James John Ulrik Plesner (13 July 1930, Florence – 2 June 2016, Tel Aviv[1]) was a Danish architect who has mainly worked abroad, most notably in Sri Lanka and Israel.
After winning 3rd prize in a competition for a Buddha monument in India and thus gaining a name for himself in Asia, he was invited to Sri Lanka (at the time Ceylon) in 1958 and stayed there till 1967.
He first worked for Sri Lankan architect Minnette de Silva and then was made partner in Geoffrey Bawa's studio in Colombo.
At Arup Plesner was responsible for the Oxford Mail and Times 'building, Kensington and Chelsea New Central Depot and Housing and was architectural consultant on highway bridges.
[7] Plesner was married on 7 January 1966 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, to Israeli journalist and lecturer Tamar Liebes, born on 28 September 1943 in Jerusalem to classical philologist, professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Joseph Gerhard Julius Liebes (1910-1988) and ceramicist Miriam Leibowitz.