Pei, I.M.

▪ American architect

in full  Ieoh Ming Pei 

born April 26, 1917, Guangzhou, China

 

 Chinese-born American architect noted for his large but elegantly designed urban buildings and complexes.

      Pei went to the United States in 1935, enrolling initially at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and then transferring to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, as a student of architectural engineering. He graduated in 1939 and, unable to return to China because of the outbreak of World War II, carried out various architectural contracts in Boston, New York City, and Los Angeles. During World War II he worked with a unit of the National Defense Research Committee. From 1945 to 1948 he was an assistant professor at the Graduate School of Design of Harvard University. He became a U.S. citizen in 1954.

      In 1948 Pei joined the firm of Webb & Knapp, New York City, as director of the architectural division. Working closely with the real estate developer William Zeckendorf, head of the firm, Pei created such urban projects as the Mile High Center in Denver, Colorado (1955), the Hyde Park Redevelopment in Chicago (1959), and the Place Ville-Marie in Montreal (1965).

      Pei formed his own architectural firm, I.M. Pei & Associates (later Pei Cobb Freed & Partners), in 1955. Among the notable early designs of the firm were the Luce Memorial Chapel, Taiwan; the Mesa Laboratory of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, which, located near mountains, mimics the broken silhouettes of the surrounding peaks; and the Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York, actually four buildings joined by bridges. For the Federal Aviation Agency, Pei designed a type of pentagonal control tower that was installed in many American airports.

      On the basis of a 1960 design competition, Pei was selected to design the multiairline terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City. In 1964 he was also chosen to design the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library at Harvard University. Pei's innovative East Building of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (1978), is an elegant triangular composition that was hailed as one of his finest achievements. In addition to designing public buildings, Pei was active in urban renewal planning. He was chosen to design the New York City Convention Center, the Gateway office complex in Singapore, and the Dallas Symphony Hall. Pei's other works include the John Hancock Tower in Boston (1973), Indiana University Museum (1979), the west wing of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (1980), Nestlé Corporate Headquarters (1981), El Paso Tower (1981), the Beijing Fragrant Hill Hotel (1982), and a controversial glass pyramid (1989) for one of the courtyards in the Louvre Museum in Paris. In his Miho Museum (1997) in Shiga, Japan, Pei achieved a harmony between the building, much of it underground, and its mountain environment. The Suzhou Museum (2006) in China combines geometric shapes with traditional Chinese motifs. One of the architect's later projects was his design for the offshore Museum of Islamic Art (2008) in Doha, Qatar.

      In general, Pei's designs represent an extension of and elaboration on the rectangular forms and irregular silhouettes of the prevailing International Style. He is notable, however, for his bold and skillful arrangements of groups of geometric shapes and for his dramatic use of richly contrasted materials, spaces, and surfaces. Although Pei retired from his firm in 1990, he continued to design buildings, such as the museum in Doha, which extended his signature style to embrace elements characteristic of Islamic architecture in various eras. His numerous honours included the Pritzker Architecture Prize (Pritzker Prize) (1983) and the Medal of Freedom (1993).

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