I M Pei

I. M. Pei (Ieoh Ming Pei) , 1917-, Chinese-American architect, b. Guangzhou, China. Pei emigrated to the United States in 1935 and studied at the Univ. of Pennsylvania, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard, where he taught from 1945 to 1948. That year he joined Webb and Knapp, Inc.; there he designed such projects as Mile High Center in Denver (1954-59). He established his own firm in 1955. In his works, structure and environment are carefully integrated with precise geometrical design and a superb sense of craft, resulting in crisp, clear, sculptural structures. He is known for his sensuous use of such materials as marble, concrete, and glass and for his soaring interior spaces. Pei's involvement in urban planning includes the Government Center, Boston (1961), and Society Hill, Philadelphia (with Edmund N. Bacon, 1964).

Among his notable later buildings are the John Hancock Tower, Boston (1973); the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (1978); the Jacob Javits Exposition and Convention Center, New York City (1986); the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland (1995); the Miho Museum, Kyoto (1998); and a new wing of the German Historical Museum, Berlin (2003). His master plan for the Louvre 's expansion and renovation (1987-89) initially outraged critics, in large part because of the glass pyramid that formed the entrance to the museum's new underground section. The pyramid has since become a Parisian landmark. In 1990, Pei retired from active management of his firm.

Bibliography: See biographical study by C. Wiseman (1990); biography by M. Cannell (1995).

Pei, I.M. (1917– ), architect.Ieoh Ming Pei was born in Canton, China, the son of a banker. In 1935, Pei left China to study architecture in the United States. He graduated in 1940 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received a master's degree in 1946 from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. The rise of communism ended Pei's plans to return to China and he eventually became a U.S. citizen. From 1948 to 1960, Pei worked for the real estate developer William Zeckendorf and his firm Webb and Knapp, primarily on urban redevelopment projects. Pei established the New York–based I.M. Pei and Associates in 1955, later renamed I.M. Pei and Partners in 1966, and Pei Cobb Freed and Partners in 1989.

One of Pei's most accomplished designs is the East Building of the National Gallery of Art (1968–1978) in Washington, D.C. This structure reflects his modernist faith in pure geometry, precise detailing, and creative engineering, while asserting an appropriate institutional monumentality and a sensitivity for the site. Some of Pei's prestigious commissions generated controversy before their successful completion, including the John F. Kennedy Library (1964–1979, originally intended for Cambridge, Massachusetts, and eventually built in Boston), and his much‐discussed glass pyramid (1983–1989) providing a new entrance to an expanded Louvre in Paris. Pei's boldly sculptural and publicly pleasing modern buildings often became iconic symbols for their respective cities, as exemplified by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum (1987–1995) in Cleveland.
See also Architecture: Public Architecture.

Bibliography

Carter Wiseman , I.M. Pei: A Profile in American Architecture, 1990.
Michael Cannell , I.M. Pei: Mandarin of Modernism, 1995.

Craig Zabel