had. I learned from John Johannsen, Stanley Tigerman, and Raimund Abraham. I went through the ringer in my first year. In my fifth and final year, my work was on display in the lobby and my path was set.
I pursued my Master’s of Architecture and Urban Design at Columbia University. We had a joint project with a school in Antwerp, Belgium. It was the first time I traveled out of the country to Europe. I was amazed at the beautiful and historic architecture.
As a graduate student at Columbia, I was working part-time at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ). The offices were in Tower One of the World Trade Center. Wow, I remembered being a child looking up, and now an adult working in the World Trade Center. In February 1993, there was a terrorist attack that claimed the lives of 6 people and injured hundreds more. I worked for the Office Space
Services Division, so we were called in to relocate hundreds of PANYNJ staff. Our little group of designers found space on the Concourse level and other PANYNJ properties, so everyone had a space to work in only 3 weeks. Architects are problem solvers; I learned that during that experience.
As an architect, I have worked in healthcare & academia, but mostly in public work. I find that while not glamorous, serving the public gives me purpose not only as an architect but as a citizen.
In the city of East Orange, NJ, I was a planning board commissioner and the only architect on the planning board. The other commissioners would always hear me out when it came to cases presented to the board. The public would always listen when I argued not only the planning implications of a case, but the architecture involved in it.
Today, I serve as the County Architect for Passaic County in New Jersey. I have been here for over 12 years, serving the County and serving the public. As a product of NYC public schools, I feel this is where I am comfortable and can do the most good.
