Louvre Pyramid Architect I.M. Pei Dies at 102

I. M. Pei, the renowned architect known for East Building in D.C, the JFK Library in Boston and the Louvre Pyramid in France, passed away at the age of 102.

Pei began his career designing buildings for a New York real-estate developer after having moved from Guangzhou, China to the States in 1917 at the age of 18.

He studied at Pennsylvania, MIT, and Harvard, and went on to found I. M. Pei & Associates in 1955, Pei Cobb Freed in 1989 and Pei Partnership Architects in 1992.

Pei's son, Li Chung Pei, also an architect, confirmed that his father passed away overnight. However, the exact cause of death was not revealed.

REVERED ARCHITECT

Pei's architectural style could best be described as modernist, consisting of clean, reserved, and sharp-edged geometric designs.

In addition to prestigious museums, Pei also designed concert halls, hospitals, office towers, civic buildings and banks, as well as the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame.

He designed the John F. Kennedy Library in the late seventies and the Guggenheim Pavillion of Mount Sinai Hospital in the early nineties.

The Bank of China Tower, standing 315 meters high, is the tallest building in Hong Kong. Construction began in 1986 after Pei's drafts were approved.

AWARDS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Pei received numerous awards throughout his career, including a Royal Gold Medal, an AIA Gold Medal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Pritzker Prize and the Praemium Imperiale.

His wife of over seventy years, Eileen Loo, passed away in 2014. Their eldest son, T'ing Chung, passed away in 2003 at the age of 57.

Pei is survived by their two younger sons, Chien Chung, 73, and Ling Chung, 70, and daughter, Liane, 59.