The World Mourns Renowned Architect I.M. Pei

By N. Jamiyla Chisholm May 17, 2019

I.M. Pei, the iconic architect known for designing grand buildings around the world, such as the Grand Louvre (1989) in Paris, Hong Kong’s Bank of China Tower (1990) and Cleveland’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (1995), died yesterday (May 16) at age 102, NPR reports.

Born in 1917, in Suzhou, China, Ieoh Ming Pei came to the United States to study architecture, eventually earning a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. From 1948 until his retirement in 1990, Pei presented the world with a series of dazzling designs that are as beautiful as they are functional. The Bank of China Tower’s 72 stories, for example, was built to withstand typhoon winds, according to his firm Pei Cobb Freed & Partners.  

A prolific artist, Pei has designed more than a dozen museums, and received many honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Lifetime Achievement National Design Award from Smithsonian Design Museum’s Cooper Hewitt and the Grande Architecture de France.

Beloved for a lifetime of creativity, Pei was celebrated across Twitter, and around the world, by many of the distinguished institutions he worked with and inspired.

rn

rn

rn

rn

rn