I. M. Pei

I. M. Pei
Occupation	Architect

Ieoh Ming Pei (Chinese: 貝聿銘; pinyin: Bèi Lùmíng; b. April 26, 1917), commonly known by his initials I. M. Pei, is a Pritzker Prize-winning Chinese American architect, known as the last master of high modernist architecture. He works with the abstract form, using stone, concrete, glass, and steel. Pei is one of the most successful architects of the 20th century.

Early life and education

Pei was born in Canton (now called Guangzhou), in China on April 26, 1917, to a prominent family. His father, a banker, was later the director of the Bank of China and the governor of the Central Bank of China. His family later moved to Shanghai, but resided in Suzhou, a city near Shanghai. The family's residence is in a renowned garden in Suzhou, now part of the World Heritage Site listed Classical Gardens of Suzhou. The house was called the Garden of the Lion Forest, and consisted of many rock sculptures carved naturally by water. Pei loved how the buildings and the nature were combined, and especially liked the way light and shadow mixed.

His first education was at St. Paul's College, Hong Kong and then at Saint John's University, Shanghai before moving to the United States to study architecture at the age of 18 at the University of Pennsylvania. He received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1940. He is a 1940 recipient of the Alpha Rho Chi Medal, the MIT Traveling Fellowship, and the AIA Gold Medal. He then studied at the Harvard Graduate School of Design Shortly after his studies there, he was a member of the National Defense Research Committee in Princeton, New Jersey.

In 1944, he returned to Harvard, studying under Walter Gropius, who was previously associated with the Bauhaus. He received a master degree in Architecture in 1946. He was a member of the Harvard faculty subsequently attaining the rank of assistant professor. He received the Wheelwright Traveling Fellowship in 1951 and became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1954.

Career

In 1948, William Zeckendorf hired Pei to work at the real estate development corporation Webb and Knapp in a newly created post, Director of Architecture. While at Webb and Knapp, Pei worked on many large-scale architectural and planning projects across the country.

Pei founded his own architectural firm in 1955, which was originally known as I. M. Pei and Associates and, later, I. M. Pei & Partners until 1989 when it became known as Pei Cobb Freed & Partners recognizing James Ingo Freed and Henry N. Cobb.

