I. M. Pei Totally Explained

Everything about I M Pei totally explained

Ieoh Ming Pei (b. April 26, 1917), commonly known by his initials I. M. Pei, is a Pritzker Prize-winning Chinese-born 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 perhaps one of the most successful Asian architects of the 20th century, with his works built all over the world.

Early life and education

Pei was born in Guangzhou, in Guangdong, China on April 26, 1917, to a prominent family from Suzhou, Jiangsu. His family has lived in Suzhou since the 15th century. 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 Hong Kong, where he lived until he finished junior high school, and then moved to Shanghai when his father took up the directorship of Bank of China in Shanghai. The Pei family's ancestral 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's 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 and designed his buildings mostly in the manner of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
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
1960– Erieview Plan Cleveland, Ohio
1961–1967 — National Center for Atmospheric Research, in Boulder, Colorado, USA
1961 — Kips Bay Plaza, in New York, New York, USA (External Link)
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
1971 — American Life Insurance Company Building (renamed Wilmington Tower), in Wilmington, Delaware
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 — National Bank of Commerce building, in Lincoln, Nebraska (External Link)
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
1987 — IBM/Somers Office Complex, Somers, NY
1989 — Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, Texas
1989 — Carl C. 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
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
1996 — Miho Museum, Shiga, Japan
- Official museum website
- Official information on the architecture
1999–2006 — Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
- Official museum website The Folly at Oare House in England
2000 — Dexter the Jack Russel's Ears, Pershore, UK
2001 — Essensa East Forbes, Fort Bonifacio, Philippines
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.
2004 — Torre Espacio, Madrid, Spain
2005 — Ferguson Center for the Performing Arts at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia.
2005 — Bossone Research Enterprise Center at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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
- Project website
2009 — NASCAR Hall of Fame, Charlotte, North Carolina.

Selected works

Image:National_Center_for_Atmospheric_Research_-_Boulder,_Colorado.jpg|1961 — National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado Image:THU Luce Memorial Chapel.jpg|1963 — Luce Memorial Chapel, Tunghai University, Taiwan Image:Green Building, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts.JPG|1964 — Green Building, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Image:Choate_Rosemary_Hall_-_Arts_Center.JPG|1972 — Paul Mellon Arts Center, Choate Rosemary Hall, Wallingford, Connecticut Image:National_gallery_of_art_usa2.jpg|1974 — The East Building of the National Gallery of Art Image:IU Art Museum.jpg|1978 — Indiana University Art Museum at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana Image:Bank of china night.jpg|1989 — Bank of China Tower, Hong Kong Image:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.jpg|1995 — The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, United States; showing Lake Erie in the foreground 2007 — time-lapse video of the construction of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center

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 participated in design work with his sons' firm, Pei Partnership Architects in 1992.

Further Information

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