Ieoh Ming Pei () (born 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 (Canton), in Guangdong, Republic of 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 (primary school), Hong Kong and then at Saint John's University (high school), 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

• 1961 — Government Center Master Plan, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

• 1962 — Place Ville-Marie, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada

• 1962 — Kennedy Theatre, University of Hawaii, USA,

• 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,

• 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

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• 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 — Bushnell Tower, in Hartford, Connecticut,

• 1969 — Cleo Rogers Memorial Library, in Columbus, Indiana

• 1969 — Academic Center, State University of New York at Fredonia, Fredonia, New York

• 1970 — Sundrome (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

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• 1975 — OCBC Centre in Singapore.

• 1975 — The Lamar Building Penthouse in Augusta, Georgia

• 1976 — National Bank of Commerce building, in Lincoln, Nebraska

• 1976 — John Hancock Tower, in Boston, Massachusetts — Pei gives Henry Cobb the credit for

• 1976 — University of Rochester's

• 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

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• 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

• *. (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

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• 1999–2006 — Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg

• * 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 — 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.(Official opening on July 29, 2008).

• 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

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• 2009 — NASCAR Hall of Fame, Charlotte, North Carolina.

Selected works

2007 — time-lapse video of the construction of .

Honors

I.M. Pei is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a Corporate Member of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He has also been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Design, and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. In 1975 he was elected to the American Academy, which is restricted to a lifetime membership of fifty members. In 1978, he became Chancellor of the American Academy, the first architect to hold that position. He served until 1980. Mr. Pei was inducted a "Membre de l'Institut de France" in 1984, and decorated by the French government as a Commandeur in the "Ordre des Arts et des Lettres" in 1985. On July 4, 1986, he was one of twelve naturalized American citizens to receive the Medal of Liberty from President Ronald Reagan. Two years later French president François Mitterrand inducted I. M. Pei as a Chevalier in the Légion d'Honneur In November 1993 he was raised to Officier. Also in 1993 he was elected an Honorary Academician of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. In 1997 the Académie d'Architecture de France elected him Foreign Member.

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.