Project list

• 1954–1959 — Mile High Center, in Denver, Colorado, USA
• 1961–1967 — National Center for Atmospheric Research, in Boulder, Colorado, USA
• 1961 — Kips Bay Plaza, in New York, New York, USA [1]
• 1961 — Government Center Master Plan, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
• 1962 — Place Ville-Marie, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• 1962 — Kennedy Theatre, University of Hawaii, USA, Official web page
• 1962 — Hale Manoa Dormitory, East West Center, University of Hawaii, USA
• 1963 — Luce Memorial Chapel, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan
• 1963 — Society Hill Towers – Philadelphia, PA, Unofficial website
• 1964 — Green Building, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• 1964 — S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University — Syracuse, New York
• 1966–1968 — Sculpture Wing of the Des Moines Art Center in Des Moines, Iowa
  • Official page of Pei's Sculpture Wing
• 1966 — Silver Towers at New York University
• 1967 — Hoffman Hall at University of Southern California
• 1968–1972 — 50 FAA air traffic control towers, in various locations throughout the United States, such as O'Hare International Airport, Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, Columbia Metropolitan Airport (South Carolina), and Indianapolis International Airport (since demolished).
• 1968–1974 — Christian Science Center, in Boston, Massachusetts
• 1968 — Everson Museum of Art, in Syracuse, New York
• 1969 — Cleo Rogers Memorial Library, in Columbus, Indiana
• 1969 — Academic Center, State University of New York at Fredonia, Fredonia, New York
• 1970 — National Airlines terminal at JFK Airport in New York, New York
• 1971 — Harbor Towers, in Boston, Massachusetts
• 1972 — Governor's Residence Halls at SUNY Buffalo
• 1972 — Dallas City Hall, Dallas, Texas
• 1972 — Paul Mellon Arts Center at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut
• 1972 — Pei Residence Halls at New College of Florida, Sarasota, Florida
• 1973 — Commerce Court West in Toronto, Ontario
• 1973 — Spelman Halls at Princeton University
• 1973 — Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York
• 1974–1978 — East Building, National Gallery of Art, in Washington, DC
  • Official East Building project webpage
• 1975 — OCBC Centre in Singapore.
• 1975 — The Lamar Building Penthouse in Augusta, Georgia
• 1976 — John Hancock Tower, in Boston, Massachusetts — Pei gives Henry Cobb the credit for this building
• 1976 — University of Rochester's Wilson Commons
• 1978–1982 — Indiana University Art Museum in Bloomington, Indiana
• 1979 — John F. Kennedy Library, in Boston, Massachusetts
• 1979 — One Dallas Centre, in Dallas, Texas
• 1979 — Baltimore World Trade Center, in Baltimore, Maryland
• 1979–1986 — Javits Convention Center in New York, New York
• 1980–1985 — Raffles City in Singapore.
• 1981 — the Texas Commerce Tower in Houston, Texas, currently the JPMorgan Chase Tower; (3D/International cooperated with Pei on the design of this building). The nearby drive-in bank was Pei's first drive in bank project.
• 1982 — 16th Street Mall in Denver, Colorado.
• 1982–1990 — Bank of China Tower, in Hong Kong
  • Bank of China Tower project website
• 1982 — Apartment for Steve Jobs
• 1983 — ARCO Tower, Dallas, Texas
• 1985 — Wiesner building, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts
• 1986 — Fountain Place, Dallas, Texas
• 1987 — CenTrust Tower (now Bank of America Tower), Miami, Florida
• 1989 — Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, Texas
• 1989 — Carl Icahn Center for Science at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut
• 1989 — Headquarters for Creative Artists Agency, Los Angeles, California
• 1989 — Pyramids of the Louvre, in Paris, France with Peter Rice
  • Pyramide du Louvre website. (See also: La Pyramide Inversée.)
• 1990 — The Gateway, Singapore
• 1991 — Miho Museum, Shiga, Japan
  • Official museum website
  • Official information on the architecture
• 1992 — The Kirklin Clinic of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Health System, Birmingham, Alabama
• 1994 — Four Seasons Hotel New York, New York City, New York
• 1995 — Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in Cleveland, Ohio
• 1997 — Miho Museum, near Kyoto, Japan.
• 1999–2006 — Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
  • Official museum website The Folly at Oare House in England
• 2001 — Friend Center for Engineering, at Princeton University.
• 2002 — Tour EDF, La Défense, France
• 2003 — extension building to the Deutsches Historisches Museum (German history museum), in Berlin, Germany.
• 2005 — Ferguson Center for the Performing Arts at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia.
• 2006 — Martha Stewart Center for Living at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan (currently under construction).
• 2006 — Embassy of the People’s Republic of China, Washington D.C.(currently under construction).
• 2002–2006 — New wing of Suzhou Museum, in Suzhou, China
• 2004–2007 — Museum of Islamic Arts in Doha, Qatar
• 2002–2008 — Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA
• 2009 — NASCAR Hall of Fame, Charlotte, North Carolina.
  • Project website

Selected works

• 1961 — National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
  1961 — National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
• 
  1963 — Luce Memorial Chapel, Tunghai University, Taiwan
• 
  1964 — Green Building, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• 
  1972 — Paul Mellon Arts Center, Choate Rosemary Hall, Wallingford, Connecticut
• 
  1974 — The East Building of the National Gallery of Art
• 
  1978 — Indiana University Art Museum at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana
• 
  1989 — Bank of China Tower, Hong Kong
• 1995 — The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, showing Lake Erie in the background
  1995 — The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, showing Lake Erie in the background

Family and later life

In 1990, Pei retired from his firm but still maintains an office there. He has 4 children, 2 of them architects. He has two sons, Chien Chung (Didi) Pei and Li Chung (Sandi) Pei, who have their own firm. I. M. Pei has participated in design work with his son's firm, Pei Partnership Architects in 1992.

Reference

1. Gero von Boehm, Conversations with I.M. Pei: "Light is the Key" ISBN 3-7913-2176-5
2. Michael Cannell, I.M. Pei : Mandarin of Modernism ISBN 0-517-79972-3 #(Excerpt)
3. Carter Wiseman, I. M. Pei: A Profile in American Architecture ISBN 0-8109-3477-9

External links

• Pei Cobb Freed & Partners website
• Interview with I.M. Pei (June 2004)
• New York Architecture Images- Pei, Cobb, Freed
• Pritzker Prize biography, Photo Gallery, and Acceptance Speech

• Biography (World of Biography)