Mary Jane Long, Lady Wilson,
OBE (July 31, 1939 – September 3, 2018), known as MJ Long, was an American
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
,
lecturer and author, best known for her work as a principal architect partner on the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
in London (with her husband
Sir Sandy Wilson).
She created a series of purpose-built studios for the artists
Peter Blake,
RB Kitaj,
Paul Huxley and
Frank Auerbach
Frank Helmut Auerbach (born 29 April 1931) is a German-British painter. Born in Germany, he has been a naturalised British subject since 1947. He is considered one of the leading names in the School of London, with fellow artists Francis Bacon ...
, later documenting these in a book.
In partnership with
Rolfe Kentish, she focused on designing museums, libraries and galleries, including the
National Maritime Museum Cornwall, the
Jewish Museum London in
Camden Town and an extension to
Pallant House Gallery.
With Wilson, she also co-designed Spring House/Cornford House (1965) in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...
, for
Christopher Cornford.
Early and family life
Long was born in
Summit, New Jersey. She attended
Westmount High School
Westmount High School (french: École secondaire Westmount) is a public co-educational anglophone secondary school located in Westmount, Quebec, Canada, located near Alexis Nihon Complex Shopping Mall.
Westmount High is Quebec's first and o ...
, graduated first in class in 1956 in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...
and later studied at
Smith College before enrolling on a four-year architecture course at
Yale School of Architecture, studying under
Paul Rudolph. It was at Yale that she met Colin St John (Sandy) Wilson, and in 1965 joined his newly formed architecture practice in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. The couple married in 1972.
[ She had two children.]
References
1939 births
2018 deaths
20th-century American architects
21st-century American architects
Architects from New Jersey
British Library
People from Summit, New Jersey
Smith College alumni
Yale University alumni
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