Ieoh Ming Pei was born in Canton,
China on April 26, 1917. His father was a prominent banker. In
1935,at age 17, he came to the United States to study architecture
at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Pei received a Bachelor
of Architecture degree from MIT in 1940. He was awarded the Alpha
Rho Chi Medal, the MIT Traveling Fellowship and AIA Gold Medal
upon graduation. In 1942, Pei enrolled in the Harvard Graduate
School of Design where he studied under Walter Gropius; six months
later, he volunteered his services to the National Defense Research
Committee in Princeton.
During 1942, Pei married Eileen Loo. Their family eventually
included three sons and one daughter.
Pei returned to Harvard in 1944 and completed a Masters of Architecture
in 1946, simultaneously teaching on the facility as assistant
professor (1945-48). Awarded the Wheelwright Traveling Fellowship
by Harvard in 1951, he traveled in England, France, Italy and
Greece. Pei became a naturalized citizen of the United States
in 1954.
In 1948, William Zeckendorf invited Mr. Pei to accept the newly
created post of Director of Architecture at Webb & Knapp
real estate development corporation, resulting in many large-scale
architectural and planning projects across the country. In 1955
he formed the partnership of I. M. Pei & Associates, which
became I. M. Pei & Partners in 1966, and Pei, Cobb, Freed
& Partners in 1989. The partnership received the 1968 Architectural
Firm Award of the American Institute of Architects.
Mr. Pei's personal architectural style blossomed with his design
for the National Center of Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado
(1961-67). He subsequently gained broad national attention with
the East Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington
(1968-78) and the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston (1965-79).
His work includes some thirty institutional projects executed
by Mr. Pei, including church, hospital and municipal buildings,
as well as schools, libraries, and over a dozen museums.
His most recent works include the Museum of Modern Art in Athens,
the Miho Museum of Shiga, Japan, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
and Museum in Cleveland, the Grand Louvre in Paris, and the Morton
H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas. Among Mr. Pei's skyscraper
designs are the 72-story Bank of China in Hong Kong, and the
newly opened Four Seasons Hotel in midtown Manhattan. Other hotels
by Mr. Pei include the Hotel Place d'lena in Paris, Raffles City
in Singapore, and Fragrant Hill Hotel in Beijing (1982).
Mr. Pei's deep interest in the arts and education is evidenced
by his numerous memberships on Visiting Committees at Harvard,
MIT, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as on multiple
governmental panels. He has also served on the Task force on
the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. A member of the AIA National
Urban Policy Task Force and of the Urban Design Council of the
City of New York, he was appointed to the National Council on
the Humanities by President Lyndon Johnson in 1966, and to the
National Council on the Arts by President Jimmy Carter in 1980.
In 1983, Mr. Pei was chosen the Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture
Prize, using the $100,000 award to establish a scholarship fund
for Chinese students to study architecture in the United States
with the strict proviso that they return to China to practice
their profession.
Among the many academic awards bestowed on Mr. Pei are honorary
doctorates from the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University,
New York University, Brown University, the University of Colorado,
the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the American University
of Paris, among others. Mr. Pei is a Fellow of the American Institute
of Architects and a Corporate Member of the Royal Institute of
British Architects, and 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 itself, which
is restricted to a lifetime membership of fifty. Three years
later he became Chancellor of the Academy, the first architect
to hold that position, and served until 1980. Mr. Pei was inducted
a "Membre de l'Institut of 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.
In 1988 French president Francois Mitterrand inducted I. M. Pei
as a Chevalier in the Legion d'Honneur, and raised him to the
rank of Officier upon completion of Phase II of the Grand Louvre
in 1993. Also in 1993, Mr. Pei was elected an Honorary Academician
of the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
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 Medaille d'Or from the French Academie d'Architecture.
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. In 1993 he was awarded the Medal
of Freedom by President George H. W. Bush. I. M. Pei has designed
nearly fifty projects in the United States and abroad; more than
half have won major awards. |
