Pelli, Cesar

▪ 1996

      In 1995 Cesar Pelli continued to solidify his position as one of the 20th century's preeminent architects. The Argentine-born designer was known for the lightweight, almost tentlike, appearance of his buildings, which were often surfaced in glass or a thin stone veneer. His projects displayed a fascination with abstract, crystalline glass shapes shot through with lines of coloured stone or metal. Among his best-known works were the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles, the United States embassy in Tokyo, the expansion and renovation of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the World Financial Center and Winter Garden in New York City, the Canary Wharf Tower in London, and the Carnegie Hall Tower in New York City. The Pacific Design Center, notable for its reflective, opaque blue-glass exterior and geometric design, gained Pelli early recognition. His Museum of Modern Art gallery expansion and residential tower was hailed as an innovative reworking of an important cultural landmark. His most recent projects were the two circular, step-tapered Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Upon completion in 1996 they would, at 450 m (1,476 ft), be among the tallest buildings in the world. Critics described his work as "poetic" and "fresh" and noted his diversity, sensitivity to site, and innovative solutions to architectural problems.

      Pelli was born in Tucumán, Arg., on Oct. 12, 1926. After earning a bachelor's degree in architecture at the National University of Tucumán, he moved to the U.S. to attend the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, where he received a master's degree in 1954. He began his professional career with the firm of Eero Saarinen and Associates in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., and Hamden, Conn., where, among other projects, he worked on the Trans World Airlines Terminal at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. Pelli was director of design at Daniel, Mann, Johnson, & Mendenhall in Los Angeles from 1964 to 1968 and at Gruen Associates, also in Los Angeles, from 1968 to 1977. During those years he perfected the technology of glass skins, producing buildings of lightweight, translucent quality. He served as dean of the School of Architecture at Yale University from 1977 to 1984 and established his own practice in New Haven, Conn. In this period the taut style of his early work evolved into stone-clad buildings of greater sculptural quality.

      Throughout his career Pelli lectured and published extensively. He won more than 80 awards for design excellence, including the American Institute of Architects' 1995 Gold Medal, its highest honour. (ANN M. BELASKI)

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