Scottish Architect and Architectural Theorist. An eminent pioneer in sustainable building, his work was published in the architectural press of his day but was little appreciated outside Glasgow during his lifetime. He developed his own highly idiosyncratic style from Greek, Egyptian and Levantine sources and freely adapted them to the needs of the modern city. It has only been since the latter part of the 20th century that his reputation has revived, not least of all in connection with his probable influence on Frank Lloyd Wright. The son of a bookkeeper, he apprenticed to Glasgow architect Robert Foote, ultimately gaining a place in the office of John Baird as a draughtsman. In 1848 Thomson set up his own practice, Baird & Thomson, and nine years later he entered into practice with his brother, George. He produced a diverse range of structures including villas, a castle, urbane terraces, commercial warehouses, tenements, and three extraordinary churches. Of these, Caledonia Road Free Church (1856 to 1857 - is now a ruin), Queen's Park United Presbyterian Church (1869 - destroyed by German bombing in World War II), and St Vincent Street Church (1859), which still survives. In 1851 he his first and only castle, Craigrownie Castle, which stands at the tip of the Rosneath Peninsula in Cove, overlooking Loch Long. His villa designs came to fruition at Scotland's Langside, Pollokshields, Helensburgh, Cove, the Clyde Estuary, and on the Isle of Bute. Later in his career, he abandoned his eclecticism and adopt the purely Ionic Greek style for which he is best known. His published writings include the "Inquiry as to the Appropriateness of the Gothic Style for the Proposed Building for the University of Glasgow" (1866) and "Haldane Lectures on the History of Architecture (1874). He died at the age of 57. Following his death, the Glasgow Institute of Architects established The Alexander Thomson Memorial. A marble bust of the architect by John Mossman was presented to the Corporation Galleries, Sauchiehall Street, and is now displayed in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.