Born:
April 26, 1917 in Canton, ChinaEducation:
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
B. Arch. 1940 - Harvard Graduate School of Design
M. Arch. 1946
Important Buildings:
- The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University
- Bank of China Tower
- Louvre Pyramid
- National Gallery
Related People :
Quote:
"I believe that architecture is a pragmatic art. To become art it must be built on a foundation of necessity." — I.M. Pei, from his acceptance speech for the 1983 Pritzker Architecture Award.
More About I. M. Pei:
In Chinese, Ieoh Ming means "to inscribe brightly." The name Pei's parents gave him proved prophetic. Over the past fifty years, Ieoh Ming Pei has designed more than fifty buildings around the world, ranging from industrial skyscrapers and important museums to low income housing.
Pei grew up in Shanghai, but in 1935 he moved to the United States to study architecture and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and later at Harvard University. By 1948, he was Director of Architecture at the real estate development firm, Webb & Knapp. He founded his own firm in 1958.
I.M. Pei tends to use large, abstract forms and sharp, geometric designs. His glass clad structures seem to spring from the high tech modernist movement. However, Pei is more concerned with function than theory.
During his career, Pei and his firm have won numerous architecture awards. He won the prestigious Pritzker Prize in 1983.
