As the doyenne (1992-2016) of Open House and latterly the Thornton Education Trust, she has shifted the dial on how architecture can be experienced and appreciated by the public and empowered the voices of young people in particular, in the built environment.

After leaving Open City in 2016, Thornton swapped its base on the Greenwich peninsula for Bedford Square, as Architectural Association President from 2018-2022, a tenure made all the more logistically challenging by the Covid pandemic. In what by any measure has been a supremely productive career, her side-hustles have included three years on the jury for the Royal Gold Medal, and eight years on the board of the Irish Architecture Foundation. Recognition was forthcoming: an RIBA Honorary Fellowship in 2003, an honorary MA in architecture from London Metropolitan University in 2006 and an OBE in 2012. Last year she scooped the Sir Misha Black Award for Innovation in Design Education. She even has a lecture name after her, the annual Thornton Lecture at Open City, established in her honour in 2017.