RIP: I.M. Pei, an architectural giant bridged east and west

I.M Pei, 1917-2019

I couldn't let the day go by without mentioning the death of architectural giant I.M. Pei.

While I was majoring in architecture at Cal's College of Environmental Design (many years ago), he was already gaining attention as an up-and-coming  architect and was seen as a role model for the students of Wurster Hall. Pei was one of the few Asian American architects inspiring wannabe architects, engineers and city planners. As college students are wont to do, Pei's works along with that of contemporary T.Y. Lin., an engineering genius, were topics in classes and late night discussions after a few beers.

Late Thursday (May 16), the architect's son Li Chung Pei told The New York Times that his father had died overnight. Ieoh Ming Pei, known as I.M. Pei, died at age 102.

Born in China in 1917, Pei came to the U.S. at 17 years old to study architecture. He graduated from MIT and Harvard, where he later was an assistant professor. He founded an architecture firm in the 1950s, from which he retired in 1990. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1993.

READ 10 of I.M. Pei's most famous works.

Among his most notable works is the all-glass Louvre Pyramid in Paris, France. When it was first constructed it was criticized by art critics for its contrasting style to the 12th-Century Louvre. Now, Pei's creation is now celebrated as a work of art itself.

Other famous projects designed by Pei were museums like the East Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the JFK Library in Boston, designed in the 1970s, as well as buildings like the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong in the 1980s and the Four Seasons Hotel in Manhattan in the 1990s.

Designing in context was important to Pei, Before he drew a single line in the design of his Louvre project, he spent months reading French history and the art housed in the museum. “When you are building in the middle of history, you have to take history into account,” he told The Washington Post. “You don’t just go ahead and dance around.”

After initial criticism, Pei's glass pyramid at the Louvre seems to fit in.

Although best known for his glass and steel works Like the HK Bank in China in Hong Kong  and the Kennedy Museum in Boston that change the skylines of cities, it is in his lesser known creations that you see his willingness to let the historical and cultural environment influence his designs.

The beloved Suzhou Museum in Pei's hometown is instantly recognizable as traditional Chinese but at the same time bridges the past with the future.

The Museum of Islamic Art in Doha reflects the whitewashed abodes of Arab cities and the value of water to the desert environment.

In 1983, he was awarded the Pritzker Prize, sometimes called the Nobel Prize of architecture. In its praise of Pei, the jury said the architect had given the century "some of its most beautiful interior spaces and exterior forms. … His versatility and skill in the use of materials approach the level of poetry." 

In his acceptance speech, he said: “I believe that architecture is a pragmatic art. To become art it must be built on a foundation of necessity.”

Pei’s wife, Eileen, whom he married in 1942, died in 2014. A son, T’ing Chung, died in 2003. Besides sons Chien Chung Pei and Li Chung Pei, he is survived by a daughter, Liane.

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