I. M. Pei
(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 perhaps one of the most successful architects of the 20th century, with his works built all over the world.
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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.
Selected Projects
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library
| Location | Dorchester, Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
|---|---|
| Dedicated | 1979 |
| Named for | John F. Kennedy |
| Architect | I.M. Pei |
| Management | National Archives |
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Cleveland, Ohio
1995
I M Pei
New Museum of Islamic Art
Qatar
2008
IM Pei
Honors
Among Mr. Pei's many professional honors are The Arnold Brunner Award of the National Institute of Arts and Letters (1963); The Medal of Honor of the New York Chapter of The American Institute of Architects (1963); The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Medal "for distinguished contribution to the field of architecture" (1976); The Gold Medal for Architecture of the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1979); The Mayor's Award of Honor for Art and Culture (New York City, 1981); and The Gold Medal of Alpha Rho Chi, the national professional fraternity of architects (1981). In 1979, I. M. Pei received The AIA Gold Medal—the highest architectural honor in the United States. Three years later he received the Grande Médaille d'Or from the Académie d'Architecture de France. In 1989, the Japan Art Association awarded him the Praemium Imperiale for lifetime achievement in architecture, and in the following year UCLA bestowed the University's Gold Medal. In 1991, Mr. Pei received the Excellence 2000 Award and the Colbert Foundation's First Award for Excellence. He was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President George H. W. Bush (1993); the Medal of Arts by the National Endowment for the Arts (1994); the Jerusalem Prize for Arts & Letters by The Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design of Jerusalem (1994); and the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Medal by the Municipal Art Society of New York City (1996). Of the many honors extended, Mr. Pei has accepted the Independent Award of Brown University (1997), the Edward MacDowell Medal of the MacDowell Colony (1998), and the American Philosophical Society's Thomas Jefferson Medal for distinguished achievement in the arts (2001). Most recently he was awarded the Henry C. Turner Prize for Innovation in Construction Technology awarded by the National Building Museum (2003); the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Smithsonian Institution's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum (2003); and the Erwin Wickert Foundation Orient und Okzident Preis (2006).
Sidebar: I, personally, do not like "modern" architecture. It is jarring to me. I don't like that it doesn't blend in with the natural background. So, I am giving I M Pei space here because we should all know who he is and what he has done whether we like it or not I think. (I am not even going to go so far as to say that I don't like it but I can appreciate it. I don't appreciate it either. lol)
This... above all else, to thine own self be true... LOL LOL
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