I. M. Pei

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Ieoh Ming Pei (Chinese: 貝聿銘; pinyin: Bèi Yùmíng; 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.

Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 3 Project list 4 Selected works 5 Reference 6 External links

[edit] 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. The family residence is now part of the World Heritage 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. He started at the University of Pennsylvania before going on to receive his Bachelor of Architecture degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1940. That same year, he was awarded the Alpha Rho Chi Medal, the MIT Traveling Fellowship, and the AIA Gold Medal. He enrolled at the Harvard Graduate School of Design two years later; shortly thereafter, he served at the National Defense Research Committee in Princeton, New Jersey.

In 1944 he returned to Harvard, received his master degree in Architecture in 1946 and stayed at Harvard as an assistant professor. He received the Wheelwright Traveling Fellowship in 1951 and became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1954.^[1]

[edit] 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. ^[2]

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

[edit] 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.
• 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, Texas City Hall
• 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^[3]
  • 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^[4]
• 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)
• 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, 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
  • Pyramide du Louvre website. (See also: La Pyramide Inversée.)
• 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

[edit] Selected works

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

[edit] 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

1. ^ Official biography from Pei Cobb Freed & Partners website
2. ^ I.M. Pei's biography page at the web site of his firm, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners.
3. ^ Pei's audio tour of the East Building addition to the National Gallery of Art
4. ^ Conversation with I.M. Pei about JFK Museum, Boston - with Robert Campbell, critic, Boston Globe (audio/video stream)

[edit] 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)

v • d • e Pritzker Prize Laureates

Johnson (1979) • Barragán (1980) • Stirling (1981) • Roche (1982) • Pei (1983) • Meier (1984) • Hollein (1985) • Böhm (1986) • Tange (1987) • Bunshaft/Niemeyer (1988) • Gehry (1989) • Rossi (1990) • Venturi (1991) • Siza (1992) • Maki (1993) • Portzamparc (1994) • Ando (1995) • Moneo (1996) • Fehn (1997) • Piano (1998) • Foster (1999) • Koolhaas (2000) • Herzog & de Meuron (2001) • Murcutt (2002) • Utzon (2003) • Hadid (2004) • Mayne (2005) • Mendes da Rocha (2006) • Rogers (2007)